“When the Lord your God brings you into the land.., and clears away many nations before you,.. then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods… Thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery… Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations… You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.” Deuteronomy 7:1a,2b-4a,5-9,11
When the Lord brings you into the land. God methodically prepares His people for what’s to come, binding certain promise with dire warning. They would surely enter, and they’d be sorely tempted. As loving Father, He outlined the reasons for His commands. Beware lest these foreigners turn your hearts, lest idols take My place. He’d chosen them, set His love on them, and as His treasured possession they were to live like the holy and redeemed people they were.
Many an idol present themselves as we take on new lands of life experience, relationships, work, and ministry. A spouse or child arrives and steals the heart’s affection. A job or hobby captivates focus and absorbs energy and attention. Any passion can become a god and turn us from the One who inspires the passion- for His glory, not our own fulfillment.
We must acknowledge our raison d’être: the Lord has made us for Himself, and His redemption by fact frees us from the stronghold of slavery to idols. We must determine to live as those so freed, and loved, and endowed with holy purpose. We are not our own. (Isaiah 43:1,4; 49:3)
The allure of worldly icons of wealth and image, beauty and adrenaline rushes, will always vie for our untrained, untamed emotions. Will we take God’s warnings to heart? What in our perception of self needs unskewing? If we are indeed His treasure, valued beyond human comprehension costing our Savior His life, why do we dawdle in the lowlands? With what idols of cool and feel good and boasting do we shamelessly flirt, as though they bring any true pleasure or honor to God?
How can we keep God’s word anew in light of all He’s done for us and the love He’s set on us? What idols will we put away forever?
Loving Father, help me honor You as worthy of all obedience and glory, for indeed You are.
As the rain and snow 