When most people hear the word “idolatry,” they picture golden statues and pagan altars. We certainly don’t think about idolatry being an issue in modern American culture. But even in the days of Moses, idolatry was never about the statues or altars. It’s about where you put your trust when you’re afraid, and what you credit when things go well. In Deuteronomy 7 and 8, Moses issues some warnings for Israel as they enter the promised land. God sees some of the challenges that lie ahead, and He reminds them how to handle the fear they will face when they go up against overwhelming odds, and how to handle the comfort they will experience once they overcome those odds. Two completely different emotional states — fear and ease — and Moses warns that both can lead to the exact same place: forgetting God.
As we continue our series in Deuteronomy titled: ”Choose Life”, this morning we are going to explore Moses’ warning to the people of Israel that they “Don’t Forget.” Don’t forget who has brought you this far and who will take you into the future as a people.
Deut 7:1-5 (CSB)—When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you—the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will swiftly destroy you. Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images.
The first warning Moses gives is …
1. Don’t Compromise
In our culture that prizes tolerance and accommodation above almost everything else, God’s command to completely destroy these nations may seem like hateful words. Last week, we touched on the seemingly contradictory pictures of God’s character in the Old and New Testaments. Here it is again, God tells Israel, “Completely destroy the nations you encounter and make no treaties, no intermarriage, no compromise.” What about God’s love, or HIs mercy and grace?
God is not either-or; He is both-and. He is not either angry or merciful. He is both angry towards sin and merciful in forgiving sin. God’s character exists in perfect balance. That is what makes Him God.
In this instance, what may seem like intolerance or punishment, or xenophobia, is actually God’s protection over His chosen people.
What does He say in verse 4? “Because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods.”
God is protecting the spiritual future of Israel’s own children. The instruction in vs. 5 to “tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images” is about removing every visual and cultural reminder of competing gods. Don’t just refuse to bow down, but remove them completely so you won’t be drawn away.
You become like the people you spend time with. It’s not that God is telling Israel that you have to earn my love by doing this; He is protecting them from the gravitational pull that happens when you place yourself in someone else’s orbit.
This happens to nations and even in our churches.
I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.”
― Charles Spurgeon
Many churches are trying hard to be attractive to the world, so much so that you can’t always tell the difference between the world and the church. This is true not only for churches but for individuals.
This is a great reminder for our students heading off to school this fall. Be a critical thinker. Be aware of the ideas you are being fed; be wary of those who call what is wrong right and what is good bad.
Don’t compromise. Why? Because God has chosen you and you belong to Him.
Deut 7:6-8 (CSB)—For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. “The LORD had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, he brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
God chose you. Not because you had something to offer Him. Not because you are better than someone else. He chose you because He loves you. Grace, not performance, is the foundation of God’s love for us from the very beginning.
Paul underscores this to the Corinthian church when he writes them this:
1 Cor 1:26-31 (CSB)—Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
Our boasting is not about how great we are, but about how great God is. His command to be separate from other nations was not in order to earn God’s favor. They’re told to be separate because they already belong to him. This is their Identity; they belong to God.
We belong to God. Not because we are wise or strong or of noble birth, but because of His love for us. This call for the people of God to be holy and separate isn’t a strategy for becoming more valuable to God; it’s how we, who are already valuable, respond to already being his.
God knows how our hearts work. What may end up with us becoming cold towards God’s presence usually doesn’t start out that way. It usually starts smaller. It may start with a relationship you know isn’t good for your faith, but you tell yourself you can handle it. A habit, a friend group, or your choice of entertainment that normalizes what Scripture calls sin.
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We may think that this kind of compromise happens because we are being indulgent. We want more, more pleasure, more comfort. But fear can lead us through the same door. When we’re afraid, we tend to reach for whatever feels like it can save us — money, control, a relationship, or our own competence.
That’s why the next thing God says is ….
2. Don’t Fear
Deut 7:17-19 (CSB)—“If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I drive them out?’ do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt: the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear.
Moses anticipates their fear: these nations are greater than us, more established, more powerful. So what does he point them back to? He doesn’t give them a good military strategy or tell them how strong they are, but He tells them to look back at what God did for them.
This is what he did in the first three chapters of Deuteronomy; he says it was not their strength but God’s faithfulness that saved them. Fear is dealt with by recalling what God has already proven about Himself, not by Israel finding more courage on their own.
Instead of being drawn away by things that could never save them, Moses says …
Deut 7:25-26 (CSB)—Burn up the carved images of their gods. Don’t covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. Do not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You are to abhor and detest it utterly because it is set apart for destruction
Israel’s temptation here wasn’t excess; it was self-protection. They were going to grab onto anything they thought might save them. The nations ahead of them were terrifying. But the answer to their fear would not be found in a treaty or a compromise with the very thing God told them to remove.
