Little by Little!

• Home
• -
• Little by Little!

Little by Little! By Geoff Chapman

October 07, 2013

God, through Moses, rescued the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt.  After God gave them the Ten Commandments, He gave the people final instructions for entering Canaan.

NOT A WALK-OVER

Possessing the Promised Land would not be a walk-over. It would require dedication, determination — and patience. In Exodus chapter 23 they were told not to compromise by worshipping the gods of the Canaanites, Hivites and Hittites, but God also told them they would not overcome them in a single year. "Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land." (verse 30). However, they were not "to make a covenant with them or their gods" (verse 32).

  We know that, later on, the Israelites lost their nerve, fearing the "giants", and refusing to go into Canaan. They forgot the Lord’s word, and were condemned to wander in the desert for 40 years.  When the Israelites did eventually enter Canaan under Joshua’s leadership, they began to take possession of the land. Important progress was made, including the capture of cities like Jericho, but after six years, with Joshua on his death-bed, there still remained “very large areas of land to be taken over.”(Joshua 13: 1). The conquest of the land took time.

NO COMPROMISES!

  There is a message here for those of us who are engaged in the battle against those who oppose God’s truth, especially as it relates to creation. We must accept  the fact that progress will be "little by little." But there must be no compromises or accommodations, which simply hinder progress, allowing the enemies of God to retain portions of the “land”.

  Many Christians sincerely believe that by embracing secular and evolutionary views they can somehow win people over. e.g. agree that evolution has really happened, but that it was the method God used. Embrace the idea of billions of years, and pretend the problem of death and suffering before the Fall doesn’t really matter. However, such compromises don’t impress the secularists one bit! Here is an example: “Christianity actually seems to make more sense within the framework of a cosmology that reads Genesis literally in at least some ways, particularly when it comes to the special origins of humanity.”1

 Far from winning the secularists over, compromise just convinces them that they are winning! And it seriously weakens and undermines the Gospel message by diminishing people’s view of God as a wise, loving Creator, and removing the reason for our redemption through Jesus Christ.

   The fight to dislodge evolutionary humanism and “possess the land” for God must continue. “Little by little” we shall gain ground, as long as we are patient and faithful and don’t expect instant success.

1. atheism.about.com