Joshua and Judges – Leaders pass and the Israelites fall away from
their covenant with God.
The Promise Land has been conquered (for the most part) and
divided among the Israelites. Joshua and Eleazar the chief priest (the
direct successors of Moses and Aaron) who brought the Israelites into
the Promise Land, pass away. At this time, Israel has reached its
pinnacle of unification with each other and with God. Following the
deaths of their divinely appointed leaders however, Israel begins to
fall away from God's commands.
God had commanded Israel to drive out all the Canaanites, but
instead, the Israelites allow many of them to assimilate and live
among them. This poses the problem of intermarriage, which God knows
will lead His people into worshipping pagan gods (that don't exist).
The angel of the Lord said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you
into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I
will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a
covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their
altars.' You have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore
I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be
thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you."
When we allow other gods in our lives, we inevitably turn away
from the one true God. Anything that we exalt in our minds over God
will always be the greatest barrier to our having a relationship with
God. In the American culture today, the greatest gods are sex and
money. Steve brought up a great point in his blog yesterday about how
the sin of sex has shaped our culture. He said, "While lust primarily
wars against my own body, its effects cause me, in my pride, to
diminish the value of others. Multiply this effect over thousands of
times, and you have a society that speaks of gender equality but
believes in a highly sexualized femininity." I actually didn't see
this sin in myself until Steve pointed it out.
The idolatry of sex has had profound negative effects on our
society. Women, seen as the objects of sex to men have suffered the
most. You can see the detrimental effects of this sin all over our
culture. In general, the success of women is determined by their sex
appeal, which has resulted in the oppression of anorexia, plastic
surgery, etc. Prostitution is legal in some places and even where it's
illegal; it's allowed to coexist in the disguise of shops like massage
parlors. Our society has suffered because people have decided to
coexist with sin and not think it's that big of deal.
This is what happened with Israel. God created the law to protect
them from themselves. When they turned away from God and His law and
towards idolatry, the nation as a whole suffered. When reading the
text in this context, one can understand the purpose for God demanding
Israel to drive out other nations from the Promise Land. God was
trying to teach them that they needed to drive out the sin in their
lives in order to live abundant, peaceful, joyful lives. When we fall
into sin and serve the darkness of this world, we suffer. When we turn
towards the light of God and try to walk in His ways, we prosper.
Let's walk with God today and banish the sin from our lives. As
Christians, you are all called to be the light of the world. Let's not
judge others by the external. Let's use our lives to glorify God by
genuinely loving one another like He taught us. In this way, we can be
apart of His master plan to reveal His greatness and truth.
God Bless,
Anthony
No comments:
Post a Comment