What does it mean that God is a jealous God? We don’t find our attention focused completely on one thing, but rather divided over everything. When our memory fades, we run the risk of slipping into the same behaviors as the Israelites – behaviors that ultimately lead us away from God and his blessings. In the same way, God calls us to erect altars over the remains of those idols we once worshipped, allowing them to be consumed by his holy fire, as we offer a pleasing sacrifice to him. So examine yourself. Just like the smallest bit of yeast will eventually work its way through an entire batch of dough, the pagan practices of the Canaanites worked their way throughout the tribes of Israel from family to family, until God’s people were utterly corrupted and turned away from him to worship idols made by human hands. He shows me where I have failed to love others as he loves them, and assures me that I can learn to love more fully if I will follow in Jesus’ steps. He didn’t wait for them to repent, and he didn’t wait for them to purge themselves of evil. We have more opportunity than any generation before us to get caught up in both trivial and non-trivial things that distract us from what is most important. It's in those cases that I'm pained and shamed to say "I'm an American" How much more shameful to use the LORD's house of prayer for civic exaltation and glorification? Our reading this morning from Judges, chapter 6, falls in the middle of this period of Israel’s history, and we find that for the fourth time since Joshua’s death the Israelites worked evil in the sight of the Lord. In fact, these are some of the oldest tricks of our adversary. I think it begins by getting rid of those things that lie at the root of our distraction, our discontent, our distrust, and all of those other things that pull our attention away from God. The name "Asherah" and its variant spellings occur thirty-nine times in the Old Testament. As Joshua died of old age we find the Israelites in a pretty good place, poised to conquer the remaining Canaanite tribes. And so the Bible tells us “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” If we will only confess with our mouth that he is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we become recipients of his grace, and he frees us from the tyranny of sin and the fear of death. Who was the Beelzebub/Beelzebul that the Pharisees attributed Christ's work to? So, what does a proper altar look like? He continues to answer that prayer for me. Asherah (also Ashtoreth or Astarte, though there may have been a distinction) was the primary goddess worshiped by the ancient Canaanites and neighboring peoples, including the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:10). And you know what? All rights reserved. The desire for entertainment even keeps us away from church, away from the study of God’s word, and away from those practices ,which have for centuries helped the people of God to listen to him more closely and to guard themselves from evil. Now I am not suggesting that God doesn’t want us to enjoy life. As a young child, unknowingly I participated in a spring ceremony, which featured an Asherah pole. If we ask God to show us where we have constructed idols in our lives, he will be faithful to help us tear them down and construct proper altars to him. Are you taking time to regularly examine your life, asking God to show you the areas that you haven’t yet fully submitted to him? Like all difficult things that God asks us to do, we have to be willing first. But when we willfully commit sin, using God’s grace as a free license to do whatever we want, we invite ruin upon our heads. It says, “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experiences everything the Lord had done for Israel.” The key to their success was that they had been faithful to God, and had followed godly leaders. But left hidden or given free reign they eventually take on a power of their own, and can be life stealing. The Asherah pole was often mentioned in the Old Testament as one of the ways the Israelites sinned against the Lord and worshiped other gods. When we allow our past wounds to fester and distrust of other people to continue in our lives, we impair our ability to trust God fully to supply all that we need. And entertainment is only of a thousand distractions in our lives. You will find my articles in magazines, journals, and online at isaachopper.com. We have been lied to, we have been hurt, and we have been betrayed by those we have depended on. I ask him often to cast light on the areas of my life that I have not yet fully given over to him. Though some of the other tribes who were not instructed to wage war experienced smaller defeats, Judges 1:19-22 says that the Lord was with Israel. The Eagle & Child "Not all who wander are lost." He also writes academically about Wesleyan theology and practice. Question: "What is an Asherah pole?" Finally, if we really want to tear down the idols that keep us from God, we must purge our lives of apathy and laziness. We are surrounded by excess, and it is all too easy to become discontent with our own lives as we look at the lives of others around us. But he doesn’t leave us there, and he doesn’t wait for us to fix ourselves before showing us his loving kindness. But these attitudes run opposite to the fruit of the Spirit. When we submit ourselves fully to him, the Holy Spirit will open up all of the dark and dusty places in our lives and clean house. