PUT TO REAL TEST

1. How were the the people of Israel put to real test?

1.1 Israel's ungodly inter-marriages

a) The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. (Judges 3:5-7 NIV)

i) Here is a list of the nations the Lord left in the land to test the new generation of Israel who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. For God wanted to give opportunity to the youth of Israel to exercise faith and obedience in conquering their enemies:

ii) The Philistines (5 cities), the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

iii) These people were a test to the new generation of Israel, to see whether they would obey the commandments the Lord had given them through Moses.

iv) So Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Amorites, and Jebusites. But instead of destroying them, the people of Israel intermarried with them. The young men of Israel took their girls as wives, and the Israeli girls married their men. And soon Israel was worshiping their gods. So the people of Israel were very evil in God’s sight, for they turned against Jehovah their God and worshiped Baal and the Asheroth idols.

1.2 King Solomon's having wives

a) 1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. 7On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. (1 Kings 11:1-8 NIV)

i) King Solomon married many other girls besides the Egyptian princess. Many of them came from nations where idols were worshiped – Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon and from the Hittites – even though the Lord had clearly instructed his people not to marry into those nations, because the women they married would get them started worshiping their gods. Yet Solomon did it anyway.

ii) He had 700 wives and 300 concubines; and sure enough, they turned his heart away from the Lord, especially in his old age. They encouraged him to worship their gods instead of trusting completely in the Lord as his father David had done.

iii) Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the horrible god of the Ammonites. Thus Solomon did what was clearly wrong and refused to follow the Lord as his father David did.

iv) He even built a temple on the Mount of Olives, across the valley from Jerusalem, for Chemosh, the depraved god of Moab, and another for Molech, the unutterably vile god of the Ammonites. Solomon built temples for these foreign wives to us for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.

#1) Idols:

@1. Ashtoreth of Sidonians – goddess that symbolized reproductive power – mistress of the god of Baal.

@2. Milcom or Molech of Ammonites – the national god of the Ammonites, called the abomination” because its worship rites included child sacrifice.

@3. Chemosh of Moab – the national god of Moab.

1.3 Israel's stubbornness

a) 8Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9“Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.” 10Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. 11Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. (Exodus 34:8-11 NIV)

i) The Lord replied, “All right, this is the contract I am going to make with you. I will do miracles such as have never been done before anywhere in all the earth, and all the people of Israel shall see the power – the terrible power I will display through you. Your part of the agreement is to obey all of my commandments; then I will drive out from before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

1.4 Israel's disobedience

a) 1When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord ’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:1-4 NIV)

i) When the Lord your God delivers them over to you to be destroyed, do a complete job of it – don’t make any treaties or show them mercy; utterly wipe them out. Do not intermarry with them, not let your sons and daughters marry their sons and daughters. That would surely result in your young people’s beginning to worship their gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be hot against you and he would surely destroy you.

ii) Nehemiah's despair

23Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” (Nehemiah 13:23-27 NIV)

2. Prayer focus

a) Pray that we are obedience to God's word and walk accordingly.