Sharing the Gospel of God’s Grace

Our Sunday night small group is going through a study called “Living in a Pluralistic Society” by Tim Keller.  The study focuses primarily in Judges and looks at the idolatry the Israelites struggled with and what that means for today.

The question we tried to hash out this past week was the question of taking down altars.  Exactly how are we to go about taking down altars in our own culture?  To answer the question we have to give definition to the command both for the Old Testament believer and the New Testament believer.

If we go back to the command God gave Joshua regarding the taking of the promised land in Joshua 1: 8-9 and Joshua 23: 6-7, we read this, “be strong and courageous in keeping the law God gave Moses.”  In portions of Joshua and in Judges God is a bit more specific when He commands that His people not make covenants with other nations and that they not even mention the names of other gods let alone serve or bow to them (Joshua 23:7).

The very first command God gave was to have no other Gods before Him.  Every commandment God ever gave after that was to specify, qualify, and clarify this one command.  The commands given to the Israelites to strip the land of all non-believing nations, false idols, and altars was just specific instructions for fulfilling His very first commandment, to have no other Gods before Himself.

Finally, God tells them to take ownership of the land He will give them.  The command given to Joshua (Joshua 23: 4-11) is full of promise.  God does not command of them something that is too big to accomplish.  He is not abandoning them to this task.  He promises to be with them, to fight for them, to drive back the nations.  It is God who plans to accomplish in and through them the commands He has given them.

It seems that often mandates in the Old Testament find a parallel mandate in the New Testament.  For example Baptism is substituted for circumcision; communion for Passover; so too the command to posses the land finds a parallel in the New Testament.  The parallel is the Great Commission.  The command of Jesus to build His kingdom, to grow His church, is the equivalent of God’s command to the Israelites to possess the Promised Land. 

Often we confuse the Old Testament land with its physical boundaries and try to give the New Testament command physical boundaries as well.  It is tempting to want to deal with the issue of cleaning out idols and destroying altars on a national level.  We believe that if we fix the government than we fix the heart of the nation.  We are tempted to believe that the towering idols of the culture (sex, materialism, addictions, etc.) will be changed from the top, down.  So, we side with candidates and platforms that we believe will usher in change.  While voting-in a righteous government (and I believe a Christian must vote according to God’s moral law) might change policy it will not change hearts.  It will not fulfill the command to possess God’s land, to build His kingdom.

If we were to succeed in changing the government and implementing stricter laws, would we not simply be replacing the current idols with the idols of self-righteousness and legalism, and might it not eventually lead right back to the existing idols when the individuals are faced with the reality that they cannot possibly live according to such a high standard?

So, then, how are the altars that cannot be seen removed from a land that is not defined?  The answer is simple.  The same way it was done for the Israelites in the Old Testament.  They were to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind.  If they did that then the rest fell into place.

It works like this.  Loving God with all our being pushes back and conquers all that is not His (light swallowing darkness).  When His love flows into the land, into and through the hearts of His people, then the false idols are abandoned and their altars are left in ruins.

Remember, the “land” is God’s kingdom.  Therefore the “land” is the church.  The commandment to remove the idols, to tear down the altars and to not make covenants with unbelievers is for the church, the nation of God. 

We are successful in possessing the land, in building His kingdom, in growing His church, in tearing down altars, when we love Him alone and submit ourselves to His will and trust wholeheartedly in His promise to conquer His kingdom.  Just like the Israelites were to have no other Gods and to trust Him to win the battle, we are to do the same.

Jesus gave us a very practical example for how we are to take down the altars within the cultures we are called to serve in.  In Matthew 11: 1-6 we read that John the Baptist is in prison, awaiting execution for blasting Herod on his illicit marriage.  (Hmm, a political leader worshipping at the altar of sex, sound familiar!)  D.A. Carson in his book For the Love of God points out that John is clearly discouraged.   Jesus is not living up to his expectations.  John proclaimed Jesus to be, not only one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit but also one who would bring judgment to the idolatrous nations, the one who would burn up the chaff and give the wheat room to grow.  Yet Jesus is preaching, training, performing miracles, loving the destitute, but not ushering in obvious judgment.

I imagine how Jesus might have done it.  He could have called up his friend the Roman centurion, pulled some political strings, had Herod thrown out of office and either put himself in charge of cleaning up the city’s altars or at least campaigned for one of the disciples to enter office.  But he did not. 

Jesus tells John he is busy ministering to the people one need at a time and those who are not offended by what they see are blessed.  There is not a top down change in Jerusalem there is a one-life at a time change that leads to the birth of the Christian church.

So, again, how do we take down the altars?  We start with our own hearts and trust that as we are not offended by the ministry of Jesus, as we love Him enough to have no other Gods before Him.  As we follow His example, others will see and believe and they too will be prompted by the Holy Spirit to take down their altars and, one life at a time, God will give us His land, His glorious kingdom!