Don’t rationalize God’s instructions. It is a slippery slope. God sees the end from the beginning and that is why the details of his instructions matter. In today’s Bible reading, the Israelites were being chastised by an angel of God for not completely obeying God’s instructions. Instead of driving out and completely destroying some of the enemies, they made arrangements to receive tributes from them. We see later in the text that these countries indeed became thorns in the flesh because they led the children of Israel away from God to their little gods.  This kindled God’s anger and so Israel was then allowed to be oppressed by their enemies. Their winning streak was reversed because they now bred a generation that did not know and serve God. We must be careful about the subtle details that we leave unaddressed in the assignments that God gives to us as his children because a lion’s cub will grow into a lion. Be careful to obey God completely. He knows the end from the beginning. 

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you because you are the Almighty, the all-sufficient God. The one who was, who is and who is to come. Thank you for being mindful of me. Thank you for your instructions in righteousness. I receive the grace for full obedience so that I can continue to bask in the goodness of a divinely-guided life in Jesus name 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾. ‎