JU6-10: How The Temptations Of Satan Sneak Up On Us Unawares

I wanna revisit a concept we’ve talked about in the past because it’s so darn relevant to what’s going on here in the Book of Judges.

This idea can be expressed in one word: Syncretism.

What is syncretism exactly?

The dictionary definition is as follows:

“the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.”

So in a nutshell, it means “mixing” or “blending”.

It’s what happens when one culture assimilates into another.

In our day and age, that idea might be promoted as a good thing.

But in terms of Israel’s encounter with the Canaanites, it was a big no-no.

Not only did Israel end up mixing their ways and culture with the Canaanites, they also ended up mixing their pure worship of the Lord with the Ba’als.

And what’s scary about how this happened is that it was a process that crept up on them unawares.

There was no official council decision made.

Nor was it something the elders of the 12 tribes ordered their people to do.

It was something that happened, almost in secret, with no attention being drawn to itself.

A marriage between a nice Israelite boy and a lovely Canaanite girl.

Or vice versa, a nice Israelite girl starts dating a kind Canaanite boy.

Or business relationships are formed between Ba’al worshippers and Hebrew merchants.

Or an Israelite family is invited to some kind of pagan worship ceremony under the guise of establishing good relations and peace among their neighbors.

Keep in mind, no Israelite set out to anger the Lord when they exposed themselves to Ba’al or Ashtoreth worship.

They did it for the sake of peace and political correctness (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).

And they figured the best way to achieve that peace was to “tolerate” the gods of the gentile cultures.

Here’s what we’ve got to come to terms with.

In general, Canaanites were NOT murderers, barbarians or terrible people.

In fact, believe it or not, there were a lot of similarities between the Israelites and the Canaanites.

Think about it.

They both hailed from the land of Mesopotamia.

They were both farmers, shepherds and merchants.

And they both shared common Middle eastern customs and ways of thinking.

Heck, one could even say these two groups had more in common than not.

Now I understand that in terms of Biblical history, a 40-year time period is just a drop in the bucket.

But that was more than enough time for the Israelites to let the recent lessons of their history with the Lord weaken as time passed on.  

And again, I stress it was a gradual, baby step by baby step weakening process.

That’s how Satan works.

He chips away at our faith and our holy lifestyle inch by inch.

Just like the proverbial frog in the boiling kettle.

Maybe you’ll be at a party where the main dish being served contains pork or shellfish, and you’ll say to yourself “Well, it can’t hurt this one time”.

After a stressful day at work, you get home, you feel tempted to take a quick glance at some porn and then 2 hours later you’re still clicking away watching one hardcore porn video after another (speaking from personal experience here folks).

You’re struggling with your finances and you come across some New Agey Law of Attraction ad on your Facebook feed that promises you can manifest all the wealth and love you want in your life just by using the power of your thoughts to “raise your vibration” and “tune into the money frequency”.

The product only costs $37.00 and seems too good to be true.

You figure what the heck, can’t hurt to try, so you pull out your credit card and buy not realizing you’ve just fallen for the oldest lie Satan planted in the mind of Eve right before she sunk her teeth into that forbidden fruit: “Ye shall be like God, knowing both good and evil”.

The temptations to veer off the path of Godliness are everywhere folks.

And they’re usually subtle, almost imperceptible baby steps that at the time seem like nothing BUT OVER TIME, result in substantial damage.

I leave you with these words of Peter.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“Be sober-minded, be alert.
Your adversary the devil is
prowling around like a roaring lion,
looking for anyone he can devour.”
-1 Peter 5:8