See Joshua's warnings in chapter 23, specifically versus 12,13 and 15.
"But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, ....You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you."
We like to warm comfy feel of Jesus in the New Testament. We like the strength, power and warmth of God in the Old Testament. But we really don't like the rest of the story. We like the feel-good references. We skip the but-you-better-do-as-you're-told parts. We don't read Revelation because that is the END when people die - the forever death. We don't discuss sin - because the wages of sin is death. We want warm and fuzzy.
But as Joshua pointed out to the Israelites after they entered the Promised Land, God will do both parts of His promises. He promises to be with us always, to help us conquer, to sustain us, to guide us. He also promises that if we choose to disobey He will enforce the negative part of the promise. Boy, oh, boy, we don't want to hear that, do we?
Look at the verses again. He is in covenant with the Israelites to be with them and drive the bad element from the Promised Land. He promised to help them drive out those people and their pagan rituals. Because He knows that they will be snares and traps, whips on [their] backs and thorns for [their] eyes if they don't drive them out. We know from history that is exactly what happened. The Bible tells us that they did not destroy every living thing and pagan idol and altar when they took over the land. God told them to destroy it all because He knew. And since they did not do as they were told, the Promised Land became quite a mess, a snare, trap, whip or thorn. And it still is today.
(Wonder if the Bible is still relevant? Look at what is going on in the Middle East region and compare to the Bible. Much of what is going on can be explained in the unfulfilled commands and consequences that God gave the Israelites in the first several books of the Bible. Now before you think I am advocating annihilation of the "bad element" today, you are quite mistaken. The command was for when they took or moved into the land back long before Christ. It is too late to fill that command now.)
But I am off topic. God never lies. He always tells the truth. He says He is with us, so He is. He says He will help us, equip us, teach us, answer our prayers and He does. He also tells us that the wages of sin is death. That is not a curse. It is a fact of life, that God created, that God controls, that God delights in. He wants us to understand that He is the Way to live and to life. God keeps his promises, all of his promises, the good ones and the bad ones. He also gives us the ability to choose which we prefer. His way, or not.
God, thank you for your consistency. Thank you that we can depend on all your promises as true. In a world where nothing is as it seems, I thank you for being consistent, unchanging, dependable. Help me depend on You all the time, especially when things are going great. Amen.
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