But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
If an alcoholic gets sober but keeps the bar in their den for entertaining others, the chances of relapse are heightened. It is the same with gambling or porn addiction that manifests itself online. The best course of action is to destroy the device from which the temptation comes. The people of Israel were being given the land promised to Abraham and God ordered a cleansing of the region, first of the sinful people and then the apparatus with which their idolatry and child sacrifice were performed. This was so they would inhabit the land of God without looking like the children of the pagan world. The first two commandments were at stake here. If they put God second place to graven images of false gods, they would look good in the world but not to God.
Come to Cape Community Church tomorrow and learn that many churches have fallen over themselves trying to look like the world. It did not take long before the largest ones started to think like the world and act like it. They fell into sin and idolatry like the world. They have not removed the paraphernalia of the pagan practices that the church is called to be a sanctuary from. The temptation was too good. Today, may we destroy the carved images in our lives so the one true God can reside in the tabernacle of our hearts.
Dear Lord, thank you for the sanctuary from the world that is your church. May we seek your face and not that of false gods of creature comfort. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church