What are you tempted to compromise with right now, not because you don’t love God, but because you’re afraid? Moses’s counsel is the same one given throughout Deuteronomy: remember what God has already done, and let that memory shape your next decision more than your fear does.
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Another thing that would cause Israel to forget that God had brought them into the promised land was comfort. That is why he says …
3. Don’t Get too Comfortable
Deut 8:2-6 (CSB)—Remember that the LORD your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years. Keep in mind that the LORD your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. So keep the commands of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.
This is the verse Jesus quotes word-for-word when Satan tempts him to turn stones into bread (Matt. 4:4). The idea is that it is obedience to the Father that gives us what we need. The wilderness wasn’t primarily about punishment — it was a forty-year curriculum designed to teach one lesson: you do not sustain yourself. God sustains you. The manna couldn’t be stored or stockpiled; it had to be gathered fresh daily. The lesson wasn’t about food; it was about who provides the food.
Verse 5 says He disciplines like a man disciplines his son, similar to what he says in chapter one, where it says that God carried Israel through the wilderness like a father carries his son. The carrying, the teaching, the discipline were all a part of God preparing them for what was to come. And what was going to come?
Deut 8:7-11 (CSB)—For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper. When you eat and are full, you will bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
Moses paints a beautiful picture: streams, springs, wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olive oil, honey, iron, and copper. The picture he paints is intentionally graphic. You can almost taste the figs and the honey as he is saying it. And the instruction that follows it is simple: when you eat and are satisfied, bless the Lord (v. 10). Gratitude is the appropriate response to abundance.
Often, we are quick to run to God when things are hard. We pray more, we look to Him for strength more, and we seek His direction more when things are difficult. But what about when things are good? When life is as it should be. Do we bless Him when things are good as often as when things are hard?
The danger Moses is about to talk about is what happens when there is no gratitude.
Deut 8:12-14 (CSB)—When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in, and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases, be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
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His last warning in these two chapters is …
4. Don’t Get Proud
Deut 8:16-18 (CSB)—He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end he might cause you to prosper. You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’ but remember that the LORD your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
If you think, “Look what I’ve done! I can’t believe how good I am.” Think again. “Remember that the LORD your God gives you the power to gain wealth.” He does it because He wants you to prosper. God affirms His love and His blessing, over and over and over again. Just remember where your blessing comes from. God gets the credit; we are simply the recipients of His blessing that comes through His might and strength.
What is the first commandment? Have no other gods before me. What is the second? Don’t worship idols. We become victims of our own success when we begin to worship ourselves. Pride is simply self-worship.
There’s a story that many successful people are tempted to tell about themselves: I worked hard, I made good decisions, I earned this. There’s certainly value in hard work and wise decisions — Scripture doesn’t dismiss diligence.
But the story leaves out a few things: you didn’t create your body, you didn’t design your mind, those opportunities that you ran across, you didn’t create, the rain that fell on your crop, the economy you didn’t engineer, the health that let you work the hours you worked. Moses isn’t telling Israel to stop farming or building houses. He’s telling them not to forget who gave them the ability to act and have the things they have.
What did Paul say to the Corinthians again?
1 Cor 1:28-29 (CSB)—God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence.
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”
― Andrew Murray
To finish this chapter, Moses says the result of self-reliance, or looking to other things, instead of God-reliance, is disastrous.
Deut 8:19-20 (CSB)—If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. Like the nations the LORD is about to destroy before you, you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.
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Don’t let fear of what’s ahead drive you to compromise with something that will pull your heart away from God and don’t let comfort in what you’ve gained convince you that you don’t need God anymore. Two different doors that lead to the same room, two sides to the same coin.
Both are idolatry. Putting our trust in, giving credit to, or affection to something other than the God who has already proven himself faithful.
This has always been the enemy’s deceitful tactic. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan offered him exactly these two options. How did Jesus respond? With total dependence upon the Father.
When tempted to compromise to find relief from the discomfort and the difficulty, He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 directly: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
When tempted with a shortcut through the suffering and fear, Jesus refused and quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”
Israel had forty years in the wilderness, learning from God through Moses and they still struggled with both temptations repeatedly throughout their history. Jesus had forty days, alone, hungry, and exhausted yet he didn’t fail once. Fortunately, God’s plan is to make us less like Israel and more like Jesus.
The lesson we can learn from Israel is to be aware of the challenges in our lives. Which door is more likely to be open right now — the fear that tempts me to compromise, or the comfort that tempts me to forget?
Take a moment right now and ask God:
- Is there any fear or pride in my life that is causing me to forget You?
- What is one way God has carried you or provided for you this past week? —Tell Him thank you.
Chris Hankel 
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