“I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.” (Exodus 34:24)
This passage was brought to my attention in a class by Walt Leaver at the Pepperdine Lectureship. “No one will covet your land when you go up.”What a powerful promise! And what faith it would have taken for the Israelites to live up to this.
Farmers cannot easily take off three times a year, especially when it would have taken them several days to make the trip to Shiloh (or Jerusalem or wherever). Add to that the fact that God asked them to leave their homes and fields unprotected, trusting in His protection. Wow!
I don’t think I’m ready to trust in God that much. And that’s a little sad.