Scoundrels Leading The Town Astray

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Scripture

Deut. 13:12   If you hear it said about one of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you to live in,  13 that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods,” whom you have not known,  14 then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation.

Observation

The power of influence is strong and God is raising his awareness and concern about the behavior of the Israelites. An individual can be led astray, but not only an individual, entire towns can be led astray by those who do not follow God’s commands. This is the crowd being infected by the influence of “scoundrels. ” These “scoundrels” are people who have yoked themselves with evil; who are vile, lawless, and without any reverence or fear of God. The  concern is over the reach of their negative influence and when this is recognized it is to be stopped immediately!

Application

I think that most would recognize the incredible power of negativity to influence a great group of people. We love a juicy, negative story! It is these negative stories which make their way around social media these days and can create such a flurry of attention that it can be almost mind-numbing. Sometimes the flurry in the virtual world of  Facebook is much greater than in the real world. Sadly, the negative power of the virtual world is often having a negative effect on the real world. Scoundrels — leading the virtual town astray.

But, let’s turn this around a minute! What would happen if those who are on-fire for Christ, those who professed his name with inspired zeal, were to exercise their influence. Could positive influence help to lead an entire community toward Christ? Instead of scoundrels leading people astray, could saints lead people to sanity? I think that is very much within the real of possibility as we live and move within the activity of God’s Holy Spirit.

Being led by the Spirit of God we have seen in the past that there is the power of God’s influence to bring about change in entire communities, and even churches. Just as the scoundrels exercised their zeal-filled influence to bring people down, so may God use spirit-filled passionate influencers to change the world!

Prayer

Lord, please fill me with zeal for you. Amen.

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