J24-21: What False Gods Or Beliefs From Your Past Are You Still Carrying With You Today?

“Therefore fear ADONAI, and serve him truly and sincerely. Put away the gods your ancestors served beyond the [Euphrates]River and in Egypt, and serve ADONAI!”-Joshua 24:14

Israel’s history has just completed a full circle as demonstrated by the fact that Joshua is now holding the Covenant Renewal ceremony at Shechem.

This is the exact same place where God first made His promises to Abraham.

And this is the exact same location where about 500 years earlier Jacob ordered the members of his family to bury all their idols and rid themselves of their gods.

So we can see another loop coming around full circle.

Recall that Jacob returned to the land of Canaan after spending more than 20 years living there with his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia (currently modern day Iraq).

During that time, Jacob ended up marrying both of Laban’s daughters (Rachel and Leah) and then added some concubines to the mix resulting in quite a big family.

When Jacob decided to leave Mesopotamia, recall also that Rachel stole her father’s idols and brought them with her to the land of Canaan.

Here’s something to think about.

Do you think Rachel was the only person who smuggled false idols out of her homeland?

The answer is heck no.

The truth is all the other family members smuggled idols out too.

And it seems like as Jacob’s family got bigger, Jacob either overlooked or tolerated his family members’ desire to hang on to their pagan gods from the past.

Until one major incident happened.

What major incident am I talking about?

Let’s fast forward a bit.

Do you remember when Jacob’s daughter Dinah was raped by the King of Shechem’s son?

And then afterwards Levi and Simeon led a raid of revenge on Shechem and killed every man in the city?

Well, after that happened, Jacob realized some changes were in order.

Let’s take a look at the verses from the Book of Genesis telling us what happened after the slaughter of all the males at Shechem.

“Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.’  So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.  Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.’  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.  Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.”-Genesis 35:1-5

You may be wondering why in the world did Jacob’s family members also have to give up their earrings?

It’s because in ancient times jewelry was carved into tiny figurines symbolizing the local gods.

The people didn’t necessarily worship their earring and rings.

But, and here’s a good takeaway for all of us, all of that pagan jewelry symbolized something from their past that needed to go because it wasn’t pleasing to God.

Onward.

Let’s fast forward a full 5 centuries to where we’re at now in Joshua Chapter 24 and we have Joshua commanding the people to do the following.

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt,and serve the Lord.”-Joshua 24:14

Boom!

So you can see things have come around full circle.

Just as Jacob ordered his family members to throw away their false gods from the past in order to move on to a new life with God, so is Joshua now ordering the children of Israel to throw away all of the false gods they may still be holding on to so nothing wouldn’t contaminate their worship of the Lord.

And don’t overlook the bit where it says…

…”gods of your ancestors from beyond the Euphrates“.

“Beyond the Euphrates” is referring to Mesopotamia.

This shows the Israelites were still flirting with the same bunch of gods Jacob allowed his family members to carry with them from Mesopotamia hundreds of years earlier.

Can you see how even the little decisions we make can bring about long-lasting consequences beyond what we could have imagined possible?

Huge takeaways here people.

To conclude, ask yourself the following question AND…

….depending on your answer, take appropriate action.

What false idols are you still carrying from your past that you need to throw away today?