“Then the people of Israel did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective and served the ba‘alim. They abandoned Adonai, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made Adonai angry.They abandoned Adonai and served Ba‘al and the ‘ashtarot.”-Judges 2:11-13
There’s one thing we’ve got to keep at the front of our minds when studying Scripture.
Our viewpoint, our thoughts, and preferences mean NOTHING.
It is God’s perspective, His thoughts and His definition of what is right and wrong that’s the only thing that counts.
I don’t care if you consider yourself a “moral” or “good” person.
And it doesn’t matter if your church pastor tells you you’re “saved” and your soul is secured for all eternity.
If we don’t go by God’s definition of things, we are fooling ourselves.
This idea that because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we’ll simply know what is right and wrong without studying the Torah’s definition of sin, holiness, righteousness and purity, this idea has got to go man!
Again, that’s the problem with a lot of believers today.
There’s too much freakin’ subjectivity.
Everyone thinks they can rely on the goodness of their own hearts to do the right thing.
When you don’t temper your feelings and subjective thoughts on the matter with a strong and objective understanding of Scripture, you’re walking down a dangerous road my friend.
You’ll end up relying on manmade doctrines and traditions (the very thing Paul warned about!) to determine your beliefs and proper behavior.
You’ll end up just as it says in verse 10:
“When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither Adonai nor the work he had done for Israel.“
If you look at the literally thousands of lawless churches with all of their aberrational doctrines spread across the globe, you’ll see that’s exactly what has happened.
And a reminder, in verse 10 where it says “another generation arose that knew neither Adonai”, it doesn’t mean the Israelites didn’t know who their God was or their national history.
No, the problem was they were mixing their worship of the Lord with the things of the world.
I keep hammering this home man.
It’s like eating a hamburger made out of both ground beef and pork.
It’s the mixing that was the bad thing.
In this regard, Israel made the decision to be willfully ignorant.
They didn’t want to ruffle any feathers so they went about their lives choosing to be blind to their disobedience.
Israel thought she was in the right but from the Lord’s perspective, they were in the wrong.
Going back to the marriage analogy, the wife (Israel) had committed adultery against her husband (the Lord).
How?
By adding a variety of Canaanite gods to their worship of the Lord.
Yes, I’m talking about interfaith worship here folks.
It was religious syncretism that was the problem.
God didn’t like it then.
And He doesn’t like it now.
The Israelites thought they were doing the the appropriate thing because on the surface, their behavior seemed peaceful and loving.
But God wasn’t having any of it.
He could have cared less about Israel’s politically correct sincere intentions and peaceful ambitions.
That’s why we’re told the Lord’s anger burned against His people and He decided to walk away from His people and let them have their way (for a time).
What was the result?
The Israelites intermarried with the wicked Canaanites and participated in their pagan worship ceremonies totally oblivious to the damage being done to their souls and spiritual health.
And over time Israel lost all desire to resist the temptations of the enemy.
Isn’t that how sin works?
You give it an inch and it takes a mile out of you.
I find this topic so fascinating because I see such a direct parallel to our times today.
I mean just take a look at the institutional gentile church who professes faith in the God of Israel and allegiance to the Jewish Messiah.
They have turned the Messiah into a deity, proclaimed that God’s laws given at Sinai are no longer valid and their holiest holidays (Christmas and Easter) are rooted in pure idolatry.
I think a revolution is in order here folks.
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