Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 23:33 (New Living Translation)

33 They must not live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me. If you serve their gods, you will be trapped by the contemptible customs of their worship.

God is speaking to the people. When the people enter the land promised to them by God, they are to drive out the inhabitants. Don’t live with these people. These people have gods and idols to those gods. It is tempting, too tempting, to serve the gods of these people. If you serve those gods, bang, snap, crunch, trapped.

We are so advanced and educated now. We look at little groups of people here and there in the far flung corners of our planet. These folks have their superstitions where they fear what lurks beneath the waters and up in the mountains. How silly. We would never worship the gods of the mountain or of the river. Silly notions.

But, wait a minute, the women of the group sure look nice. And so what if I wear a bracelet that those women make and do a little of this and that? Surely, it is innocent or something. And before I know it.

Fanciful words from old movies. Again, we are in the 21st century. The above verse is 3,000 years old or something like that. Right?

Maybe not.