Psalm 106:34-35

Psalm 106:34-35

They mingled with the nations!

Another day, another failure on Israel’s part to obey the Lord God by faith. This time we find ourselves, at last, in the Land of Promise. The context of these verses covers a period of several hundred years including the time that this Psalm was being written. Listen to the words of the Lord spoken to Moses at Sinai, long before Canaan came into view. “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.  Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods.  Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.” Exodus 23:31-33. The commands here could not be clearer, they describe the outer boundaries of the land that God gave to the Israelites, and they include instructions to drive out the pagan inhabitants of Canaan. In addition, the people are not to enter into any kind of contractual relationships with the Canaanites and they are not to have anything to do with their religion and beliefs. The warnings are underlined by the Lord saying that to have any kind of relationship with these people will cause the Israelites to sin and to be snared by their gods or elohim. 

As we all know, these specific instructions were never followed. Israel never fully claimed the land that was promised to them, they never drove out the Canaanites completely, they did deals with the them and compromised their own religion by embracing the idols and gods of the pagan nations. Instead of standing alone as uncompromised representatives of the living God, they dabbled in every kind of pagan practice and consequently lost their identity and their inheritance. 

What a lesson for us!

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