Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites. Numbers 35:34

Environmentalists are very quick to desire to protect the land from any physical pollution or destruction. Some will go to extreme lengths to protect the land. Due to their work, some areas have been cleaned up and protected very well.

The focus of these environmentalists is that the land is where people and live and it needs to be kept in good health to provide for and protect the people and animals.

God told the people to not defile the land, specifically with bloodshed of murder, because He dwells there.

While taking care of the physical land is helpful, it is only a temporary help. The entire earth will be burned up and destroyed some day after Jesus returns.

There is another ‘land’ that is even more important to not defile and that is the body and soul of a person. Once a person chooses to repent of his sins, believe in Jesus and is saved, God now dwells in him. He has now become a land where God lives.

God, holy, pure and perfect, cannot dwell in a place that is defiled and dirty with sin. Too often many believers allow the sinful things of the world to defile their lives. Sin is allowed into their hearts and minds through many different methods, bringing filth into God’s dwelling place.

In the passage here, the defilement is about murder. Many believers allow murder in their hearts by hating and cursing others.

Believers are to flee all sin and all appearances of sin. They are to seek to live pure and holy, righteous lives before God and man because they are now the temple of God–the land where God dwells in.

As a believer, you are now the dwelling place of God. You have choices each day as to what you will allow into your life.

Do not allow yourself to be polluted by the sinful ways of this fallen world, since Jesus has removed all the filth of sin in your life. Do not go back into sin and defile God’s dwelling place. The temporary pleasures of sin will only bring about death.

Live the abundant life Jesus has purchased for you by His shedding of His blood upon the cross by living pure and holy before God and man.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will allow Jesus to purify you from all sin in your life; that God will strengthen you to flee all sin and anything that defiles your life; and that God will be pleased to live in you.