“Again the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective — they served the ba‘alim, the ‘ashtarot, the gods of Aram, the gods of Tzidon, the gods of Mo’av, the gods of the people of ‘Amon and the gods of the P’lishtim. They abandoned Adonai and did not serve him;“-Judges 10:6
Inside of verse 6, we run into another phrase that is colossally misunderstood.
You see the part where it says the Israelites “abandoned Adonai and did not serve him”.
Look folks, don’t get the idea that the Israelites completely gave up worshipping the Lord.
Don’t be fooled by that word “abandoned”.
Because here’s the unvarnished truth.
Most of the Israelites still…
Observed the Shabbat…
Celebrated the Feasts…
And went to the Tabernacle and offered up burnt offerings…
If you would’ve accused the Hebrews of abandoning the Lord, they would’ve been like “What the heck are you talking about homie?”.
But here’s the thing.
And this is something I’ve talked about before.
It doesn’t matter one darn bit what OUR perspective is.
It’s only God’s perspective that matters.
And from God’s perspective, His people had abandoned Him.
How?
By MIXING worship of Him with the gods of the Canaanites as well.
From the Israelites’ perspective they honestly didn’t think they were doing anything wrong.
It wouldn’t be any different than a believer attending some interfaith worship service today for the sake of peace and political correctness.
Or it wouldn’t be any different than someone going to church on Sunday and then having an un-kosher pepperoni pizza or ham sandwich for lunch later that very same day…
Or it wouldn’t be any different than the hypocrisy of studying the Lord’s Torah one day and then celebrating some pagan fertility festival called Easter the next…
‘Cause here’s the thing.
The Lord makes it clear there SHALL BE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!
We can’t worship Him and worship something else…
…and then think it’s okay because we’re still keeping Him in the mix.
Again, it doesn’t matter what WE think.
It’s the Lord’s point of view that supersedes every other perspective on the planet.
God it?
We can know how God felt about the matter by just looking at how He reacted to the idolatry of His people.
The Lord’s anger blazed up big time!
And then He sent the Philistines to oppress His people on the west side of the Jordan (those inside the Promised Land).
Soon after he sent the Ammonites to oppress the tribes on the east side of the Jordan (outside of the Promised Land).
Later those very same Ammonites crossed over the Jordan and began invading the territory of Judah and Benjamin in the south and then even ventured into Ephraim territory in the north.
This is how God feels about those who MIX worship of Him with other gods…
And in our day and age, other gods can be things like money, sex or worship of societal status.
Let those who have ears to hear, hear.
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