Now it may truthfully be said that when we hear "corrupt communications," although we neither have fellowship with nor repeat them, we are defiled by them. Yes, we become defiled even through unavoidable contact with evil or profane speaking, and need to heed a word found in Num. 19 which gives an important principle: “And every OPEN VESSEL, WHICH HATH NO COVERING BOUND UPON IT, is unclean.”
Numbers is the book of the wilderness experience and the wilderness is the place where defilement is contacted. In the nineteenth chapter many things are mentioned that would defile an Israelite, and this has a spiritual application to us. An Israelite was defiled if a man died in the same tent with him. Now it is obvious that he could not prevent a man dying, but still he was defiled and needed the water of separation for his cleansing. So with us, there are times when we seem to come unavoidably into contact with that which speaks of moral death and are defiled thereby. How easily communion with God is interrupted by just the breath of the contaminating evil in the world! (The seriousness of defilement and the means of cleansing as found in Num. 19 are nicely brought out in a pamphlet by C.H.M., entitled, "The Red Heifer.")
The fifteenth verse of this chapter is the one that especially concerns us in the subject we are considering. What made an "open vessel" unclean was to have "NO COVERING BOUND UPON IT." How often our MINDS are like OPEN VESSELS! They are standing open and ready to receive anything that may fall into them. Much is said about our minds in the Word of God. We are to gird up the loins of our minds, and we are to set our minds on things which are above. Our minds are the seat of much that goes wrong. If we allow them to be filled with the things of this world they cannot at the same time be filled with Christ. If we store them up with the vanities, the foolishness, or the filth of the world, we shall not only prevent that much space in them from being used for the things of the Lord, but we shall discover that the whole mind is defiled. God has a purpose in telling us that an open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean." He would teach us the importance of having our minds closed to the things that would defile us. If we cannot leave the scene where evil is being talked about we should carefully guard our minds so that the evil will not find a lodging there.
Keeping a covering bound upon our minds might be illustrated by the story of the little girl who had been taught that it was wrong to listen to the gospel preaching. One night she was taken by a friend to a gospel meeting. On the way home after the meeting this child said to the other children in the company: “I thought about everything else I could all the time that man was speaking, so that I would not hear a word he said.”
Her mind was not open to the gospel but was closed by a very definite effort to think of other things. While we may hope that some word did get into her mind and heart in spite of her resolve, her case does illustrate keeping the mind closed to that which is going on. May we, fellow-Christians, be more careful when we are within hearing distance of evil to close our minds to it.
This subject of our attitude toward the "evil communications" is a large one, and is one of immense importance; it may well be weighed very carefully before the Lord. May we seek wisdom, grace, and strength to walk in a way pleasing to Himself. We are aware that we live in the last days and that evil abounds on every hand, but let us remember that in the days before the flood, when corruption and violence filled the earth, "Noah WALKED WITH GOD" (Gen. 6:9-129These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:9‑12)). It was possible then and so it is today.
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