September 26, 2010 – Exodus 23

Here we see the Lord’s plan  for giving the land of Canaan to the Hebrews.  The thing I found most interesting was that He would not conquer them all in one year.  This was because the land was so vast it could not be maintained by the small number of Hebrews.  The Lord would give the land to them slowly as they grew in numbers so that they would be able to maintain it.  When you think about that strategy, it makes me think if other military people or conquerors had thought about that.  When you look at empires throughout history and how some expanded very quickly, but then would fade quickly as well.  God knew that in order to maintain a nation, the conquering had to happen slowly.  Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Roman, Huns, Napoleon, Hitler, all appeared to conquer lands rather quickly and built up large nations, but could they maintain any stability, were they long lasting.  Some were longer than others, but none for more that 400-500 years, at least at their largest, and many didn’t last long at all.  Their eyes were bigger than their stomachs or they bit off more than they could chew as the sayings go.  God did not want that for His nation.  He wanted it to be a nation that would endure. 

v. 2 – Here we have, “If everyone else jumps off a bridge will you?” put in a different way.  We see that peer pressure is not some new and modern idea.  In the desert on Sinai they had to be taught that peer pressure is not a good reason to be doing something and that following the crowd when they are doing something wrong is not a good excuse.