Fear The Lord Our God

Deuteronomy 6:20-7:4 – In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.” When 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—and 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. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for 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.

Psalm 86:11 – Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Joshua 3:10 – This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites,Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

1 Kings 11:2,4,6,11 – They 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…As 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…So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done…So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.

Ezra 9:2 – They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

Exodus 12:48 – “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.

Numbers 15:30 – “‘But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or foreigner, blasphemes the Lord and must be cut off from the people of Israel.

Malachi 2:11 – Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god.

Joshua 6:25 – But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Application:

• ·         What would be the benefit if God were to save him from his enemies but abandon him to his own waywardness? David’s dependence on God is complete, and so is his devotion to God—save me from the enemy outside but also from my frailty within. Only one who is thus devoted to God may expect God’s help and will truly fulfill the vow.
• ·         Righteousness refers to a true, personal relationship with the covenant Lord that manifests itself in the daily lives of God’s people.
• ·         The manner by which God is brought the Israelites across the Jordan River, the watery boundary of the promised land, brought assurance that the one true God was with them and that He would surely dislodge the present inhabitants of Canaan.
• ·         Foreign women indeed did turn the Israelites hearts after their gods.
• ·         Solomon’s wives turned Solomon’s heart after the foreign women’s gods, as the Lord had warned.
• ·         Although David committed grievous sins, he was repentant, and he was never involved in idolatrous worship.
• ·         Solomon had broken the most basic demands of the covenant and thereby severely undermined the entire covenant relationship between God and His people.
• ·         Marrying those who did not belong to the Lord was an act of infidelity for the people of Israel.
• ·         The Lord’s command against intermarriage with foreigners was not racially motivated but was intended to prevent spiritual contamination and apostasy.
• ·         Only those consecrated to the Lord in covenant commitment could partake of Passover; only for them could it have its full meaning.
• ·         Unlike unintentional sins, for which there are provisions of God’s mercy, one who sets his hand defiantly to despise the word of God and to blaspheme His name must be punished.
• ·         Marriages to women who worshiped a foreign God were strictly forbidden in the covenant law, not for ethnic or cultural reasons but because they would lead to apostasy.
• ·         The faith of Rahab is noted twice in the New Testament.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV