Culture War

The nation of Israel was given a beautiful gift in 1400’s (BC) when God gave them the Promised Land.  Of course the land was great, it was fertile, it had water, it was defendable, and it was in the center of two major highways of trade.  But the best thing about the land was that it was to be “set apart”.  God had given the people His commands and the Promised Land was a place that could live that out in perfect grace with one another.  But that isn’t what happened.

In order to take the land of Canaan God commanded the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanite people.  This is a subject that has caused a great many people a great amount of confusion.  Why would a loving God order something like that?  Because He is indeed loving.

Deuteronomy 20:16-17 But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.

The Israelite people struggled to do this.  And no wonder!  Can you imagine how painful an experience it would be to do this?  The emotional scars would last a long time?  The rebuilding from what is left behind would take patience?  And can you imagine how many excuses you could make not to do it?  Great excuses!  Excuses that everyone in the world would applaud.

Israel not only struggled to do this they didn’t do it. Sure Jericho went well, and then the second try at Ai worked.  They were faithful.  But then the Gibeonites tricked Israel into keeping them alive (Josh 9).  What makes their situation even more complicated is that God makes the sun stand still so they can rescue the Gibeonites (who were Hivites, aka supposed to be dead).  So the sun stands still and Israel destroys a collection of Canaanite kingdoms, which is what God was affirming.  It would be so easy to be an Israelite leader and say, “These Canaanites/Gibeonites tricked us, not our fault, and it looks like God is still for us…so we are still good.”

Outside of the Gibeonites Joshua was faithful to God’s extremely difficult command to kill everyone in the land (Josh 11:19).  Then he passed the torch to the next generation.  So in generation number one, there was only one leak in the boat.

The next generation just flat out drowned.  It started that before killing they would cut off kings thumbs and toes and dragging them to Jerusalem (Judges 1:6).  The tribe of Judah just couldn’t get rid of some Canaanites (Judges 1:19), blaming their chariots.  The tribe of Benjamin can’t get rid of the Jebusites (Judges 1:21).  The house of Joseph dealt kindly with one Canaanite family in Bethel because of their cooperation (Judges 1:23-25).  The tribe of Manasseh doesn’t get rid of the Canaanites in their territory, instead chose to enslave them (Judges 1:27-28).  The tribe of Ephraim didn’t clear Gezer (Judges 1:29).  The tribe of Zebulon didn’t clear out the Canaanites in Kitron, just made them slaves (Judges 1:30).  The tribe of Asher just moved in with the Canaanites (Judges 1:31-32).  The tribe of Naphtali moved in with them too, then later made them slaves (Judges 1:33).  The tribe of Dan got beat up by the Canaanites and they retreated, never taking their promised portion (Judges 1:34).  

In each of these instances we would generally understand.  We might even applaud their mercy.  Their decisions seem rational enough, even moral.  But God said to kill the Canaanites.  Why?

Deuteronomy 20:18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.

God had made the tough call to keep them people of Israel set apart for Him.  To be a shining example of His way for the world.  But they let the Canaanite live.  They let the Canaanite influence.  They let the Canaanite win the culture war.

If you are familiar with the book of Judges you know what happens next.  The people do what is right in their own eyes (Judges 2:11) and end up in slavery over and over and over. 

Sin always leads to slavery.  But!

Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free, stand form therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Jesus has freed us from the penalty of sin and if we are cooperative with His work in us we will be freed from the power of sin in our life today.

Now we are all well aware of the sin that so easily entangles us personally, but what about culturally? 

We are the church “set apart” to show the world the way to God, but in America we are losing the culture war, or it maybe as I fear, the war is over and we have lost.

Slowly and steadily we moved in with societies culture or we let it move in with us.  We secularly integrated our churches and Christian school’s in ways that seemed excellent.  No single decision changed the tide, but all together they did. 

The Israelite- “What could it possibly hurt to let this one little Canaanite family live?  I like them.”

The Church- “What could it possibly hurt to ignore this type of sin? It’s so difficult to address. ”

The Christian School- “What could it possibly hurt to play secular music at all student events? The kids will have more fun.” 
The Christian Life- "What could watching this movie possibly hurt?  I can handle it."

These are just tiny examples that do not change our personal culture for worse on their own.  But when they are compounded with similar decisions and similar acceptance, well, we lose the war.

