August 23, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let\u2019s seek this ancient way together as a church!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is significant that, as Moses here begins to formally explain the law to the people of Israel, the first section of law deals with completely ridding the land of all idols. They were to drive out the gods of the nations just as much as they were to drive out the nations themselves! God repeatedly warns the children of Israel through Moses that they must rid the land of every hint of the idolatrous practices of the nations. Why would God be so concerned that they leave no trace of this idolatry in the land?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason that they needed to be so comprehensive in ridding the land of idols is that God knew that if they didn\u2019t then their hearts would be led astray into worshipping them. The same is true for us today, who live surrounded by idolatry with no means of removing it from the environment in which we exist. The idolatry that surrounds us always draws the attention of our sinful hearts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While we cannot rid our lives of everything that would tempt us to worship something other than God, we can<\/em>get rid of some things, and so we should! But even more importantly, we have to understand that idolatry is always a matter of the sin inside us before it becomes a matter of the temptation outside of us. Just as ruthlessly and as mercilessly as the people of Israel were to rid the land of idols, we must rid our hearts of them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n