A shocking thing we’re gonna encounter once we get into the book of Judges are all of the mixed marriages that took place between the Israelites and the local Canaanites.
In fact, in just a short period of time, this became a normal and accepted thing.
However, this led to a big problem.
And that problem was deciding which family’s god should rule over the mixed union between a Hebrew and a Canaanite?
Should it be Hashem?
Or should it be some other pagan god such as Ba’al?
I’m sure you can imagine how much stress and argumentation this caused in the family.
The perfect word to describe this phenomenon is “syncretism”.
What does “syncretism” mean exactly?
It means to take two things and forcibly mix them together so that the final product retains elements from the original ingredients but has also become a different thing altogether.
In our context here, it means to take the morality and religious system of the Canaanites and combine it with the religious system of the Hebrews.
Again, the whole purpose is so the final product retains just enough elements of both systems to be acceptable and not offensive to all parties.
It’s trying to do the politically correct thing in other words.
Unfortunately, the issue that most often arises is that one god normally has to take a backseat to another god.
And Hashem doesn’t take a backseat to anyone.
Ya hear me homies?
In fact, even if the intentions of both parties are to have both family’s god’s be given equal status, the God of Israel doesn’t recognize any other spiritual being, god or otherwise, as being equal to Himself.
What are some good examples of syncretism that are considered an abomination from Adonai’s perspective?
How about the Councils of Nicea and Laodicea held under Constantine?
Or how about the church performing same-sex marriages in an attempt to not offend an unbelieving world?
Or about co-worship services held between Jews, Christians, Hindus and Muslims?
These are all attempts to blend and harmonize one’s faith with one another with the only objective being really to not offend anyone.
I’m well aware that in most cases of syncretism, the participants don’t necessarily have ill intentions.
Quite the contrary, their intentions are usually quite noble.
I mean who doesn’t want peace with their neighbors?
In fact, even Scripture is quoted to support such behavior.
Doesn’t the Bible tell us to “love your neighbor” is the BS reasoning put forth.
And that’s really the problem with religious syncretism.
It’s sneaky and allows for idolatry to sneak up on you.
One second your full devotion is to the God of Israel.
But then you go off and marry a Canaanite who worships other gods and then BOOM, before you know it, you too are worshipping the gods your foreign wife worships.
And you reason with yourself it’s okay because in your mind you haven’t really discarded your faith in Hashem.
But the truth is you are prostituting yourself with another god or gods.
Before long, what was unfamiliar and foreign becomes familiar and normal.
Once that happens, you’re gone.
You’ve literally lost your ability to distinguish right from wrong according to the Torah.
It’s a super slippery slope folks.
Hashem??… He has a name, and it’s NOT ‘the name’… Wanna-be, false piety Judaisers call Elohim ‘hashem’.