What Will Happen when You Worship Idols (Ex. 23:24-33)

7/7/2008 10:27 AM

My Worship Time           Focus:  What will happen when you worship idols?

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 23:24-33

            Message of the verses:  “24  So don’t worship or serve their gods; don’t do anything they do because I’m going to wipe them right off the face of the Earth and smash their sacred phallic pillars to bits.  25  "But you—you serve your GOD and he’ll bless your food and your water. I’ll get rid of the sickness among you; 26  there won’t be any miscarriages nor barren women in your land. I’ll make sure you live full and complete lives.  27  "I’ll send my Terror on ahead of you and throw those peoples you’re approaching into a panic. All you’ll see of your enemies is the backs of their necks.  28  "And I’ll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way.  29  I won’t get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over.  30  Little by little I’ll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own.  31  I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I’m turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.  32  "Don’t make any deals with them or their gods.  33  They are not to stay in the same country with you lest they get you to sin by worshiping their gods. Beware. That’s a huge danger.’”  (Message)

            I am using the Message paraphrase version of the Bible in today’s SD because it seems to make the most sense to me, and it is easier to understand.

            It seems to me that God is giving a conditional covenant to the nation of Israel, although in the strictest terms it may not be a true covenant.  God is telling these people that He will care for them, but that He does not want them to worship the idols of those whose land that live in the land that God will give to Israel. God is a jealous God and does not want any devotion or worship to go to other gods, and therefore if Israel does not worship the gods of the nations then He will make sure that they have good food and water, and that there will be no miscarriages, and that there will be many children born to the families in Israel.  God will also send despair upon the nations whose land God will give to Israel and they will be able to conquer them.

            God tells Israel that He will not drive out the nations rapidly because the wild animals will take over the land.  It took Joshua eight years to conquer the land and then the tribes were to finish driving out their enemies, trust God for the victory, however they did not do this.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I wish to go back to something that I learned from the passage a number of years ago.  When I became a believer the Lord took away swearing from me as soon as I became a believer, but other sinful habits were not removed from my life, for these were to be done by faith, just as in the case of the children of Israel when they were, by faith, suppose to drive out the enemies that were left in their land.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. I trust in the Lord to give me wisdom to make the right decision as to when or whether to go to Hawaii to work for Tim.
2. I trust the Lord to give me the grace to get through the tests, temptations, and trials that Sandy and I are going through.

Memory verses for the week:                      Exodus 20:1-3

1. Then the Lord spoke all these words, saying
2. “I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3. “You shall have no other gods before me.

7/7/2008 11:17 AM