Numbers tells us of Moses giving his final instructions to the people, as the LORD directed him. The people had completed their 40 years wandering in the wilderness. All the unfaithful had died and now their children, under the faithful leadership of Joshua and Caleb, along with the faithful Levites, would cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. There is a parallel here to what will happen when Christ establishes his world-wide kingdom.

Think about this. The LORD tells Moses as they are “by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan … then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places” (33:50-52). Similarly, when God sends Jesus it will be a time of “punishing the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity” (Isaiah 13:11), but it will also be a time of removing all the things that people ‘worship’ today, the modern equivalents of what the Canaanites worshipped.

Some of the things that will no longer exist are obvious; the casinos and gaming houses for example. If TV, streaming and downloads exist there will be a great purging of their content which panders to fleshly thinking.

Jesus said, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin” (Matthew 13:41). When the people of Israel entered the promised land initially they were full of zeal, but they failed to complete the work. The warning of Moses we read today came true. That which they “let remain, shall be as barbs and thorns in your side and they shall trouble you” (verse 55).

With Christ in control as the King of the world this will not happen in his kingdom. We need to make sure we develop a mindset now that will welcome and appreciate a cleansed earth. Pollution will be removed from the earth as will all the things that pollute human minds. Concerning the future Jerusalem God told Jeremiah, “I will bring to it health and healing … this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth” (33:6,9). How wonderful to be there, don’t you think?