Alrighty, let’s get on with the question I posed in yesterday’s post.
When Joshua erected a stone monument at Shechem in a sincere effort memorialize the covenant renewal ceremony, was he in the right or was he in the wrong?
Well, before I get down to my final answer, there’s a couple of things we need to consider.
First, placing a stone monument under a tree was a common practice among the ancient Hebrews.
I mean we’ll see them doing this throughout all their history.
But here’s the thing homies.
You can plaster as much lipstick over a pig as you want but at the end of the day that pig is still a pig.
Are you feeling me?
Israel knew darn well the idolatrous nature of what they were doing.
But they chose to ignore it.
How did they reason away the wrong in what they were doing?
Simple and it’s the same thing we believers do today whenever it becomes inconvenient to obey God’s commandments.
They decided it was okay to use trees in their religious practices because they weren’t attaching the same meaning to it that the pagans (in this case, the Canaanites) were.
Got it?
In the Canaanite culture, the tree symbolized the pagan god ASHERAH who was the mother god and the wife of EL.
ASHERAH was a fertility god.
This makes sense because trees represented new life.
That’s why the groups of trees located in heathen temples and shrines were called ASHERAH in Hebrew.
Let me say that again so the full impact of what I want to communicate is understood.
In the Scriptures, ASHERAH refers to both El’s wife (remember EL was the chief god of the Canaanites) and was the term used to refer to the sacred clusters of trees located at the pagan shrines.
My point is the Hebrews knew full well what using a tree on a hill in a religious practice meant.
Again, they reasoned with themselves that all was cool because they were attaching a different meaning to this heathen practice, in other words, in their minds they were worshipping Hashem.
They figured God would be okay with what they were doing because it really wasn’t their intention to worship the pagan goddess ASHERAH.
Make no bones about it folks, the Israelites were cutting things too close for comfort here.
They were attempting to worship the Lord their God by borrowing practices and rituals the heathen used.
In their minds, they were conveniently having their cake and eating it too.
Why?
Because they were able to worship their God while at the same time not offending their heathen Canaanite neighbors (who they were supposed to drive out of the land anyway).
This is kind of like a Jew attending some Christmas or Easter celebration he was invited to because he doesn’t wanna stand out and offend anybody.
Also, let’s not forget the ancient Hebrews during this time absolutely believed in the existence of other gods and gods
In their minds, since the Canaanite gods were still all around them, they reasoned “Hey, let’s not do anything to offend them”.
Finally, let’s get back to the $64,000 question I posed at the beginning of this post.
Was Joshua in the right or in the wrong when he erected that stone under the tree?
The answer is of course he was in the wrong.
It was a miscalculated attempt to please Hashem and he was breaking BOTH the spirit and the letter of the Laws of Moses.
Granted there was some degree of innocent ignorance involved because erecting a stone under a tree was a common custom throughout the entire Middle East.
But that doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do.
In fact, it was wrong, as wrong as could be.
And you know what’s wrong with seemingly innocent acts whose legitimacy is supported by the reasoning that “It’s okay because I’m sincere in my allegiance to God”?
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it.
Minor flirtations with idolatry turn into major flirtations with idolatry and then eventually evolve beyond the flirtation stage into full-blow idolatry itself!
It’s the classic frog-in-the-kettle syndrome.
You’ll never know it’s too late until God has stepped in to discipline you for your foolishness.
That’s why the Hebrews were so shocked and surprised when they were punished by God for what they were doing.
Because in their minds, they didn’t think they were doing anything that serious.
And that’s the big takeaway for today folks.
We modern believers are frivolous as all heck in our attempts to properly honor the Lord.
We’ll take some prohibited heathen custom and without any permission from God whatsoever connect some different meaning to it and then offer it up to God assuming He’ll be cool with it because of our sincerity.
NOT.
I mean how do you think holidays like Christmas and Easter came about?
Folks, keep in mind there’s a huge difference between God Himself officially ordaining what was originally some pagan custom or practice in His Word and thinking we have the authority to willy nilly do the same.
A HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Standing stones or using stones to mark an event shouldn’t necessarily mean the same thing. The Twelve stones used to mark the crossing site by the Isrealites comes to mind. Boundary markers as well. The modern day practice of placing a tombstone at a grave is another. So marking a covenant renewal with a standing stone should not be considered prohibited. Turning around and worshiping it later is, of course.
Good points, Damian. Thanks for sharing. Be blessed!