Up early. Can't sleep. It feels like the first day of school all over again after 2 weeks out on a never ending snow break. And When I read Exodus 34 this morning, a warning jumped off the page..."Do not make a treaty with the people living in the land..."
God wasn't being dramatic here. He was being protective. He knew Israel had just come out of bondage. They were still figuring out who they were as a covenant people. And if they partnered with the very culture God was delivering them from, they would slowly become it.
And that's still true for us today. Treaties turn into tolerance. Tolerance turns into acceptance. Acceptance turns into identity.
What you treaty with, you eventually learn to live with. And what you learn to live with slowly becomes who you are. It's as simple as that.
But What Does "Making a Treaty" Look Like Today?
It doesn't usually look like bowing to a golden calf...
But It can look like...
🌟 Blending in so well that no one can tell you follow Jesus.
🌟 Justifying compromise because "everyone does it."
🌟 Calling sin culture.
🌟 Keeping one foot in the Word and one foot in whatever trend is loudest.
🌟 It's trying to hold holiness and hype in the same hands.
🌟 It's wanting the fire of God but also the applause of the world.
You cannot treaty with a system that is against God and expect it not to shape you. Scripture talks about having a form of godliness but denying its power. That's when we keep the language, the aesthetics, the labels but we strip away the surrender.
We want Christianity that feels comfortable in the culture. But Jesus didn't die to make us culturally comfortable. He died to make us spiritually alive.
🌟 Be In the World, Not Of It 🌟
Being in the world means we work here. We raise our kids here. Pay bills here. Watch events here. We engage here.
But being of it means we start mirroring it.
We have to check our treaties.
A great modern example....Big, flashy events that claim to represent "All American" values but are saturated in the very things we know pull our hearts away from holiness and away from God. It's entertainment packaged as identity. And sometimes even believers defend it because it's popular.
But Trying to be like the world to stay relevant doesn't make us powerful. It makes us counterfeit. Fake!
And counterfeit faith is still counterfeit. God didn't call Israel to look like the nations around them.He called them to stand out.
Not to isolate them But to set them apart.
To be Set apart means there is something different about you.
🌟 Your peace looks different.
🌟 Your marriage looks different.
🌟 Your speech looks different.
🌟 Your values look different.
And yes sometimes that means you won't fit in.
But I'd rather not fit in than slowly fade out.
So we have to ask ourselves....
Where have I made quiet treaties?
What have I slowly accepted that once would have bothered my spirit?
What have I laughed at, excused, or defended because culture normalized it?
Because no one wakes up one day and decides to abandon God. It's usually a series of small things...And God's warning in Exodus 34 wasn't about control. It was about identity.
He was teaching the people that They are His. And reminding them not to go back to what he pulled them out of.
Trying to be like the world and expecting not to become it is crazy. We either influence or we are influenced. I don't want a form of godliness. I want the real thing.
Because what we treaty with....We become.
And I want to become more like Him and less like the World.
Love Pastor Mandy
Ark of Hope Ministry
Daily reading Exodus 34
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