THURSDAY August 31, 2017
Undefiled Lives
And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I drove him from me.Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. - Nehemiah 13:28-29
The priest, Eliashib, had given his son Joiada, in marriage to the daughter of Sanballat––an enemy of God and Nehemiah. Eliashib, by allowing this union between his son and the daughter of Sanballat, had defiled the priesthood.
Nehemiah cast Joiada out of his presence, as he was disobedient to the Law. It was written that the priests: …shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for the priestis holy to his God (Leviticus 21:7). In Malachi 2:11, God had said to Judah: For Judah has profaned The Lord’s holy institution which He loves: He has married the daughter of a foreign god.
Daniel is a good example of someone who refused to defile himself. As a captive in Babylon …Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank… (Daniel 1:8). The Lord honored Daniel and would use his life tremendously: Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs (Daniel 1:9).
In Mark 7:21-23, Jesus taught defilement comes from within a man:
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Have you purposed in your heart not to defile yourself with any of these sins?
It is not the nature of sin to remain in a fixed state. Like decaying fruit, it grows more rotten. The man who is bad today will be worse tomorrow.
~C. H. Spurgeon~
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