“And the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Cannan, then you shall drive our all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it…But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”
As they stand on the cusp of the land, God calls for the cleansing of the land itself. To maintain the holiness and distinctiveness of his people, God demanded not only the casting down and destruction of idols, but also the driving out of all idolators. Given Israel’s history with idolatry, this is not surprising. In their worship of Baal at Peor (Num. 25), Israel had proven that in the mere presence of idolatrous people, they would turn their hearts to false gods. Here we see God’s mercy toward his people. The command to cast down the idols and to cast out the idolators was meant to protect them and to preserve his relationship with them.
This command also displays the wisdom of God. He knew that for the people of Israel, it was the idolators, not the idols who posed the greatest threat. But why is this so? In the old covenant, complete eradication was the only solution for idolatry because the old covenant does not explicitly deal with the heart. If the heart were inherently good, or even neutral, it would have been possible to live among idolatrous people. But the heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9). And so it is. It is not the sun or rain or sex or money or power that demand our worship and declare themselves as gods, but the dark alchemy of our heart that distorts creation into deity. In seeing false worship, the seeds were planted in the hearts of the people of Israel and found purchase in the decaying compost of the human heart. Idolatry always begins with idolators. Without false worshippers, the accouterment of false worship are almost meaningless. Without idolators, idols are simply stone and metal, and high places are simply places. It was the presence of idolators that would prove to be “barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.”
We can see the destruction in Israel’s failure to obey this command played out again and again in the cycle of the Judges and the parade of wicked kings culminating in the Exile. Even still, we must ask, does this principle stand for us as new covenant believers? Certainly, the New Testament has much to say about idols. Paul exhorts us to, “Flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10:14). John likewise exhorts, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). But neither of them say, “Flee from idolators.” Why is this so? Because the new covenant is the covenant of the new heart. The reality of renewed heart arms us with the weapons of grace so that we can live among idolators and still be a holy people.
It is interesting that the promise of a new covenant and a new heart is first made explicit in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, men who stood on both sides of exile (Jer. 31:31-34; Ez. 36:22-31). These prophets deal explicitly with the problem of the heart and the problem of idols because they know the people of Israel will be flung to the nations where there will be no escape from idolatrous people. In light of this, these prophets wrestle with the reality of God’s goodness and faithfulness in the midst of turmoil, But through their toil and suffering they are able to see a new day where God will re-form his people with a new covenant.
And in these promises, God proves both faithful and true to his unfaithful people. In the new covenant, God proves gracious beyond our reckoning because the promise of the new covenant deals both with the heart and with the cleansing of idols: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:25-26). As new covenant believers, we are the inheritors of these promises, and so we can live among idolators and proclaim the light of the gospel because our hearts are new. Though we bend ever towards idols, the blood of Christ has power to expel what we cannot expel, and to cast down what we cannot cast down.
Chris,
This is a great study of God’s faithfulness across generations. Good stuff, my man.
Tim