1 When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods:so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
(We who belong to God do this each time we speak against their idols and those images which are not of God that dwell in their minds.)
6 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God:the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:8 But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them:he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.
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Comments by Joan Boney
Is this instruction the same for NT church? Are we to be separate from the world? If we keep company with the world will they cause us to part from God and follow their idols?
What does the Bible say?
II Cor. 6 ... 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
James 4 ... 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Since I have been born again, 1975, I have never seen how I can be a part of the people of the world as I once was. And when I speak truth from God, they usually want no part of me and they flee me.
(A few along the way have turned from their way and have turned to God after I have spoken or acted on the Word.)
Neither of my parents were church people. They never spoke of God nor did we have Bible in house, except for a little Bible which one of my relatives gave me for my 5th birthday. I used to get under covers at night as a child and take a flashlight and read that little Bible. My parents didn't speak against Bible. They just never spoke at all concerning Bible nor God.
After I was born again, I was visiting my mother in the town where my parents lived. I opened her kitchen cabinet and saw a set of Zodiac mugs I had given her before I was born again. I took a sack and began to put those mugs in sack. My mother was watching and realized I was about to do something with those mugs. She said, "Stop ... what are you doing? You gave me those mugs. I want to keep them." I never even looked at her. I just kept putting the mugs in the sack. Without a word to her, I took them into alley and broke them and put them into the dumpster.
When I returned to house, I didn't say a word. Neither did she. I took a Bible and opened it and began to read aloud the following:
Deuteronomy 18 ... 9 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord:and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 13 Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
After I finished reading, my mother said ... "I guess we'd better not do that anymore."
(All my life my mother had read the daily horoscope from a horoscope book she purchased a newsstand.)
I believe my mother was born again at that point. I received a letter later from my uncle and he said: "Your mother has changed ... she has really changed."
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Jesus said ... Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? 49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. Mt. 12
I don't choose to keep company with unbelievers whether those unbelievers are in the world or in the churches.
I know their reasonings against God and against scripture are dangerous to me.
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Deuteronomy 7
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee:he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people:
(I have no doubt that I am blessed above all people.)
there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them:neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.
17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? 18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them:but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; 19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out:so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
20 Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them:for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
22 And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little:thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. 23 But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven:there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire:thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein:for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. 26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it:but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
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I see such a parallel between speaking the word of God and burning up these idols with fire. I just use the fire of the word to burn them. I don't want these people around me who continue to worship their idols.