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”. Therefore, Asherah worship often took place in forested areas, under a tree, or in an area marked by a carved "Asherah pole," such as the one made by the evil King Manasseh (2 Kings 21:7). These are not the only three Asherah poles that we sometimes construct in our lives. God commanded the tribe of Judah to lead the attack, and they had immediate success, defeating enemy after enemy. God’s response to the cries of Israel was two-fold. Poles are often accompanied by a carved bowl at the base where people offer “sacrifices” of spare change, or even jewelry. Instead, he acted in mercy to rescue them when they were totally helpless. We allow it to interfere with our work. In a number of these instances, Baal is mentioned along with Asherah. Here are just a few: 1. Please hear me friends. We demonstrate the depth of our spiritual apathy and laziness, when we care little for our own spiritual growth and well being, and even less for the spiritual well being of those who are living apart from a saving relationship with Christ. Though God is holy, and demands that his people likewise pursue holy lives, he doesn’t leave us to do this on our own. This is not a future promise, but is something that we can realize right here and right now. - J.R.R. This is the holy and loving character of God, which we still see displayed every day in people’s lives. The remainder of the book of Judges shows a repeated pattern of Israel forsaking their covenant with God, losing his favor and becoming oppressed by Canaanite tribes, then crying out for help and receiving deliverance from God through the judges. "Not all who wander are lost." But the concluding verses of Joshua foreshadow what was to come next for Israel. By the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us, we have been given power to overcome sin in our lives. Have I stepped on everyone’s toes yet? 3. The people forsook the Lord God to serve Asherah and her husband Baal (Ashteroth is an alternative name for Asherah, Judges 2:13 ; 3:7 ). An Asherah pole was a sacred pole (or sometimes a tree) that was used in the worship of the pagan goddess Asherah. Before you object and say to yourself that you aren’t an idolater, and that you haven’t developed the kinds of life patterns that would warrant the wrath that Israel experienced, I would remind you that with the Israelites, their separation from God began slowly and, like yeast, worked its way throughout their community until they rejected the one true God to follow gods of their own making. 2. An Asherah pole was a representation of Israel’s idolatry. But we also know that he won’t leave us to do the work on our own. What is to be done? We are constantly overwhelmed by life, harried by the “to do” list, and consumed by the clock. 7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Tolkien. Miles Standish and his men observing the 'immoral' behavior. Over time, this can separate us from God again. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. Answer: An Asherah pole was a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the pagan goddess Asherah, also known as Astarte. Why is God jealous. But there is an antidote for these things. What Was The Asherah Pole? Just forty years after God had rescued them through Deborah’s leadership they slipped back into their old ways. Old Glory On An Asherah Pole So, the Israelites had this annoying tendency to idolize the wrong things. The first thing we need to do away with is unrepentant or habitual sin. You may have too, if you’ve ever walked around a “May pole” on May Day. What seemed innocent at first, allowing these pagan peoples to live among them as slaves, eventually led to acceptance of their way of life, and soon that acceptance led to the blending of God’s people and God’s enemies through intermarriage (Judges 3:6). Another we should be wary of is despair, where we allow tragedy to choke out God’s grace in our lives, leading to hopelessness and lack of faith. Instead, they chose to enslave the Canaanite tribes and allow them to remain in the land. But first and foremost, I will give to God what is God's. The essence of faith is not just belief in who Jesus said he was, but also a sure trust and confidence that he was able to accomplish what he said he accomplished, and that he can lead us from death to life. I think you’ll find they are common enough that we easily overlook them, but if we examine them closely we quickly see their damaging effects. They had divided the land into each tribe’s inheritance by casting lots. The Book of Judges chronicles this apostasy. Copyright 2011-2020 Got Questions Ministries - All Rights Reserved. We are entertaining ourselves to the point that normal life events seem boring and meaningless by comparison. This was an era when God’s people were still separate tribes settling in the promised land of Canaan, and they lived in alternating periods of war and peace with their surrounding cultures.

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