God Meant What He Said

 God Said What He Meant

 

This is an edited text of my September 20 sermon. You can watch the message here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakw6J6wmUI

 

Why do loving parents give rules to their children?  Don’t touch that electric wall plate. Stay away from the boiling pot on the stove. Hold my hand when we cross the street. Don’t lean against the window screen of our third-floor apartment.  As a child, I hated her rules. As I got older, her rules seemed more unfair. Don’t hang around those kids. If I catch you driving with friends who’ve been drinking, I’ll kill you. Be home before 10.

 

Sometimes I downright didn’t like mom. She was always there to ruin my fun.

 

I can’t help to think our dislike of rules is wedded to our DNA. Like our first parents to whom God gave only ONE commandment – don’t eat the fruit from that tree. There were probably dozens and dozens of other fruit trees in that garden, but Eve and Adam couldn’t stay away from the one with the sign hanging around its trunk – “Don’t eat.”

 

Fast forward to Egypt. After God wrought one mighty miracle after the other to force Pharaoh to let Israel go free, God gave them this simple commandment as they were about to cross into the Promised Land:

 

‘When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places; and you shall take possession of the land and live in it . . . But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.” (Numbers 33:51-55)

 

Who were living in the Promised Land? Scripture tells – Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Amorites, Jebusites, and so forth.

 

Archaeological history tells us those cultures were dominated by religious systems that were shamelessly immoral as much as they were maliciously cruel. Temple prostitution, adultery, homosexuality, incest, murder, bestiality, gang rape, and even child sacrifice were their methods of gaining their gods’ approval. Moses tells us in Deuteronomy, those nations “do for their gods every detestable thing that Jehovah hates, even burning their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12:31)

 

And so, the God of the universe, the God of Israel gave His people a commandment before bringing them into the Land of Promise – one commandment among many others, to be sure, but this one was as critical as any of His others: “Drive them out! Don’t let then live in the land with you.”

 

God meant what He said and said what He meant. Why? Because He was trying to protect His people from adopting the same unspeakably evil lifestyles and practices as those nations. And what God tells us through St. Paul has proven true time after time since Adam and Eve left the Garden, “Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

 

So, what happened when Israel finally crossed the Jordan and settled in the Promised Land? It is not a pretty picture. We first find this record in the early chapters of Judges. I am reading only a few verses from chapter one.  1:19-33 – “Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots. . . . The sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem . . .

 

The same is said of the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali. Virtually all of the 12 tribes that left Egypt with Moses and Joshua ended up living alongside the Canaanites and the other nations – despite their heavenly Father’s specific commandment to destroy them and drive them from the Land.

 

Like a wayward child, Israel ignored the rules. They touched the electric wall switch. They reached for the pot of boiling water on the stove, They leaned against the screen of the third-story window. They didn’t hold God’s hand when they crossed the busy street.

 

It took less than a generation for God’s beloved people to get caught up in the same murderous and salacious sins of their pagan neighbors. All across Israel, apostate kings and priests set up centers of worship for gods such as Ashtaroth and Baal. Even outside the city limits of Jerusalem Israel tossed their children into the fires of Molech. And it all began shortly after God brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey.

 

The book of Judges details some of the most hideous, bloody, and repugnant stories in Scripture. If it’s been a while since you’ve read Judges, you might want to take the time to do so. There are important lessons in that book for every one of us who call ourselves children of God. One story is so X-rated, I will not even summarize it. I will only say this about it: Page after page exudes with the putrefied rot associated with their cultural and religious lifestyles.

 

The account that begins in chapter 19 concludes in chapter 21. The last verse of the last chapter provides the key to understanding this X-rated incident. Indeed, that last verse provides the key to understanding the entire book of Judges, as well as the entire length and breadth of Biblical and post-Biblical history itself, even to today, September 20, 2020.

 

This is the verse: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). You’ll find the same refrain elsewhere in Judges – 17:6; 18:1 and 19:1. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Judges provides anyone with eyes to see a frightful warning of what happens to a nation and to individuals who “do what is right in their own eyes;” Who hold to the form of religion, but deny God’s authority over their lives. St. Paul talks about this in the first chapter of his letter to the church at Rome. I urge you to read the entire chapter. Here is a portion:

 

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind . . . being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.  

Do you understand why America in particular and the world in general is sinking ever more rapidly into our own quicksand of brutality, hatred, and merciless violence? We even kill our babies as they exit the birth canal and devote their mutilation to our own Molech called ‘Self-interest.”

 

God warned Israel – and by extension – you and me of the disastrous consequences that fall on nations and individuals who adopt the behavior of those who turn from God. Scripture is replete with other graphic examples in places like Ezekiel 16, Psalm 106, and Deuteronomy 28. Even King Solomon, despite his great wisdom and early close relationship with God, even he descended into the horrific practices of his godless pagan culture (1 Kings 11:1-13).

God called Israel from slavery in Egypt to be His special and prized possession. He gave them rules by which they should live and through which they would prosper. But the whole of old Testament history demonstrates how God’s chosen people went very wrong when they turned from God.

 

And of this, too, Scripture assures us: What happened to them WILL happen to any nation and to any individual “who does what is right in their own eyes.”

 

The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome, words we need to heed as well: “Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction . . .  (Romans 15:4). So, let’s make some application of these Scripture texts.

 

The Bible is not a dusty archaic book written only for a people who lived long ago and far away. The Book we hold in our hands is God’s word to God’s people in every age, in every nation, and in every culture.

 

As God called Israel to be His own people, so too God calls those who follow Messiah Jesus today to be His own. BUT – and this is an important point no one should gloss over – God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. St. Paul wrote to the church at Galatia words we also ought to take to heart: “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh, will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8).

 

When we come to Christ we are born again. We are – as St. Paul called it – “a new creation.” And when we became God’s children our old nature was put to death. It was buried with Christ in our baptism so that we could be raised with Him to newness of life. (See Romans 6:3-5) Our burial with Christ means that all the ATTITUDES of our old nature were also put to death.

 

And they need to STAY dead, although they certainly raise their deformed faces almost daily: An unwillingness to forgive others, pride, self-centeredness, immoral sexuality, pornography, divisiveness, slander, rude and crude language, lies and all manner of sins we used to practice as a matter of routine.

 

God commands us to now put on Christ. And what He said about getting rid of the demonic influences of our old nature, He meant; for if we hold on to them, they WILL continue to trouble us in our new life in Christ.

 

Listen. I know it’s hard work being a Christian. It’s hard work doing the right things. It’s hard work saying ‘No’ to our old nature. It’s hard work to consistently read the Scriptures AND study and meditate on what we are reading. It’s hard work to consistently pray for a Christlike heart and a childlike faith. It’s much easier to let the days slip by watching television and playing games.

 

But if we who call ourselves followers of Christ ignore His warning and the lessons of Scripture, we do so to our destruction. God is not mocked. What happened to Israel, and what has happened to EVERY person who has turned a deaf ear to God – it will happen to you and me if we insist on going down that path where everyone does what is right in his own eyes.