Exodus 23: 24 – 33 “You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces. So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you. No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.”
Dennis Prager comments: “The Torah is philosophically and theologically intolerant of idolatry. Rationally and morally, it could not be otherwise. The moment you assert there is only one God and therefore only one universal moral standard, you are asserting the pagan gods are false….Moreover, it is morally inconceivable that tolerance is always a moral virtue. Are we to be tolerant of child sacrifice? The moral answer is self – evident.”
But having said this, there are several things to note:
1. Followers of the One True God are not instructed or allowed to persecute or kill pagan believers because of their beliefs.
2. God is not commanding the Jews to destroy all pagan places of worship, but only those they will find within the Promised Land. But the Jews are definitely to demolish the pagan worship sites they encounter once they reach Canaan.
3. The Jews are absolutely forbidden from following any pagan worship practices. This command is not negotiable!
“So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you. No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.” Dealing with a group of ex – slaves who had just recently left Egypt with all its idols, God had to make strong promises to encourage the Israelites to follow Him alone. But do these promises work today?
Prager comments,” No one can rationally believe doing God’s will guarantees one will, for example never develop cancer or die in an earthquake. If that were the case, we would have to draw the irrational and cruel conclusion that anyone who dies prematurely was being punished by God – or the equally irrational conclusion that all those who live long and healthy lives have lived God – centered lives…
On the other hand, Rabbi Emmanuel Rackman, the late president of Bar Ilan University, Israel’s Orthodox university, maintained there is indeed a correlation between moral law and natural law. When people act decently, disease is minimized. For example, God wants people to treat the earth well, and when they don’t pollution of the environment leads to poor health conditions. God wants people to engage in monogamous sex, and non 0 monogamous sexual practices are the ones that cause sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, genital herpes, and AIDS.”
(Quotes from Dennis Prager The Rational Bible: Exodus)
APPLICATION: Today there are many people who choose to believe that truth is relative; interestingly enough, when their interests are involved, they still wish to invoke moral standards. But God’s Word has stood the test of time and still must be the Standard by which we judge ideas.
Today we might not bow down to specific pagan gods, but we might be tempted to cloak ourselves in politically correctness. There have always been popular philosophies that have enjoyed vogues for a time, but sooner or later, they have fallen apart.
Rabbi Rackman was quite correct! When we follow God’s leading to treat the earth well, we are healthier. Right now in parts of Africa there is a looming environmental crisis. Those engaged in mining have been using mercury, and now mercury – related birth defects are beginning to appear. At the same time, some using cyanide to extract gold have polluted water sources, leaving towns and villages without potable water. May God help us to discern how we can fulfill our role as stewards of this earth!
PRAYER; Father God, thank you for caring for us so much that you have shown us in your Word how we are to live. Help us to realize that we cannot compromise but we must worship you only. Help us to study your Word and to follow it. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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