Falling into Idolatry and Paganism

Torah Living Daily Challenge 34

Deut. 13:13-19 speaks to the destruction of those people and places that are considered heretical and that follow after pagan gods and practice paganism. We live in a secular society, far different than the theocratic governmental system that we resided under at the time Torah was written and when we inhabited the Land of Canaan. This passage of Torah commands that we utterly destroy those cities and their inhabitants that insist upon following after paganism and that turn away from worship of Yahovah. Many in the secular world and even in Churchianity have rejected Yahovah and assigned descriptors and titles to our Creator that malign His character. The contention of these individuals is that the God of the Old Testament was mean and vicious and lacked even the slightest amount of compassion. I recall having a rather frank conversation with my previous boss who claimed to be a devout Christian and she held some of these same feelings to toward the Christian God. She indicated that she much preferred Jesus as the God of the New Testament over the God of the Old Testament, who better exhibited the desirable traits of compassion, love and hope. She saw the God of the Old Testament as judgmental and an executioner of uncompromising justice, which didn’t quite fit her ideal concept of God. (Funny thing, however, she admired the concept of uncompromising judgment which she sought to practice in our office in terms of keeping the staff in line, but if those who she targeted would submit to her evangelistic efforts towards them, she would show absolute compassion, love and forgiveness.)

Unfortunately, we as humans, especially in the West, feel compelled to apply Western sensibility and humanistic thinking to how we believe the Creator of the Universe should operate, which is a fatal error on our part. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that we are not like God from the standpoint of character and understanding and sensibility. His ways are higher than ours. His ways are different than ours. We can not always comprehend why He does what He does or see things the way He sees them. So we must stop trying to force Yahovah to fit into our pre-conceived Westernized-humanistic paradigms and ideals. The Prophet Isaiah said it best when he wrote: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahovah. “As high as the sky is above the earth are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts…” (Isaiah 55:8, 9 CJB)

This particular commandment, according to Rabbinic tradition, we never followed nor obeyed, and the excuse given was that there might be a mezuzah in that city that had emblazoned upon it the sacred name of our God, and we are commanded to never destroy the Name of God. This was a bastardization of the mitzvah given in Deuteronomy 12:3, 4 which reads: “Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place. But you are not to treat Yahovah your God this way.” (CJB) Consequently and sadly, this commandment was wrongly carried out by the Catholic Church’s Crusaders throughout the Church’s terribly bloody and blasphemous years, with seeming joy and unbridled gusto, as the Church sanctioned the destruction and death of any that they deemed were heretical (e.g., 1097 in Pelagonia in Macedon and in the 1200s when 20,000 Albigenses residing in Southern France were entirely wiped out by these terribly misguided hordes and muscle of the papacy.) (Hertz)

Since we no longer reside under a theocracy, we are compelled to abide by the laws of the land in which we inhabit, in so much that we are not forced to violate the tenets of our Faith. Rav Shaul (aka the Apostle Paul) wrote to that great Messianic Assembly in Rome: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from Yahovah, and those that exist have been instituted by Yahovah.” (Rom. 13:1 ESV) Prior to this chapter, Paul simply wrote: “If it be possible, as far as depends on you, be at peace with all men.” (Rom. 12:18 NAS) This being the case, the commandment to destroy those cities and their inhabitants that would fall into paganism, I believe, must be viewed and obeyed by us today from a spiritual perspective. Those individuals and groups and places that adhere to paganism and that encourage us to follow suit, we must absolutely avoid and reject. As this commandment was given to us when Father was our absolute leader as we stood as one people and as His nation, it should be commonsense that we can not carry out this mitzvah in this day and age, nor should we ever conceive to do so. Yahovah is not the God of this country nor is He the God of any of the other countries and nations of this world. Unfortunately, the world has its god, but He’s not Yahovah. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Assembly: “in whose case the god of this world (hasatan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of Yahovah.” (2 Cor. 4:4) Yahovah attempted to accomplish making us a nation that answered directly and solely to Him (that is, He attempted to be the absolute God over our nation back in the day) but we rejected Him at every turn and He finally left us to fend for ourselves amongst the other nations of this world. It is only through His grace, mercy, long-suffering and purpose that He has allowed the nations that we currently reside in to remain intact, but He Himself is not directly over us as a nation. The nations of the World do not follow His Torah nor have they consented and given over their existence to Yahovah. The nations of this world are outside the direct governance of the Most High. It will not be until Y’shua HaMashiyach comes to establish His Millennial Kingdom on this planet and restore that absolute theocracy that should have existed at the beginning, that this and other similar commandments will be restored and reenacted.

