You've heard that expression I'm sure, about wild horses. But have you thought about Egyptian horses? Could Egyptian horses drag us away?
Back in the ancient days before the Israelites had even entered the Promised Land, the Lord knew that one day they would want to have a king. In Deuteronomy 17 mention is made of how the King should behave. Verse 16 : The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." He started warning them early.
And yet even King Solomon, for all his wisdom, bought horses from Egypt (this is recorded in 1 Kings 10:28-29, 2 Chronicles 1:16 and 9:28) They're nice horses, good chariots, excellent in battle. Worldly wisdom says there is nothing wrong in buying horses from Egypt. So Solomon bought Egyptian horses.
But God said not to.
You see, Solomon's horses from Egypt led to Solomon's wife from Egypt, the Pharaoh's daughter, and through her (and other foreign wives) Solomon was led away from the Lord. He went "back that way" that God said the Israelites were not to go.
He let himself get dragged away.
And it started with the horses from Egypt.
Egyptian horses were Solomon's "gateway drug" if you will, opening the door to disobeying God in other areas of his life. Today we are no different than Solomon. I'll give you some examples:
God said to dress modestly and with respect. But every Sunday the churches boast barely clad women dressing in the latest fashions from Paris Hilton and Susie Slut... 'Nothing wrong with being fashionable,' says the world. 'Every one else is wearing horses from Egypt. It doesn't mean anything.'
Scripture tells us that as believers we have the power to cast out demons, and that we should rebuke evil. It does not say that we are to spend hours in line at the Walmart to buy the movie Twilight or Harry Potter, inviting evil under our own roof, and then wonder why our children misbehave. They're just riding the Egyptian horses we bought them.
Do I need to mention the number of "good Christian women" reading secular romance novels and watching soaps? Or the number of "Godly men" playing violent video games or surfing the internet while claiming to be working hard for their employer?
Figuratively speaking, we are buying horses from Egypt.
No, the girl dressed like Paris Hilton sitting in the pew next to me does not behave like Paris Hilton. Not yet anyway. And, okay, the children watching Twilight are not turning into demon possessed vampires* but, as the Proverbs tell us "Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it." It's just the first step in the wrong direction, away from God.
Let's not delude ourselves -- when we buy into the ways of the world... when we say 'but they're good horses. There's nothing wrong with this book, this outfit, this game, this movie...' We are making the same mistake Solomon did. We are setting ourselves up to get dragged away from God by wild horses.
As believers we have been saved out of the world, and we "are not to go back that way again."
It's time to muck out the stables.
[*...and there is no such thing as a "good" vampire, so don't even start with me.]
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