Evicting Bad Tenants
Those who own rental property know how difficult it is to deal with bad tenants. What a contrast this is with renters who are always current with their monthly payments and often repair anything that is broken. However, there are those who are almost a daily nuisance to the owner of the property. They show no respect for anyone or anything. A major problem faced by those who have rental property is knowing when and how to evict them.
Disgusted with Bad Tenants? God is too!
God owns property. David said, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psa. 24:1). The writer of Hebrews said, “Every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (Heb. 3:4). Those who own a house may think it is theirs, but they fail to know the true “Landlord.” It’s all His, including even the animals (Psa. 50:10-11).
God loves good tenants. When our God was preparing to “lease” the Promised Land to the Jews He had delivered from Egypt, He told them that if they were faithful they would be blessed above all the nations on the earth (Deut. 28). He only asked that they be good “tenants.”
God’s first tenants of Canaan did not honor Him. He did not arbitrarily take the Promised Land from the Canaanite nations there. They filled the land with idols and immorality, and God took action. He said, “The nations are defiled…and the land vomits out its inhabitants” (Lev. 22:24-25). Obviously, they were not good tenants, and He evicted them.
God cast out the first tenants and warned the second tenants. Read His words to the Jews (the new tenants). “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things…lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it” (Lev. 18:24-28). Oh, the folly of people who think they can abuse the true Landlord and assume He will not respond!
God owns America’s land also. “Righteous-ness exalts a nation” (Prov. 14:34), and when our forefathers arrived in this land, their goal was to form a nation which exalted doing right. Our nation was blessed and became the greatest nation on this earth. It was born proclaiming the Creator as the One who endows with inalienable rights. He owned this land and exalted a new nation who honored Him.
God owns America but will cast its tenants from off the land. There is no question that it will happen unless we change. He turns into hell all nations which forget Him (Psa. 9:17). It used to be different—we acknowledged the Creator; oaths were taken with a hand on His book; the Ten Commandments were part of school life; our coins proclaimed our faith. Now it is so different! God will cast us out as tenants. It is, and always has been, His nature. The only question is when!