Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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Key Verse: Exodus 23:33 (NLT) 33 Do not even let them live among you! If you do, they will infect you with their sin of idol worship, and that would be disastrous for you. The setting is Sinai, the mountain where God first called Moses and where God gives Moses and the people the Decalogue: the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). The first commandment warns the people not to worship any other gods. What follows is a series of instructions and laws on how to worship God and to live as a community in the new land: the proper use of altars, treatment of slaves, justice in cases of personal injury (eye for an eye) or property loss, social responsibility and religious festivals. Then we get to verse 20 of chapter 23, where God outlines plans for the conquest of Canaan. In verse 9, God has commanded the children of Israel not to oppress the foreigners living among them. Verse 33 (our key verse, above) takes a decidedly different tack. God promises to send (1) an angel, (2) terror, and (3) hornets to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan and to lead the children of Israel. In return for Israel’s complete obedience and service, God promises to bless them with sustenance, health, children, and long life. Exodus 23 echoes the land promise God first makes to Abram in Genesis 15:18-21, which includes four other people groups besides the six mentioned in Exodus 23. These people groups, the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, are also mentioned in Exodus 3:7-8 and 17 (to Moses at the burning bush), and repeated to Moses in Exodus 33:2-3 and 34:11, after the people were punished for worshipping a golden calf. Who are these tribes polluting the land of promise? All of the six people groups mentioned descend from Noah’s son, Ham, cursed for “seeing” his father’s nakedness (see Genesis 9:20-27, 10:6 and 10:15-19). The Israelites saw their Baal fertility cult as immoral eroticism, and traced it’s origins to Ham’s shameful abuse (the verb in 9:22 may be a euphemism for castration or sodomy) of his father. Before settling in Canaan, the Israelites were nomadic sheepherders who trusted God to provide their needs. They saw agrarian societies, like the Canaanites, as people who related to the gods by manipulation for favors and blessings (see Genesis 4:1-16, the story of Cain and Abel). In settling the land of Canaan, the Israelites were becoming an agrarian society as well, and the Canaanite practice of worship became an unbearable temptation to them. In fact, Israel did not drive out the people who lived in Canaan, according to the Bible. Exodus 23:29-30 indicates that at best the displacement would occur gradually in order to give Israel’s time to populate the land. Judges 1:18-19 describes how the valley inhabitants of Canaan had iron chariots which were too strong for the Israelites to defeat, so Israel occupied only the hill country. Judges 1:27-36 lists the failed tribal conquests. Judges 2:20-23 blames this failure on the inability of Israel to worship God faithfully, and Judges 3:5-6 indicates the Israelites intermarried with the peoples of Canaan and served their gods. Questions for Reflection 1. One way to understand the conquest story involves how humans relate to God. Canaanite religion was a relationship of quid pro quo—give and take. The gods of the Canaanite pantheon were made in the image of humans, engaging in marriage and sex for agricultural fertility. The Israelites followed a more difficult path of trusting in a God who would not always provide answers. How do you manage this balancing act of trusting God? What quick-fix gods in our own land of promise tempt you most? 2. Remember the context of this worship series is how we relate to Muslims who worship Allah. Though the Israelites did not drive out the Canaanites, and even intermarried with them, they did not lose their faith in God. What do you think they taught the people of Canaan about God? What do you think they learned about God from the people of Canaan? In other words, how did they fulfill God’s calling to bless the people of Canaan? 3. For Israel, the ultimate battle was one within. They craved a God who would protect and prosper them. Yet God called them to follow a demanding angel into a land of danger. How do you trust God when following means exposure to danger and need? For Next Week: We move to the New Testament. Please read John 4:19-26 (key verse is 23). The theme is Worship in Spirit and Truth: God’s worship transcends religious battlefields. What does it mean to worship in Spirit and truth?
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