Exodus 23:29-33 – Advancement with God must be made incrementally and uncompromisingly

Journey with God should be an ever-advancing journey. But we gain our gr0und incrementally. With the help of God, we overcome obstacles that come our way one at a time. Victory is assured, but success is achieved gradually. It does not happen all at once. This is what we see in Exodus 23:29-30. God promised them saying, “I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” Like everyone else, the Israelites would have preferred to have victory all at once. But God knew they would not be able to handle the victory all at once. If the enemies had been driven out all at once, they would have too many things to contend with. The fields, when not properly managed, would become wild and then the wild animals could infiltrate the land. If not handled well, the land would become desolate. God knew that to expect them to handle everything all at once would be overwhelming. Remember that our spiritual advancement is experienced incrementally.    

However, the end must be in focus. The ultimate for them was to have total victory and possess the whole of the promised land. God knew that the goal must always be in view so that they could be forward-looking. So, in verse 31 He said to them, “I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates….” We need this for our spiritual journey as well. If we don’t have the end in mind, we may tend to think that we have arrived after one battle and then rest on our laurel. When we realize that there are much more there is to every experience of victory, it will keep us going. Sanctification in Christian life is not achieved in one day. After we have overcome one area of weakness, we soon realize that there are others that God wants to help us to deal with. And we know that we need to depend on God daily and moment by moment.  

Exodus 23:32-33 give us another key principle to victory. It is the principle of no compromise. This can happen when we want instant victory. There is a possibility to resorting to ungodly means to advance. The moment we have that we will be snared. Victory must be achieved not at all cost but on God’s term. We must not deploy sinful means to attain a godly cause. In the land that God promised them, enemy forces would already be there. It would be easy for them to compromise and get the easy way out to avoid difficulties. But God wanted them to rely only on Him. Hence, they should never compromise by adopting the practices of the enemies. In verse 24 God already said, “You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces.” So in verses 32-33, He emphasized it again. We need to know a life of compromising will become a big hindrance to reaching our potential In God. There must be no compromise with sin. When we truly value God, living only for Him is not a difficult decision. So, let’s live only for Him!