Sometimes reflection is a good thing. After almost 45 years of marriage, I have certainly not mastered the art of being a good wife, but I have most decidedly improved. As I look back on those early years, I quietly giggle in the face of my total ineptness and unpreparedness. Oh, some of those cooking disasters make me cringe with embarrassment, and my ability to multi-function was nonexistent. But as I was folding a load of clothes recently, my mind wandered back to the Pastel Pink Debacle we experienced during the first year of our marriage. Yes, you guessed it, I didn’t properly sort the clothing before starting the wash. To make matters worse, if that were even possible, I used hot water. Combine a load of white underclothes, one red item, and hot water and you are going to have an issue. I still remember the embarrassment I felt as I folded that pale pink load of clothes. It was then that I learned a lesson in the importance of separation.
As Israel was on the cusp of entering the Promised Land, Moses had some last-minute exhortations for the children of God. When they entered the good land that God had provided for them, they were given three specific commands: first, they were to destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan, to “utterly destroy them…make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.;” secondly, “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them,” intermarriages between God’s chosen people and the ungodly in the land was forbidden; and finally, they were never to worship or “serve other gods.”
Fast forward to the Book of Judges and let’s see how God’s separation command was implemented. “And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites…” Strike one. “And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons.” Strike two. And the last strike was inevitable, “…and served their gods.” The Israelites “did not drive out the inhabitants;” the Canaanites were determined to stay, and God’s people simply folded. They had the power to drive them out, but it was much easier to give up and live among them.
Parents, we live in a culture that is a powerful source of influence among our children. We are to be a called-out people, called to a personal commitment of purity and to a godly standard of behavior. He has “chosen (us) out of the world,” so we are to be a light in the world without allowing the world to diminish that light. Let’s learn from the Book of Judges and establish lines of separation for our children. Let’s not be pastel pink Christians!
II Corinthians 6:17a Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord…
Lord, help me to live in the world, but separated from the wicked influences of that world.