Chapter 1 - Cleansing (Part two.)
Defiled land in the OT, defiled churches and regions in the NT.
When God’s people neglect the principles given to them through His word, we have seen that the scriptures show us that a social unit, (such as a family or region, which is designed for Divine order) can become defiled through the effects of certain sinful actions. There are certain acts that violate spiritual laws that govern this earth more than others. The place we were meant to ‘occupy’ by the Holy Spirit’s grace, whether homes, regions or local churches can thus become spiritually ‘lost’ or ‘unpossessed,'. Those places can even ‘vomit out’ the very people that were purposed to dwell safely therein. In other words, spiritual ground can be lost or won, maintained or violated, depending on the spiritual state of its people, such as Israel’s expulsion from the land in the OT and the Ephesus church being warned of having the lamp-stand removed in the NT. How many times have we heard or experienced testimonies of revivals and outpourings of the Holy Spirit in communities, where it felt as if the entire region was clean? And only after it waned, for it to return to as it was beforehand? This is because the churches of that area started to operate more fully under the direct headship of Christ, only to revert to old ways thereafter.
Jesus taught in Luke 11 regarding the spiritual war we all have to face in the Kingdom of God. He taught that as well as the human heart, the home, the city, a nation and even generations, are key points of contention. These areas are vital social dimensions of life that need to be occupied by His Lordship, in order for us to be free and for the enemy to be put to flight.
Whilst the Church is not a physical, political nation like ancient Israel in the OT, we are a NT spiritual people under Christ, who learn to rule in Kingdom meekness in this present evil world. The Church, like Israel of old, is still a demonstration of God’s theocratic rule. We do not have to go and possess land with earthly weapons like the patriarchs or ancient Hebrews, but we are inheritors of the promises made to them spiritually through the Gospel and its virtues. Today, Christ’s followers are called to spiritually win ground through meekness, and the foolishness of proclaiming and teaching the good news of an already won victory. As the Church lives out the practical wisdom of Scripture in its community life, it not only protects the house of God from within, but it also has positive impacts on the social infrastructure of its outside community. Conversely, the opposite is true; when people refuse to live under His Kingship and victory in this life, the warnings made to the ancient peoples of the OT, along with the consequences, remain today. The spiritual governs the natural.
This principle was not only applicable to ancient Israel but was a universal law for all people and for all time. And it is especially true of God’s new covenant people, the Church.
Ancient Israel was clearly warned about the massive implications of spreading defilement in the land they were to possess.
Numbers 35: 34
“Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites."
Leviticus 20: 22
“Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.”
Ezekiel 36: 16-21
16 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness in my sight. 18 So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols. 19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. 20 And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them,‘These are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.’ 21 I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.
This universal principle was from the beginning of creation.
In Genesis 4, we have the story of Cain and Abel. Cain withheld a better sacrifice from God, murdered his brother, and shed blood. The land became defiled with Abel’s blood crying out to God. The consequences were that the land could no longer have Cain rule over it, and thus he was marked and became a wanderer.
This universal principle is also applied to other nations as well as Israel.
This wasn’t only a specific law to Israel but was a principle to the nations who would not submit to God’s rule. Humanity is designed to worship the true God, but when it rebels, even the nations suffer.
Leviticus 18: 28
And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
This universal principle also applies to all ethnicities.
Leviticus 18
“ Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled."
This universal principle was further evidenced (though provided for) in the time of Christ.
The Gospels show us that places, including Jerusalem, even as a chosen city, chose to reject the visitation of Jesus. The results upon it were catastrophic!
Luke 19: 42-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.
Matthew 11: 22-24
22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
This universal principle also applies within the Church of Jesus.
Hebrews 6: 4 - 9
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. 9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation.
1 Corinthians 5
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Hebrews 12
14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
Hebrews 12:25
See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
Defiling sins that still carry enormous consequences.
Having seen that it is still possible for certain sins to defile the spiritual potency and life of God’s people, and having seen that they can carry consequences for the spiritual progress of our communities, we will now look at the direct causes themselves. Certain stated sins defile the land in OT Scripture and can still do so today if left outside of the Cross of Christ.
Children are given over to the enemy.
Lev 20: 1 - 4 / Ps 106: 38
The prohibition given is related to the ‘giving of children to idolatry’. This can happen with sexual sin, human sacrifice, or more subtly other things such as false teaching. I.e. Anything that seeks to pull them from the Lord and His body.
In Matthew 18: 6 Jesus said likewise:
“If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Idolatry & witchcraft.
Ezekiel 36: 18 (see also Lev 20: 6 / Jer 16: 18)
‘So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols. 19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.’
1 Corinthians 10:14 ‘...beloved, flee from idolatry...’ (See also Eph 5:5)
Sexual perversion.
Lev 18 & 20. Incest, homosexual practices, infidelity & inhumane acts.
This one is more easily identifiable to us in the twenty-first century. Even now, major denominations are giving way to the liberal spirit of the age and conceding sacred ground to the enemy in this regard.
1 Corinthians 6:18
14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Bloodshed.
Numbers 35: 33
‘You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it...’
2 Samuel 21
During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 3 David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?” 4 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer on behalf of the land.
1 John 4:20
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
Covenant unfaithfulness.
Isaiah 24: 5
4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away. 5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.
Jeremiah 3: 1
“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers— would you now return to me?”
1 Corinthians 11:29
For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
Withholding from God what belongs to Him.
The Sin of Achan - Josh 7 / Acts 5 - Ananias and Sapphira. (See also 1 Kings 21 - Naboth’s Vineyard)
Achan’s sin (of withholding the devoted things from the Lord) is something that not only affected himself and his family, but the entire community of Israel. It caused Israel to become ineffective in war. The place of Achan’s judgement was called the ‘Valley of Achor’ which means ‘severe trouble’ or ‘taboo’ or ‘affliction’.Why did this personal sin have such consequences for the whole of the Israelite community? Because they were one people under the Lord. Similarly, we too are the one Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12) and some sins can hinder the whole Body of Christ, and thus limit its effectiveness in the region it is called to bless.
Likewise, Luke’s account of Ananias and Sapphira is intentionally written as a NT counterpart to the Achan story. They ‘agreed to hold back’ or ‘withhold’ the money that they had promised to the Lord. The term ‘hold back’ is the only NT direct link to the Achan account who ‘took or withheld the devoted things’. Its cleansing from the midst of the Church resulted in great expansion and harvest for the Church.
Isaiah 65:10
‘Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me.’
Hosea 2: 15
‘...here I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.’
Thank God for these promises. When there is true humility among God’s people, the place of trouble becomes the place of restoration.
‘He who has ears, let him hear...’
Understanding all of this from Scripture opens our eyes to the responsibility the church in our region carries before God. Places still matter to God, and the Church in our city / region still matters to God. Each NT church carries a distinct calling and authority for its geographical context. It is incumbent upon us to humbly submit to the Divine calling for our cities and fulfil all God asks of us with radical obedience. This is how we fulfil the Great Commission. People’s lives depend upon it.
This is the essence of the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Christ as the Head of the Church is speaking to His covenant people in love but also with correction. He desires that they gain their inheritance, overcome that which is before them to win the prize. The prize is not just the destination of Heaven, but the present day full release of the Holy Spirit’s impact upon city-churches and the cities they are called to serve well.