Today, we will read a warning which God delivered to Israel about what would happen if they allowed idolatry to exist in their midst. This is similar to a warning we see in the New Testament about allowing sin to exist in our churches.
In the passage we read yesterday, Moses declared that Yahweh is the God of Israel, and that He is One. Moses went on to tell the Israelites to diligently teach God’s commandments to their sons, and to speak of His commandments regularly and often.
Deut. 6:20 ¶ “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which Yahweh our God commanded you?’
Deut. 6:21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us from Egypt with a strong hand.
Deut. 6:22 Moreover, Yahweh showed great and calamitous signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household;
The signs are a reference to the 10 plagues which Yahweh brought upon Egypt (see Exodus 7-12).
Deut. 6:23 But He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’
Yahweh had promised several times to give the land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Genesis 12:7, 13:15, 17:8, 26:3, 28:4, and 35:12).
Deut. 6:24 So Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God for our good all our days and for our survival, as it is today.
Deut. 6:25 And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, just as He commanded us.
Deut. 7:1 ¶ “When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and He clears 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 more numerous and stronger than you,
The Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites were subsets of the Canaanites (see Genesis 10:15-18).
Deut. 7:2 and when Yahweh your God gives them over before you and you strike them down, then you shall devote them to destruction. You shall cut no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
Take note of the command to cut down and destroy the Canaanites. To our modern ears, this sounds ruthless and cruel. However, that is what Yahweh wanted; therefore, that is what Israel should have done.
Deut. 7:3 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.
Notice the prohibition against intermarriage. This sounds less cruel to modern ears, but many people today would be opposed to this. They would think of this as being racist or excessive.
Deut. 7:4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.
Verse 4 explains why Israel was to destroy the Canaanites and not intermarry with them. Tolerating the Canaanites and mixing with them would lead to Israelites turning away from Yahweh and worshipping false gods.
Allowing idolatry to exist would cause the Israelites to get comfortable with idolatry. Over time, their comfort would lessen their conviction that idolatry is wrong. Furthermore, intermarrying with people who worship idols would cause the Israelites to lose their conviction that idolatry is wrong.
We see a similar prohibition in the New Testament. In two of his letters, Paul wrote that a little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9). He commanded Christians to remove wicked men from our midst (see 1 Corinthians 5:13). The reasoning is the same. Tolerating sin reduces the stigma and resolve against sin.
The Bible states that getting married after divorce is adultery (see Matthew 19:9). There used to be a stigma against that within the church and our culture. In the 20th century, American Christianity began relaxing its stance on divorce and remarriage. Today, there are so many church members who are divorced and remarried that there is very little stigma on remarriage anymore, even though the Bible clearly states that remarriage after divorce is adultery.
The Bible states that only men can speak in church and be leaders (see 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12). For hundreds of years, that was the practice in Christianity. Over the past several decades, American Christianity has compromised with the culture and allowed women to assume more and more roles within the church that the Bible restricts to men. Today, very few Christians are even aware that the Bible prohibits women from speaking in church and exercising leadership over men.
The Bible is clear that sexual activity outside the bonds of a heterosexual marriage is wrong (see 1 Corinthians 6:9). That has been the standard for centuries. In recent years, American Christians have started to relax their stance against alternative lifestyles. Today, it is quite common for Christian couples to live together without being married. Furthermore, some churches very intentionally welcome same-sex couples, thinking they are going to witness to them. However, as Christians become comfortable going to church and seeing same-sex couples, they are going to lose their convictions that same-sex marriage is wrong.
In each of these areas, the church tolerated one instance of sin, then another, and the more they tolerated, the more common the sin became. Today, the sin happens so often that most Christians don’t recognize it as sin.
American Christianity needs to heed the Bible’s teaching that a little leaven leavens the whole lump and remove sin from our midst.
Deut. 7:5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut their Asherim in pieces and burn their graven images with fire.
The Israelites were commanded to have zero tolerance for idolatry. Modern Christianity needs to adopt zero tolerance for sin.
Deut. 7:6 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deut. 7:7 ¶ “Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
Deut. 7:8 but because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deut. 7:9 You shall know therefore that Yahweh your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Deut. 7:10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to make them perish; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
Deut. 7:11 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.
Deut. 7:12 ¶ “Then it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.
Deut. 7:13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.
Yahweh warned Israel that allowing idolatry to exist in their midst would cause Israelites to become idolatrous. Likewise, the New Testament warns us that tolerating sin will cause the sin to flourish. In recent decades, the church has begun tolerating adultery, women speaking in church, and alternative lifestyles. Today, all those sins are flourishing in the church. The church must adopt zero tolerance for sin.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”