There's a temptation to believe that partial obedience is still obedience. Unfortunately, that's not really the case. In the situation with the Israelites traveling into the Promised Land, they didn't fully obey God's instructions to destroy the indwelling peoples because of a foolish mistake. God didn't tell them to make covenants with anyone – the instructions were clear that everybody was meant for destruction. Sounds harsh? Maybe. Except that God understood that, when the Israelites met all of these peoples, they would be tempted to worship the gods of these peoples. They would take the women as their wives, and they would be drawn away from the Lord. God didn't want their obedience for His sake – He wanted it for their sake. The same is true for us. God doesn't want us to obey because it's fun to watch humans have to do certain things. To the contrary, God knows that life will be better and fuller for us when we are obedient to Him. Are you tempted to disobey? Just remember that partial obedience is still disobedience.
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