We read in the Bible that God told the Israelites to remove the pagans completely from the Promised Land and it gives us heart palpitations. It’s so harsh! It’s not fair! Surely they could have coexisted! With a little compassion and tolerance, those pagans could have been won to the Lord!
The Israelites had a bad habit of collecting idols the way some people collect refrigerator magnets. God knew that if they left the pagans hanging around, they wouldn’t just tolerate them, they’d promote them. Eventually, some pagan would be sitting on the throne, making sacrifices to a cow while Israel nodded along saying, “Well, who’s to say what’s right for everyone?”
God told them to remove corruption before it ruled over them. He wasn’t protecting His ego. He was protecting His people from their own sin and stupidity.
And sure enough, when Israel ignored the command, they didn’t just make peace with evil, they crowned it. They adopted pagan practices, built pagan temples, and envied pagan kings. Every time God said, “Don’t touch that,” they said, “It’s not a big deal.” And before long, the same people who once worshiped the God of Abraham were sacrificing their children to statues.
We do that too.
An important part of ‘reaching the lost’ is inviting Canaanites into positions of authority. We let unbelievers define morality, dictate worship rituals, legislate corruption, and even define what love means while hoping they notice how nicely we’re treating them. Maybe they’ll come to Sunday services!
We’ll tolerate those who make war against our faith because we think we’ll be able to resist them. In fact, we think we’ll persuade them to follow Jesus. That’s not what will happen. Instead, we’ll sacrifice our children and grandchildren to the currently popular pagan deity.
So when God says, “Get rid of them,” He’s not being cruel. He’s being realistic. Because if you don’t drive them out, you’ll bow down to them.
(Deuteronomy 7:3) “Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me, to serve other gods.”
One Response
Thank you John for being the voice of sanity in a world that’s been turned upside down! If we dance around the cess pool of sin we’ll eventually get some on us!