Deuteronomy 29:16 – 29 “For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations as you traveled. You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold.”
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit, because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’
This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it. All its soil will be a burning waste of brimstone and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. Therefore, the LORD’s anger burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”
Moses is completing his warnings to the Israelites by reminding them of all the horrors of pagan worship they have witnessed during their forty years’ journey. What is Moses describing? Cult prostitution, child sacrifices, possibly ritual sex with animals, and other practices too evil for description – these are the things to which Moses is referring. These practices will lead to moral disintegration and the complete destruction of Israel as a nation; therefore, the Israelites are not to tolerate anyone who engages in these things. Moses is also warning the Israelites against the line of thinking that runs, “Well, REALLY I am all right and I will enjoy God’s blessings, even if I DO dabble in_____.” Any attempts at compromise will only lead to disaster, both for the individual as well as for the nation.
APPLICATION: Ever work with someone who has a “bitter root?” Such people are not only impossible to please, but their rotten outlooks can quickly infect an entire company. Unhappiness, rebellion, and greed are more catching than any virus. Repeatedly, we have witnessed the destructive effects of a single worker with a bad attitude and the ability to convince others. In one case, a strike led by one such worker cost a facility its relationship with a medical school that had been sending students for attachment. The facility lost not only the relationship but the thousands of dollars of medical supplies the students had been bringing each year.
While we can’t do anything about someone else’s attitude, we certainly can do something about our own. “Bitter roots” can have small beginnings. We become offended and feel justified in cherishing our hurt feelings. We convince ourselves that we have been mistreated, misunderstood, and ill – used. Soon our total focus is on our hurt feelings rather on the work God has called us to do.
In one family in my home area, the eldest son was hard working and faithful. When that man married, his father gave him a farm with new buildings. All seemed rosy. Then the unthinkable happened. A younger brother lost his job due to the Depression, and the father capriciously took the farm away from the eldest son to give it to the younger one instead. The eldest son was angry and depressed for the rest of his life.
There is no doubt that the faithful eldest son had suffered a cruel injustice, something over which he had no control. But the one thing the eldest son could control was his response, and that response shaped the rest of his life. Neighbors described that man as the most depressed individual they had ever known.
Are there any “bitter roots” trying to take hold in your life? Has your boss mistreated you? Has a colleague told lies about you? Have you been misrepresented at a meeting or in a church? Ask God to help you see if there are any little touches of evil trying to find a place in your life and then ask Him to help you confess these things as sin so that He may clean up your heart.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Please shine the light of Your Holy Spirit into our hearts and illumine every dark corner. Help us to confess any tiny “bitter roots” as sin so that you can remove them. Please apply the cleansing Blood of Jesus to our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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