Exodus 23: 24-33: “Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
It is impossible for there to be two people or other identities who are the best in one field. The Lord God made everything and He controls everything therefore He is the best. Israel was told to make sure that they didn’t allow any memory of any god who was in the Promised Land before they came there to remain. These gods were very tempting because they could be manipulated so that the people who followed them could get their own way. If the Lord’s people thought they could get their own way they would be in the same position as Eve was and find the temptation too hard to resist. On the other hand, the Lord is the Creator and designer of each person for we are all made in His own image. He knows what is best for us and the best way for us to have a good an prosperous life. The contract that the Lord made with Israel included prosperity so the Lord added a reminder about that from time to time just to make sure there could be no possible excuses later on. The Lord also understood that there is a difference between conquest and occupation. A good example of that was in Iraq in the last decade or so. The NATO armies had a quick conquest but they were never able to occupy the land. Joshua had a successful conquest but the Lord promised that the occupation would take much longer. When there is no one to care for a land that land quickly returns to the wild state. The Lord understood that and said that, after the conquest, He would make sure that there were people to look after the good fertile land until each of the Israeli families were ready to occupy their own, individual place.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
No comments:
Post a Comment