GETTING EGYPT OUT OF GOD’S PEOPLE

The covenant between Moses and God was still being ironed out up on the mountain.

Most people think these details were discussed for the length of 40 days and nights.

It was a lot to talk about!

There were many subjects to cover.

Nothing about the old life of slavery and bondage that the people had experienced in Egypt was pleasing to God.  Everything about Egypt had been pagan and every tradition from there had pagan roots from the Egyptian’s lives and religious practices of worshiping foreign gods.

God was telling Moses how to get the “Egypt” out of the people of Israel.  He gave very specific instructions concerning how the people were to live in the promised-land where they were going.  This land would be the gift of God’s covenant promises to them.  It was special and holy and it should be treated as such.  NOTHING pagan was to exist there – EVER.

God would not tolerate idolatry among His people.  This was a very important point for the people to understand.  It was Moses job to convey these messages to them in no uncertain terms.

THE MESSAGE FROM GOD’S VOICE TO MOSES

Exodus 34:13-14 is the voice of God speaking to Moses about how he hates these things that relate to paganism and idolatry.  God specifically directs:  “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.  Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous is a jealous God.

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for joining our Thursday, ongoing, chronological bible study called COME AS A CHILD.  If you wish to review last week’s lesson; you may find it here:  SALT, LIGHT AND OBEDIENCE – COME AS A CHILD – LESSON 187.

Today we will look into the scriptures quoted above from Exodus 34 and discover just what and why God was instructing Moses to break down altars, smash sacred stones and cut down Asherah poles.

GOD WANTED THE PEOPLE TO COME COMPLETELY OUT OF EGYPT

Sometimes coming out of Egypt is very hard.

It was hard for the Israelites and it is hard for us today; as we try to spiritually “come out of Egypt.”

It is a very ironic fact that God spent one day bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt; but 40 years trying to get the residue of Egypt out of them.

TURNING AROUND FROM BACKWARDS LIVING

As human beings, we walk through the world and pick up our formative thoughts from the world around us and the men who live with us inside the world.  This was what happened with the Hebrews as they lived in Egypt.  They picked up their ways and ideas just by being around them every day.

This is backwards to how our living should actually be!  As Children of God; we should be gaining our wisdom and knowledge about living daily life from God; not from other men.

ALL TRUE WISDOM COMES FROM GOD

Just what exactly is true wisdom anyway?

James was inspired to write about two types of wisdom in James 3:13-18.  Let’s look at what he had to say about wisdom:  “Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.  But wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”

HOW DO GOD’S PEOPLE REAP A HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?

It is obvious from the scripture passage above that this is done by sowing peace!

How do you sow peace among brethren who disagree on very important subjects?  You stop talking and start living.  You live out the proof of the wisdom that you receive from God.

This is NEVER easy.

It is often very, very hard.

One thing that makes this so very hard is that you must be constantly listening to God in prayer instead of talking and making all of your own suggestions; and you must be constantly seeking true knowledge and wisdom from the scriptures.

You must study to show yourself approved; a workman who needs not to be ashamed.

That is how we need to approach this passage in Exodus where God told Moses that the people living in His covenant were to destroy all evidence of paganism within the places where they were living.

This meant breaking down altars, smashing sacred stones, cutting down Asherah poles and worshiping ONLY God.

BREAKING DOWN ALTARS

Why were they told to break down the altars to other gods?  Wouldn’t it be best just to turn those altars into places to worship the true God?

Think about this a bit.  Pretend for the sake of comparison that you were going to be married for the first time (and hopefully the last time) in your life.  Your marriage vows are sacred and holy.  You promise to forsake all others and cling only to each other forever.

The ceremony is over and you are coming home to the new place where you will live forever with your spouse.  Everything is wonderful and grand.  You are so happy and joyful.

You walk into the house that he has prepared for you and you begin to see that someone else has been living there before you.  It was his old lover.  He says not to worry; that you can simply use the things that they left behind for yourself; he doesn’t mind.  But you mind!

