When Jehovah thy God cutteth off from before thee the nations whither thou goest, to take possession of them, and thou hast dispossessed them, and dwellest in their land,
Israel is about to settle in a land God emptied for them — and Moses turns that success into a warning. The moment the enemy is gone, the danger changes shape: it is no longer the sword of Canaan, but the religion of Canaan.
The verse assumes something already settled: these nations had lost any right to the land. One writer explains why.
God Himself calls this country "the land of Israel," and He says it is "the most glorious of all lands" (Ezekiel 20:6). Seven other nations were living in it when the people of Israel reached its borders. Those nations had filled the land with gross corruption. That was more than enough to take away any decent claim to keep it. In Abraham's day the cup of their sin was not full (Genesis 15:16). It was overflowing when Israel's armies came upon them as God's executioners. Does anyone doubt that it was right to dispossess those nations to make room for the Lord's chosen people? It is enough to quote Leviticus 18:25: "the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants."
Why warn a victorious people at all? Because influence runs one way.
The chapter begins by demanding that they completely destroy the nations then in the land, and wipe out every trace of their idol worship. The chapter ends on the same note, because idolatrous evil is very infectious, while spiritual good is not. We see this principle even in natural things. A good apple placed among rotten ones will not remove any rottenness. But a rotten apple placed among good ones will soon spread its rottenness. We must never forget one thing. As born of God we have a new nature, yet the old nature we inherited from Adam is still in us. If we do not judge it, it responds at once to all the evil in front of it.
Nobody plans to fall. The danger here is a false reading of the defeated nations' prosperity.
God dispossessed Israel's enemies and planted Israel in their land. In view of this, Moses gives them a serious warning about the danger of Satan's temptation. Satan would snare Israel into adopting and following the false gods of the land (vs.29-30). Israel might foolishly think that their enemies had prospered because of their particular worship. Some Christians today think the same way about the ungodly. They think such people prosper because of their attractive forms of professed worship, and so they adopt those forms, which are actually idolatrous.
The irony is sharp: God cut those nations off, yet their religion is the very thing Israel wants to copy.
The remedy is not an improved version of Canaanite worship offered to the true God. God kept the choice in His own hands.
Here the Lord of Israel tells Moses that He would Himself choose a place to record His name. The people were to bring their offerings to that place alone. And they were to worship not only at the place the Lord chose, but in the way He prescribed. They were not to imitate the worship of the nations, but to give their worship according to God's own word, or "in truth" (vv. 29-32).
Commands like this one are not restrictions on joy. One writer pictures God's word as a wall built for enjoyment.
The precious word of God was to form a sacred enclosure around His people. Inside it they might enjoy His presence and delight themselves in the abundance of His mercy and loving-kindness. Inside it they were to be kept apart from everything offensive to Him. And His presence was to be at once their glory, their joy, and their great moral safeguard from every snare and every abomination.
The history that followed shows the warning was not theoretical.
Sadly, they did not stay inside that enclosure. They soon broke down its walls and wandered away from the holy commandment of God. They did the very things they were told not to do, and they have had to reap the terrible consequences.
- Given — God cut off nations whose sin had overflowed. The land was His gift, not Israel's achievement.
- Infectious — evil spreads and good does not. One rotten apple spoils the good ones, never the reverse.
- Deceived — Israel could think the nations prospered because of their worship; Christians can fall for the same idea today.
- Imitation — God chose both the place and the manner of His worship. That rules out copying the religion next door, however sincere.
- Enclosed — God's word fences His people in with His presence and joy. Israel broke the walls down and reaped the consequences.
take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared [to follow] after them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Moses gives this warning for the time after the victory. When the nations are gone and their land belongs to Israel, the real danger begins. It is not open rebellion that Moses fears. It is a question that sounds reasonable: how did those nations worship their gods, and could Israel serve the true God the same way?
The danger comes with success, once the enemy is destroyed and nothing seems left to fear. One writer traces the thinking behind it.
God planted Israel in their land by dispossessing their enemies. Moses gives them a strong warning. Satan would tempt them to take up the false gods of the land and follow them. Israel might foolishly think that their enemies had prospered because of their particular worship. In the same way, some Christians today think the ungodly prosper because of their attractive forms of professed worship, and they take up such forms, which are really idolatrous.
The verse ends with a plan: "that I also may do the same." The aim is to worship the Lord, but by a method copied from someone else. That is where worship is lost.
Clearly man is not to determine his own ways as a worshipper. Willingness in worship is right; self-will destroys it all. They brought their offerings of their own free will, but they had to bring them in the way and to the place the Lord chose. So with us. We are to worship "in spirit" — that is most true — and in the grace and liberty of the Holy Spirit which is given to us. But we are to worship "in truth" also, according to God's revelation of Himself and of His worship.
Clearing out the idols and setting up the Lord's altar in their place looks like the right move. One commentator shows why God thought otherwise.
Israel had to abolish all the places where the nations had worshipped their gods. They were solemnly bound to do that, beyond question. But there was more than this. The heart might easily come up with the thought of doing away with idolatry in the various places, and setting up the altar of the true God instead. This might seem to be the right course to adopt. But God thought differently.
God demanded total removal, not careful management. One writer explains why, with a picture from a fruit basket.
