How is the Lord present with Israel?
That’s the major theme of Chapter 7.
This was also King David’s main concern.
In the ancient Middle East, people believed their gods needed buildings to dwell in to stay close to them.
That’s why every nation took great expense to build huge and magnificent temples for their gods.
But what would happen if a country had to fight a war outside of its national boundaries?
Or had to go on a mission that forced them to separate from the temples where their gods lived?
Would their deities travel with them?
This was a real concern in their day.
To solve this problem, they created portable idols they could carry wherever they went.
So people saw their gods as genies in a bottle,
They could be housed in temples or carried as portable idols.
We see this same way of thinking in the Book of Genesis when Jacob escaped from his uncle Laban.
Before their flight, Jacob’s wife Rachel stole her father’s idols.
“Now Lavan had gone to shear his sheep, so Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father, and Ya‘akov outwitted Lavan the Arami by not telling him of his intended flight.”-Genesis 31:19
When Laban caught up with the fleeing Jacob and his family, he called him out on this:
“Granted that you had to leave, because you longed so deeply for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?”-Genesis 31:30
My point is this was the unquestioned and unconscious worldview in 1000 B.C.
David and the Israelites viewed their God, Yahweh in the same way many centuries later.
We don’t see the Israelites confronting their pagan neighbors about their theological errors, which were rooted in the Mystery Babylon religions.
The question was never about how the gods operated.
That was already understood.
The question was, which God was the strongest?
And what was the right way to worship Him?
Ya feel me?
So what’s the takeaway for today?
It all goes back to this earlier statement:
“We don’t see the Israelites confronting their pagan neighbors about their theological errors.”
I view this as a problem.
God created Israel to be a light unto the nations.
But here, we see the opposite occurring.
Instead of being the influencers…
David and his men ARE influenced by the pagan beliefs of their gentile nations.
This shouldn’t have happened.
I’ll leave you with that today.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And people don’t hide a light under a bowl.
They put it on a lampstand so the light shines
for all the people in the house.
In the same way,
you should be a light for other people.
Live so that they will see the good things
you do and will praise your Father in heaven.”
-Matthew 5:14-16
Leave a Reply