"Watch Yourself"

I was made aware today, yet again, of how much I am like the Israeli people. That is those of the OT.

On the verge of the promised land - that well known, often out of reach beacon of hope, flowing with milk and honey - they received yet again a warning from God, through Moses. The warning? The ten commandments recited (the second giving of them to Israel). The 10 commandments were given again, because the original generation having received them had since past ... and their offspring was now about to behold to promise of God, namely the promised land! ... "when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month" (Exodus 13:5, spoken to the original generation) ... But what lay ahead was going to be no leisurely walk in luxury ... they were moving into Canaan, the land of the Canaanites.

About the Canaanites ... they worshiped the Ba'als (gods of the storms and of justice); Astarte, Asherah, and Anath (these three are goddesses of sex (in mostly pornographic and debased senses and of war, focused mainly on murder); Molech, and others. Their religion and worship of these gods and goddesses was of cultic and ritualistic abominations. Just briefly, the Ba'als were thought to be the gods/goddesses of the earth, responsible for sending the rains for the renewal of the natural world. Their beliefs incorporated many pornographic and orgasmic rituals (Lev 18:22-24, 20:3), further they sacrificed their infants to the god Molech, they would break their legs to keep them from escaping the raging furnace that they threw them into, as they sacrificed them to appease Molech, their god of fire (and possibly this god carried some form of moral standard to which the Canaanites "followed"). (The picture is an artifact, a Ba'al with his arm raised.)

So the command to Israel was "Don't become a Canaanite in Canaan!", basically. Then the question is, How is Israel to abstain from being intoxicated with all the different and appealing atrocities of the Canaanites? Well ...

Moses then declared the word of the Lord to Israel: ... "Hear O Israel! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words [of God] that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God - lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. ... You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you." (Deut 6).

There is more in this chapter, but the above is what hits home. I asked, how does Israel abstain from falling into the prolific sin of the Canaanites? The answer is [not] surprisingly similar to how Jesus instructs us to live. So, I think we can ask ourselves, how are we (as Christians) to abstain from falling into the prolific sin that surrounds us in our pot-modernistic, relativistic, and cavalier society and times? ... Could it be that men, over the span of 10,000 years or so (or however many years you wish to insert there), could it be that men have not changed so much? That we are still primarily depraved and barbarian at heart? I think so. ... Could it be that the Canaanites were an example of how sex, pornography and the overwhelming desire to please every last little wild fantasy we have, can control us and destroy us? Yes, I think so.

That is why in the NT - which of course actually carries weight in our live (although the OT, according to Deut 5:3, is for our instruction ... not the dead and gone Israelites) - that is why Christ in the NT says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:27-40). Note that all the law and prophets hang on these two commands!

So, we haven't changed from the depraved people the Canaanites were. You say well, we don't throw babies with broken legs into flaming fires ... but (as was pointed out quickly to me earlier tonight) ... we do vacuum their brains out before they are even born!!!  Well, we don't have temple prostitutes! How about you don't have to go to the temple now to get a prostitute (I am not necessarily assuming they had to go there (as in there were no other options), but they did), further don't we make different objects sources of adultery with our infatuation of programs, lights, and videos, etc... at church, things that may not necessarily be bad, but detract from God and his due glory?

I guess, to state it plainly, we have not changed at all - sure technology and knowledge have advanced ... but when we get right down to it ... we are an instinct driven, depraved race of creatures. We are broken and flawed to the core ... desperately in need of fixing! And as Romans 7:25 states, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Jesus is the answer. Period. Salvation and life, renewal and rescue from self are found in Him and Him alone.

Recognize this: 
First you and I are to love God ... corresponds so well to the various pleas of saints of old, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory..." (Ps 115:1) and "He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) and "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

Secondly, when we are so focused on living for God - by His grace we will be - when so focused God-ward, loving others, counting them as more important than ourselves, becoming as a servant to all men, not seeking our own interests, becoming last instead of first, serving the least of these, etc ... will be second nature!!!

When this happens, we will not become as Canaanites in Canaan ... because lets be honest, look around you, open your eyes, be honest with yourself, and acknowledge that which terrifies you, which makes you sick about our culture and society and then tell me, that truly right here in America - home sweet home - dwells the very mindset and moral standards (or lack thereof) that existed in the ol' land of Canaan! Further, is not wherever we step foot Canaan? I think so ...

PS - These thoughts are far from original, most of them spurred from the sermon at church this morning, special guest speaker, Al Mohler (President, Southern Seminary).

PSS - I actually haven't managed to cover the bit on "Watch Yourself" that I wanted to ... will have to be another time, 'cause 6 am is coming early, like always!