Dealing with the Past

"But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the land where you are settling. And I will do to you as I thought to do to them." Num 33:55-56

There is a promise land that God calls us to, yet there are awaiting there those who have set up strongholds long, long ago. In a sense they are embedded. There can be no peace or rest until they are gone. Cast out. Uprooted and expelled. To fail to engage in the battle to rid these vestiges of the past is to comply with them and ultimately become as one of them.

This scripture is an excellent illustration of how generational sin and cursing, as well as our own fallen beliefs, interact as we embrace the salvation of God. When we are first saved we are indeed transplanted to a new and exciting place. Joy, wonder, and hope open up before us. But soon the newness wears off and our optimism fades as we realize that deeply rooted and destructive elements of the past world we left behind are still with us. They are barbs to our eyes making it hard to see, and thorns in our sides making it hard to walk. So long as they remain we shall be tormented. If we ignore them not only do we forfiet our promised land, but in the end we will become like them. And, in failing to deal with these remnants from the past, it will be for another generation to root out the tendrals of what has become our own sin.

Salvation must involve battle with elements of the past.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor 10:4-5

"Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true." Ephesians 4:21-24