Lev 27:28, 'Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord. 
    	We are at the end of our consideration of the Book of Leviticus. In it, the Lord has given very specific instructions to His people for the sake of their well-being in the Promised Land. He has given them His law and the statues that will protect them from all the diseases and filth and defilement of the peoples and nations surrounding them. He has also shown them how they are to be holy because He is holy. They are His specifically Chosen People to present to the whole world the testimony and the witness of the One True Living Lord God Almighty. He is their God and He is their King and as long as they will honor and obey Him, they will know the blessing of His sustaining and providing power going before them into every battle. 
As a quick aside at this point, the Psalmist emphasizes something that we often do not consider as we think of the entry into the Promised Land and the relationship that God had with His people. Consider the fact that this was a people who had lived in Egypt for more than 400 years. Egypt was a country known for its chariot forces that would shatter enemies on the battlefield through speed and power and the hastening of certain death to anyone standing before the thundering hooves and crushing wheels.
Even with this Egyptian training, the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land without any chariots or any equine military units whatsoever. The fact of the matter was that the Lord prevented them from such displays of military might because He was the One Who was going before them. He was the One Who would be their victory against any nation, no matter what the odds and the might and the technological advancements that faced them. As recounted in Ps 20:6+7, God was their shield and He was their victory. 
Ps 20:6+7, Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven, With the saving strength of His right hand. Some boast in chariots, and some in horses; But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God. 
	Whenever the nation of Israel panicked and called for help from those nations with chariots and horses, God removed His hand from them. He wanted them to trust in His Name, Alone, for their protection and their guidance and their provision. He would not allow them to mingle His hand over them with any reliance upon the efforts and the abilities of other men or animals or nations. His people were to be completely holy unto Him, set apart in their every endeavor on this earth, showing the witness of a people with Jehovah as their Lord and God.
	This is a key aspect of why God was so insistent that His people were completely separated from the practices of the other nations. They were never to allow themselves to worship at the altars of idols under the very strictest of prohibitions as was emphasized in Ex 22:20. Ex 22:20, "He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed. 
	It is in this context that we consider this morning’s passage; specifically the section which reads …Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord. The Lord demanded that everything of the surrounding nations should be destroyed as they entered the Promised Land. There were two aspects to this stipulated action of the people by God. 
The first was that it would prevent them from becoming befouled and defiled by the pagan treasures and idols of the cities that were being overthrown. By not attaching themselves to the treasures and the spoils of the idolatrous nations, the hands of His people would be unsullied and free from the entrapments and snares of this age. They would remain consecrated to the Lord God Almighty, set on maintaining their dedication to Him in the fact of their obedient destruction of all that defamed and besmirched and violated the holiness of God. 
	The second reason for this strict pronouncement of destruction was in order for the people to not become attached to the love of war for the sake of spoils. It was far too easy for them to become a warrior nation pushed forward by the greed of accumulating riches and treasures. They might find the spoils of war too much of an enticement to just settling the area and farming and cultivating crops and livestock. By God’s commandment to destroy all the filthy lucre of the captured cities, rather than despoiling those conquered nations, God was preventing the taste of bloodshed and fortune and wealth through conquest from taking root in His people.
	Accordingly, as all the spoils were devoted to destruction, they were to be holy unto the Lord. What happened, most often, was that all the jewels and gold and silver and any other article of value that was found would be piled together and then burned with as intense a fire as could be started. What would be left, after the conflagration melted and destroyed what could be destroyed, would be given to the priests for the service within the temple. Thus all was devoted to destruction as holy unto the Lord.
	This utter destruction of the nations set against God’s people began even before they entered the Promised Land, as detailed in Num 21:1-3. There is recounted how the king of Arad opposed the Children of Israel even in the desert as they were wandering under the Lord’s guidance. 
Num 21:1-3, When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, "If Thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities." And the Lord heard the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called Hormah. 
    	This was an indication that the people understood that they were to keep themselves separate from the other nations. They were the ones who initiated, in this case, the promise to utterly destroy those nations arrayed against them as they were obeying the Lord. They vowed to absolutely destroy the cities of their attackers and did so as unto the Lord.
	In Deut 7:1-5, we have the admonition and the command as given by Moses to the people before they entered into the Promised Land. As The Lord directed Moses, so he spoke plainly to the people in order that there would be no misunderstanding or misinterpretation of what the Lord God expected from His people. Please turn to Deut 7, verses 1-5, and read along with me. 
Deut 7:1-5, "When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. 
    	There was no doubt that they were to utterly destroy all those who opposed them and absolutely obliterate every graven image so that there would be no contamination within God’s Holy people. As long as the people honored God, He would go before them and give them the victory against even those nations who were stronger and greater in number and technology. Hearken back to our opening aside wherein we saw that God wanted His people to put their whole trust and reliance upon Him to give them the victory and to keep their hands free from all the contaminants of this age. It was all to be absolutely destroyed. 
	Deut 13:15-18 reinforced this prohibition of keeping any of the treasures of those cities as spoils of war. Deut 13:15-18, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. And nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the Lord may turn from His burning anger and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and make you increase, just as He has sworn to your fathers, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God. 
    	Again, through Joshua, in Josh 6:17-19, the Lord reinforced this as the people were coming against Jericho. It was declared for the entire nation that nothing was to be left except Rahab and her family as she had aided the spies who had gone into Jericho to determine the extent of the resistance facing Israel. 
Josh 6:17-19, And the city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord." 
	However, Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah coveted some of the spoil and kept it and hid it. When the Israelites were defeated in the next battle, it was revealed that the fault was this covetousness and disobedience unto the Lord. God informed Joshua of the sin against the Holiness of the Lord, as recorded in Josh 7:11-13. It was made very clear that the people were accursed because of this transgression against His covenant of holiness, complete separation from the treasures of the heathen idolaters. 
Josh 7:11-13, "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said," There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst." 
    	It wasn’t until Achan and his family and all his possessions as well as the spoil from Jericho were utterly destroyed that the Children of Israel could once again go forth victoriously into battle with the Lord going before them. God required absolute obedience to His holiness in every aspect in order to smite the enemies of His people. Their testimony of the Lord God as their Champion and their Provider was at the forefront of His consideration of them as His Chosen People.
	Another, who suffered the loss of everything due to his disobedience, was King Saul. God sent him to utterly destroy the Amalekites and not to take any spoil or plunder. As recorded in 1 Sam 15:16-22, Saul did allow some of the plunder to be kept, at first blaming the people and then declaring that it was for the Lord. But Samuel declared the truth of which we want to hold deep in our hearts, even this very day with respect to our estimation of just how much God and His Holiness means to us. Please open in your Bibles to 1 Sam 15, and follow along with me. 
	1 Sam 15, verses 16-22, Then Samuel said to Saul, "Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak!" And Samuel said, "Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.' "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?" Then Saul said to Samuel, "I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal." And Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 
	…Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice… God desires for His people, for us, to obey His Word and to adhere to His Holiness. We are to refrain from coveting all that is the spoilage and the plunder of this age, and rather set our minds and our hearts and our entire beings upon what would please and honor Him in the course of each day. It is our obedience and our reverence of Him that God requires from us. We are to be holy unto Him and not to crave and lust after those things that are devoted to destruction. So be it.
	'Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Neh 8:9+10. Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Amen.