But they mingled with the nations, and learned their works;
Psalm 106 is Israel's confession of its own history, sin by sin, from Egypt to the captivity. Verse 35 is the turn into the promised land, where those told to clear it learned the ways of the nations instead.
The psalm turns a corner here. The failure is the same in kind as before; only the command that tests it has changed.
The wilderness history is over, and we now have the story of the failure in the land. In principle it is always the same. It only takes its shape from the command that tests them. Here the command was to cleanse the inheritance of the Lord from all that had defiled it. The nations of Canaan were under judgment for their wickedness. The Lord had entrusted the carrying out of that judgment to Israel's hands. Instead they left them in the land and mixed with them. The sure result followed, exactly as predicted: they learned their works.
The influence ran one way only. Those entrusted with clearing the land became learners instead.
The psalmist has traced Israel's failure in the wilderness. Now he confesses their sins in the land. There they mingled with the nations of the world. The result was that the nations did not learn the ways of God. God's people fell into the ways of the world. Having learned their ways, Israel followed their evil practices.
The fall came in stages. One writer sets them out in order.
Look at the order, and see how evil must progress. First, the failure to drive out the enemy. Second, they bring them into servitude and make them pay tribute. Third, there is intermarriage, linking themselves with them. Fourth, the adoption of their false gods and the departure from God. And last, there can be only one result: God hands them over to an enemy, to let them taste what an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from Him.
Another writer names the principle at work in every step.
If we tolerate wickedness, it will not be long before we embrace it. In the end, Israelites went so far as to sacrifice their sons and daughters to demons. Our foolish actions quickly appeal to our children, and their blood will be on their fathers' hands.
Those learned works had a source. Each nation Israel failed to remove brought its own god with it.
Each of those nations of Canaan that they should have driven out had its own special god — a demon (Deuteronomy 32:17; 1 Corinthians 10:20). Connected with each god was some special abomination. These powers of darkness inspired this awful idolatry, and they worked on the basest passions of men. But when Israel and Jerusalem turned away from God, they did not choose one idol and one abomination only. They took in every one… So every nameless abomination found a home among them, until their sins became more horrible than those of the nations who had lived in the land before them.
Commentators read this as a warning for today. One of them, writing on Solomon's marriages, points to a command that ran in both directions — the older translation he used reads, "You shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in to you."
Solomon's disobedience was out in the open. God had said to His people: "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you." There was a double prohibition. We are in danger of going to the world, or of letting it come in to us. The second may be even more dangerous than the first… Little by little the world works its way into our homes and our lives. Often when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late.
- Command. God gave the land on terms: clear out what defiled it. Verse 35 confesses that Israel left the nations there instead.
- Contact. What Israel left standing did not stay at a distance. They mingled with the nations instead of removing them.
- Conformity. Contact ran one way — the nations did not learn God's ways; God's people fell into the world's ways.
- Corruption. Tolerated evil becomes embraced evil; behind the borrowed idols stood demons, and their own children paid the price.
- Caution. The same double danger stands today: going out to the world, or letting the world come in. One writer warns that the second may be the more dangerous.
And they served their idols; and they were a snare unto them
Psalm 106 is a confession, and the nation looks back over its own record. Verse 36 marks the moment when living beside the nations turned into serving their gods — and those gods became a trap.
Now the confession turns to life inside the land. Israel mixed with the nations there, and the influence ran only one way.
Having traced Israel's failure in the wilderness, the psalmist further confesses their sins in the land. There they mingled with the nations of the world. As a result the nations did not learn the ways of God, but God's people fell into the ways of the world.
God gave Israel a job to do in Canaan. The idols of verse 36 are the leftovers of a command they never carried out.
Because of their wickedness, the nations of Canaan were under God's sentence of destruction, and the Lord had put the carrying out of it into Israel's hands. Instead of doing it, they left them in the land and mixed with them. This brought the sure result that had been predicted: they learned their ways. Their gods became a snare to them. The unnatural deeds tied to their demon-worship became the shame and pollution of Israel.
The word "snare" is not the psalmist's invention. God had spoken it over Israel long before, after they failed to clear the land.
At the end of his life Joshua called the people together. He spoke of "these nations that remain" (23:4) and commanded that they be driven out. He assured the Israelites that God would drive them out before them. Israel only had to obey all that God had said. The book of Judges shows what happened next. Israel had good intentions and had promised Joshua they would obey. Even so, they failed in their own responsibility to drive out the Canaanites (see Judges 1:27–36). The result was that God had to withdraw His promise to drive them out. The angel of the Lord came to Bochim. He declared: "I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you" (Judges 2:3).
Commentators point to a power standing behind the carved image. The worshipper never meant to serve it.
The idols and their sacrifices may be completely powerless. But demons hiding behind them can and do shut out the true God from souls. They take for themselves the honour owed to Him alone. This is the effect of pagan worship, not the intention of the worshippers or of those who share in their sacrifices. Demons are fallen and evil spirits. The worshippers no more planned to honour them than unconverted people today mean to serve Satan. But they did so all the same.
The verse says Israel served these idols. One writer traces how the slide began.
But Israel foolishly allowed the wicked nations to remain in the land (at least in many cases). As a result the Jews themselves mixed with these ungodly Gentiles, learned their works and served their idols (vv. 35-36). If we tolerate wickedness, it will not be long before we embrace it.
The psalm follows the snare through to where it finally led the nation.
For all these sins the chastening hand of the Lord came upon His people. So the land became desolate, and God's people went into captivity. They came into subjection and under the oppression of the Gentiles. They were "brought low" for their iniquity.
Writers apply the verse to readers who own no carved images at all. They keep the very word the psalm uses.
And let us remember that the same tendency is at work with us today. That is why the first letter of John ends with the words, "keep yourselves from idols." For us an idol is anything that ensnares. It takes over in our hearts the place that belongs to God alone.
- Spared — God told Israel to clear Canaan of its wickedness. Instead they left the nations in the land, keeping alive the very thing God had condemned.
- Mingled — the mixing ran one way only: the nations did not learn God's ways, God's people learned theirs.
- Served — no one keeps an idol as a neighbour for long. Tolerate wickedness and you soon embrace it; embrace it and you soon serve it.
- Snared — God had warned long before that these gods would trap them. Behind the powerless images stood demons, taking the honour owed to God from people who never meant to give it.
- Enslaved — the snare closed. The land became desolate and the people went into captivity, brought low by their own sin. For us now, an idol is whatever ensnares the heart and takes God's place there.