Bible Verse of the Day Tuesday March 14th, 2023

Deuteronomy 18:9 "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.

Before God allowed the Children of Israel into the Land promised to them through Abraham, He instructed them to separate themselves from the pagans they would meet there. They were to behave differently from the despicable Canaanites who already inhabited the Land God had promised Abraham as an everlasting inheritance. God warned them not to intermingle with the local inhabitants in this verse. They were not to learn their horrible traditions or participate in their ungodly practices: "When you enter the land, which the LORD your God gives you," Moses commanded, "you shall not learn their ways or imitate the detestable things of those nations."

God had provided Israel with feast days and festivals that honored Him. He had established the Tabernacle and Levitical priesthood and carefully instructed them on all the sacrificial practices they needed to undertake to cover their sin until the Messiah came. He had diligently laid out every requirement for His people in the Mosaic Law, which consisted of the Moral Law, the Ceremonial Law, and the Civil Law. These were to be the only customs that governed the lives of His chosen people, which God intended as a signpost to point other nations to Christ. There were 613 commands in the Mosaic Law, and when an individual or group broke any of these laws, atonement had to come through a blood sacrifice. The shed blood of every sacrificial animal slaughtered during Israel's journey through history covered their sin for a season and pointed to Christ, the promised Messiah, whose offering of Himself was to be the complete and final sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.

Israel was to learn God's ways and obey His commands. They were not to follow any other nation's detestable practices, abhorrent customs, and satanic activities. Their disgusting ways were an abomination to the Lord, and His people were never to engage in these despicable things, which included child sacrifices, witchcraft, divination, sorcery, cannibalism, and the worship of demons - to name a few. These pagan people were dead in their sin, at enmity with God, and enslaved by Satan. They were never to be a role model for God's servants. Instead, Israel would be an example and point them to the one true and living God. Since the fall, the whole world has been lying under the control of the evil one, but God chose Israel out of all the nations to be a peculiar people who were to behave differently from Gentile nations. They were to obey HIS perfect law and follow HIS righteous ways. Israel's way of life and standard of conduct was to become a light to lighten the Gentiles, and they were to bring others into fellowship with the God of Israel.

We should not disregard the severe nature of the abhorrent practices described in Deuteronomy simply because they occurred in ancient times. Although unfortunately, many equally detestable customs and abominable exploits take place in our modern culture, which God hates, and having received salvation by grace through faith, we do not suffer enslavement by Satan's power, but have been redeemed from the penalty of sin and set free from its power over our lives.