You explain to him that these things bother you; but he doesn’t really care.  He tells you that he enjoys having them around and you will just learn to adjust if you really love him.

You look around and you see the old lover’s clothes that you are expected to wear.  You see the bed where he has slept previously with the old lover.  You see the china that the old lover left in the cabinet and you find the flowers that she planted in the garden.  You find her memories all over your house.

You begin to realize that this marriage isn’t about a new life with you; it is simply that you have become the replacement for the old absent lover.  It is not really about the relationship of two unique beings; but about the experience of marriage in general.

The spouse that you married still wants to do and enjoy all the same things with you that he did with his old lover.  He wants to take you to the old places.  He wants to cook you the same food.  He wants to give you the same gifts.  He even tells you the stories about how wonderful it was for her and suggests how you can adapt yourself to the proper role that he has in mind.

You realize you have walked into a nightmare; and not a true love.

This is how God looks at us when we bring our worship in the form of pagan practices.  Our relationship with Him should be totally unique!  He doesn’t want anything at all to do with such things that have been done in the past for pagan reasons for pagan/false gods.  None of those practices matter to Him; he actually abhors them and finds them to be an abomination before Him!

He doesn’t want to go with you to the places where you have gone with false gods.  He doesn’t want to recreate times with you that you imagined in your mind with false gods before you ever knew Him.  He wants a whole NEW transformative relationship with you that is unique and exclusively yours.

WE ALL HAVE PAGAN ALTARS TO BREAK

So maybe you don’t think you have ever had any false gods.  You better reconsider that possibility.  We all have our idols.  To name a few common false gods of our modern-day; you might consider your cell phone, Facebook, television, pornography, alcohol, food, shopping; well – you get the picture.  We all have our idols that we need to break down and destroy; sometimes they even come in the form of human relationships.  If you love anything more than God; that thing COULD be an idol to you.

Considering the above analogy of the marriage; would you do this same thing to God?  Yet; many do every day in a million different ways.  They just don’t think about it.  They try to force God into the place where their old idols were living.

The people of God could not be allowed to worship God at the old altars of idolatry; these altars had to be broken down and destroyed.  The land had to be cleansed of all pagan gods and their practices in order for the people to worship the One True God in the proper way that He wished to be worshiped.

Everything that happened between God and His covenant people had to come from God; not from a false god or a man’s ideas of what God wanted.  God makes all things new.  Life with God is about transformation and change; from the old to the new; from slavery and bondage into a life of freedom and joy.  This is what happens when we break down those old altars.

THE OLD MUST BE DESTROYED BEFORE THE NEW CAN BE BUILT UP

Why would anyone want to keep those old altars?  They must be broken and destroyed; otherwise the relationship with God cannot flourish or come to completion.

The altars for worshiping God should be completely new altars; built according to God’s instructions and worship must be performed in the way that God loves and tells you that He appreciates.

This should be God’s idea of worship – not yours or someone else’s.

Do you have any old altars that need to be broken?

There is still time to break them and destroy them before Christ returns to earth to marry His bride, the church of true believers.

It is up to those who are true to do this because Israel never finished the job.  In spite of the warning from God you can still see the old pagan altars today if you go to visit the holy land.  They still stand in the place where God choose to put His name on His people.  It is very sad that the people never finished the job.  Not one of the many faithful leaders of God accomplished this important task.  Maybe that is why all of Israel have never come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Messiah.

There is still much work to do here on planet earth.  There are still many idols that need breaking down.  It is never too late.

God’s people must turn to truth and put pagan practices behind them.

It starts with one person listening to God and following His instructions – that one person is me; and that one person is you.

Let’s all begin right now.

Look around you and determine through prayer and meditation and study what is of God and what is not, what is true and what is false, what is pagan and what is worship truly desired by God.

Time is short.

Do not wait another second to come into the truth of God’s will for your life.