Contemplative Bible Reading

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Eliminate Their Very Memory

July 19th, 2014 · No Comments

Deuteronomy 12:1-3 (New English Translation)

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess. 12:2 You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. 12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

The LORD is speaking to His people as they are about to enter the land He promised them. People live in the land already. Those inhabitants worship gods they have made with their own hands. The LORD knows how people tend to worship things they see, things in front of them. The LORD knows that these hand-made gods must be eliminated.

Note in the end of the above passage what the LORD requires: you must eliminate their very memory from that place. No trace can be left. No statue bearing the name of a god, no book discussing a god. Nothing.

Today? We keep history. We unearth objects that are thousands of years old. We don’t tend to worship those things, but we do keep them and study them. Perhaps, if things fall apart, people might go back to old gods. That is speculation, but I wonder about it given God’s instructions to His people.

Tags: Deuteronomy · Old Testament

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