Ep 558 – Joshua 13:1-13

There is really no such thing as partial obedience. Failure to obey completely is really nothing more than disobedience in disguise. It is a willful decision to do something other than what you were told to do or had agreed to do. It’s a form of compromise that tends to benefit the one making the compromise, not the one who made the initial command. And in Joshua 13:1-13, we are given an up-close and personal glimpse of what partial obedience looks like in the lives of the people of God. They weren’t completely ignoring or disobeying God’s command. But they certainly weren’t doing what He had told them to do. They had made some concessions, what they thought to be were logical alterations to God’s original command, that would make their job a lot easier. But they were about to discover that playing fast-and-loose with God’s word rarely turns out well. Partial obedience tends to bring God’s full judgment. Compromises and concessions sound good for the moment, but always have long-term consequences.