There are those, however, in remote areas of Christianity that take this and other similar mitzvot to heart, condemning people, governments and nations that do not follow their concept of the Christian God. These small pockets of extremists are what our government has labeled as “home grown terrorists” and these individuals have waged war against the West in the name of their God. Their God is NOT Yahovah. Be that all the same, however, these individuals plot the demise of sectors of our society citing such passages of Torah. These individuals suffer from a terrible case of Bible illiteracy and they obviously do not possess a true relationship with the Creator of the Universe. If they were properly versed in Scripture and possessed a true relationship with the Most High, they would realize that their focus must be on that which our Master instructed us: to seek the kingdom of Yahovah and His righteousness. Seeking the Kingdom of Yahovah does not in any shape or form involve murder, destruction and hatred, which these sorely misguided individuals clearly encourage, advocate and support. As Hebrew Rooters, we must never identify ourselves with such thinking, and especially we must never identify ourselves with such groups. Our purpose is the Great Commission and the seeking after of the Kingdom of Yahovah and His righteousness. (Matt. 6:33) Such passages of Torah as we’ve just looked at that command that we destroy those in our society that fall into paganism, do not apply to us at this time. We have a new mission which is the Kingdom of God and the Gospel Commission.

So what does that Commission and Seeking out the Kingdom look like? The Commission simply put is going forth and making disciples for Y’shua Messiah. (Matt. 28:19) We may accomplish this through various means: direct one-on-one and group evangelism as the Spirit provides the leading and opportunities; and working in the background and in support of those Hebrew Roots ministries that are out there in the trenches doing the work of the Gospel. We can provide these ministries our physical labor, correspondence abilities, prayer, use of our personal talents to support the ministry and providing them financial support. Seeking the Kingdom is simply living and walking out this Faith of ours. Our Commission and the seeking out of the Kingdom work hand-in-hand and if we do it properly, with all our hearts, minds, and souls, we always be pretty darn busy. Indeed, the fields are ripe for the harvest, but there are so few of us in this, the true Faith once delivered, to do the work—to get the job done. We must work while it is still day. At the same time, we must not allow ourselves to become distracted by all the crazy talk that surrounds our Faith and calls out to us to devote time, effort and gray matter that we really can’t afford to spend on matters that are not of Yahovah and not that which we’ve been tasked to focus on by our Master. And let us not get caught up in hateful and hairsplitting and pointless conversation that takes up so much valuable time. I’ve come into contact with those who advocate Orthodox Messianic Judaism and have all but separated themselves from the rest of our community. These individuals will spend their days arguing the minutia of Torah and engage in arguments with others on social media and emails and via websites that only cause schisms between the members of our community. Still there are others who are caught up in other culturally based groups (e.g., black Judaism or whatever else it’s actually called) and these groups and people spend inordinate amounts of time fighting and squabbling with one another over issues and topics and subjects that mean absolutely nothing as it relates to the Commission and the mission we were given by Master and that was to seek after the Kingdom of Yahovah and His righteousness and to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 28:19) These rabbit holes of culturalism and religion split and separate us as a community. Unfortunately, I’m afraid we must kick those brothers and sisters off to the curb if they are not willing to listening to Biblical and sound reasoning. It’s not worth engaging them further. Just let them waste their days in arguments with other self-consumed individuals and at the end of the day, these individuals will be just as lost as they were when they first came into knowledge of the Faith once delivered. These individuals are in effect squandering the gift that was given to them by our heavenly Father and eventually their lamp stands will be removed from the midst of the other standing lamp stands.