Numbers 34:35 (NLT) “You must not defile the land where you live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord, who lives among the people of Israel.”

When the Israelites left Egypt after having been liberated by the power of God over Pharaoh and the Egyptians, they had a lot to learn about the God of their ancestors. Having been foreigners in Egypt for over four hundred years, they had picked up a lot of bad and sinful habits. One of the first things that the Lord did was to reveal His law to the people through Moses. The law was meant to keep the people from defiling themselves and thereby defiling the land. God had warned them over and over to keep themselves pure because he was a God who lived in the land among His people.

That is so different from every other so-called god that people serve. People are used to traveling to far places to have the opportunity to go before their gods to make requests and petitions of them, even though those gods don't have eyes to see or ears to hear and are not gods at all. But God is not a God far away but a God who not only is near to His people, but who lives with them. Since the Lord created human beings, He has always sought to be with them, beginning with the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived and walked with God.

Since God is the same yesterday, today and forever, then He also looks to live with us today. As a matter of fact, it has gotten ever the more intimate as He now not only lives with us, but dwells in us through His Holy Spirit. Because of that, we, like the Israelites who were liberated from Egypt, need to be careful not to defile the land because our Holy God lives with us and in us. But now "the land" is our hearts. We needed to be purified before God could dwell in us and that is why Jesus had to die as a sacrifice for our sins. Now that Jesus has paid the price for our sins and has sanctified us, our hearts (the land) are no longer defiled and He can live there. But we, like the Israelites, have to be careful not to live in a way that will defile us, so that the Lord can continually dwell in us. When it becomes a reality to us that the Lord lives in us, it makes us seek Him more so that He can empower us to live holy lives so that there will be an uninterrupted flow of the presence of God in our lives. God made us so that He could live with us. Now that our eyes have been opened to the gift of salvation, we long for Him to do so. Let's be careful not to defile the land because our holy God lives there too!

Pastor Joey Vazquez