“When
the Lord
your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to
enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in
their land, take care that you are not ensnared into imitating them,
after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning
their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I
also want to do the same.’1
You must not do the same for the Lord
your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord
hates they have done for their gods.2
They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to
their gods.3
You must diligently observe everything that I command you;4
do not add to it or take anything from it.”
1 The command not to follow foreign gods is really being driven home
1 The command not to follow foreign gods is really being driven home
2
Fantastic language: “every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates.”
It is not just “who” their worship is directed towards that is
in error, but also its very form.
3
Child sacrifice is pointed out very clearly as wrong, and the other
nations are accused of practicing it.
4
And, again, follow the commandments.
Take-home: The Israelites are reminded that foreign forms of worship are abhorrent to God by their nature, not just in their lives of worship.
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