Deuteronomy 12 gives statutes and judgments for their life in the land they were going to. It begins with the demand that they destroy the nations then in the land, and uproot every trace of their idol worship. The chapter ends on the same note. Idolatrous evil is very infectious; spiritual good is not. Even in natural things you can see this principle. A good apple placed among rotten ones will not remove any rot. A rotten apple placed among good ones will soon spread its rot.
Commentators apply the warning in two directions. One takes it as a caution against treating all religions as roads to the same God:
People may think this is only another way of really serving God. They treat Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Shintoism, Mormonism, Christian Science and others as alternative styles of worshipping the same God. But all of these are false. They stand against the worship of God as He has revealed Himself in His beloved Son Jesus Christ.
Another writer brings it closer to home, and puts it to the reader as a question:
Have you ever worshipped God your Father in spirit and in truth? Or have you been content so far to mingle with the world and take part in its music, its architecture, its ritual? You know well that anybody can take part in these things. An instrument made by man has no heart and no conscience, yet it does take a part — a very lively part. So the world is welcome too, and in fact worships.
God's word did more than forbid things. It drew a boundary for His people to live inside.
The precious word of God was to form a sacred enclosure around His people. Inside it they could enjoy His presence and delight themselves in the abundance of His mercy and loving-kindness. There they were to be completely apart from everything that offended Him. His presence was to be their glory, their joy and their great moral safeguard from every snare and every abomination.
- Victory — the warning is for the day after the win. Success, not defeat, is where the snare waits.
- Question — the trap comes as a question about method: "How did these nations serve their gods?" It never sounds like unbelief.
- Substitution — keeping the idol's forms and putting the true God in their place is what God refuses. Willingness in worship is right; self-will ruins it.
- Infection — idolatrous evil spreads like rot through a basket of apples. So every trace of it had to go.
- Enclosure — God's word draws the line. Inside it His people keep His presence and stay clear of every snare.
Thou shalt not do so to Jehovah thy God; for every [thing that is] abomination to Jehovah, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters have they burned in the fire to their gods.
Israel was entering a land whose peoples God drove out for their religion. The danger was not that Israel would drop the LORD, but that they would worship Him in the nations' way.
One writer explains why the beaten nations' religion looks attractive after a victory:
God was planting Israel in their land by driving out their enemies. In view of that, Moses warns them of a real danger. Satan would tempt them, and trap them into taking up and following the false gods of the land. Israel might think their enemies had prospered because of their particular worship. Some Christians today think the same way. They think the ungodly prosper because of their attractive forms of professed worship, so they adopt those forms, which are idolatrous.
The command is not just "do not worship idols." It is: do not worship the LORD in their way. One writer compares two sins — carelessness in true worship, and mixing false worship into it:
It was a dismal thing: they mixed pagan worship of their own invention with the leftovers and reminders of Jehovah. It is bad enough to be careless and unfaithful in the true worship of the true God. It is the gravest insult to mix nature worship or false gods with the true. They kept up some imitation, but with a marked departure from the ritual God had revealed.
Some read the phrase "pass through the fire" as a harmless dedication ceremony. One reference work shows why that reading cannot cover every case:
Passing their children through the fire might seem to mean that the child was only dedicated to the idol: swept through a fire without being burned. This may have happened. But some passages do not allow that reading. Of the Canaanites it is said, "they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:31). And of Israel it is recorded that they "offered up to me their children, whom they bore to me, by fire to devour them... For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it" (Ezekiel 23:37, 39).
Another writer names the power that stood behind these sacrifices:
Some have argued from "passing through the fire," here and elsewhere, that the children were not burned. That looks like a well-meant effort to soften how wicked this was. It was the fullest profanation of the name of Israel's God, though not the only one. Jehovah accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller sacrifice. Satan, under these idol names, demanded their sons.
The verse rules out the idea that the nations reached the same God by another route. One writer applies that to the religions people follow now:
People may think this is only another way of really serving God. They treat Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Shintoism, Mormonism, Christian Science and the rest as alternative styles of worshipping the same God. But all of these are false. They stand against the worship of God as revealed in His beloved Son Jesus Christ. Such religions can sink so low that people dare to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. Some of them do not literally go that far today. Yet by teaching unholy doctrines to their children, they are in effect sacrificing them to the flames of hell.
This ban was not meant to narrow Israel's life. It was meant to guard it. One writer describes what God's word was to be for His people:
The precious word of God was to form a sacred enclosure around His people. Inside it they could enjoy His presence and delight themselves in the abundance of His mercy and loving-kindness. Inside it they were to be completely apart from all that was offensive to Him. His presence was to be at once their glory, their joy, and their great moral safeguard from every snare and every abomination.
- Charm — The snare starts with a thought: the nations prospered, so their worship must work.
- Copy — Copying their forms and aiming them at the LORD is not neutral. Mixing false worship with the true is the gravest insult.
- Cost — The forms carried a price: God accepted a sheep or an ox, while Satan under those names demanded their sons.
- Claim — So every religion is not another route to the same God. Worship that burns children is not just another style.
- Cover — The command is a fence, not a cage. God's word encloses His people so they can enjoy His presence, far from every abomination.