What’s the danger of marrying societies culture?  We start to think like them.  We start to act like them.  We become indistinguishable from them.   

Is our salvation at stake? No! Does God love us less?  No! But we are giving ourselves identity crisis’.   We no longer see ourselves as God says we are, instead we continually buy into who America says we are.  Those opinions are drastically different and the culture leaves us in shame.  We waste our days chasing carrots of fame and fortune, or power and prestige, only to be left empty and abused.

If it’s so bad why doesn’t God just come in and clear it out?  Same reason He didn’t clear out the Canaanites for Israel. 

Judges 2:3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

Losing the culture war is something the majority of us didn’t notice and still don’t.  Our Mickey Mouse celebrity Christianity is working just fine.  Whether you recognize it or not the culture has ensnared us into slavery. 

If we want to take back our “set apart” status we need to declare war on culture.  

      -Declare war on what we allowed ourselves to be entertained by.  

      -Declare war on what consumes and destroys our time.  

      -Declare war on all that we are consuming that is garbage.  

      -Declare war on the gods of technology dependency and the god of social media.

Like Israel we have been given our freedom only to volunteer ourselves as tribute to the gods of this world. 

Maybe you are like me and you have these moments of realization and then immediately jack back into the Matrix. 

I want to kill the culture in my life but I struggled to do this.  And no wonder!  Can you imagine how painful an experience it would be to do this?  The emotional scars would last a long time?  The rebuilding from what is left behind would take patience?  And can you imagine how many excuses you could make not to do it?  Great excuses!  Excuses that everyone in the world would applaud.

Step One in the war...Trust God's Word is true.

Oink

          It’s been about a year since I wrote Opportunity Jesus and it’s 52 chapters of Jesus’s life.  As I’m teaching (or rather leading the discussion) in Opportunity Jesus elective class I’m reading these chapters again.  Well one of them knocked me on my butt.

          Chapter 18- Interactions.  Did we do any judging this week?  I normally read that and I think, well not that much.  I know God loves us all.  I’m generally fair.  But then I kept reading.

          As Jesus got into His sermon on the mount I found these things He talks about and I’m that I know people that are doing that exact wrong thing right now!  I mean exact!  Gosh what is wrong with them?  Then I got to Matthew 7:1 “Do no judge…”

          It didn’t mean much at first.  Ignorant of my judgment of others three seconds earlier I continued.  Eventually I get to Jesus warning not to give pearls to pigs that they will trample them and trample those who give them. 

          I had written this…

          He (Jesus) knows us and He knows our situations.  Jesus doesn’t work in a church but He serves near synagogues.  He understand there are people who just look to make a mess.  They don’t know who they are; they are dogs, and they are pigs.  These are people who already may have given their lives to Christ, but they are not open to His Way in their lives.  They stay pigs.  In fact, these dog and pig people, may be the ones doing the most judging.  “This is not right.  I don’t like this.  I don’t like you and the way you do this.”  They want to be involved in the things of God, but they shouldn’t be because they are still pigs.  They will trample the ministry or whatever thing of God it is, and look to chew you to pieces too.

          What a beautifully painful ah-ha moment.  I had originally written these notes when I was a senior pastor at a small rural church in Illinois.  I was the ministry wielder and I had some pig people that were just looking for destruction.  But now I realize in my current situation I am the pig person.

          I am always saying, “This is not right, I don’t like this, I don’t like you and the way you do this.”  And I don’t.  It’s genuine, and in fact I’m still convinced that I’m not wrong, HOWEVER if I am right I am being right in a very wrong way.  I may feel something is corrupt/broken/misguided but for me to make that judgment is one thing, to then attempt to project/enforce that judgment upon others is my attempt to clean them.

          Over the last couple years I have become fully convinced that sinners can’t clean sinners.  Only Jesus cleans us.  Yet, in my anger and frustration, and JUDGMENT I have tried to clean with my piggy behavior. 

          “Give me this ministry and I will clean it!” I’m screaming with my attitude.  “Listen to this awesome opinion of mine and it will clean you!”  Oink, oink, oink.

          If someone wants my opinion, I will share.  If I am the teacher in the situation I will direct.  If I am the shepherd I will share to protect.  But if I’m the pig, and I want to say “This is not right, I don’t like this, I don’t like you and the way you do this.” I need to shut up and love that fact that I’m free from trying to change other people.  I might be wrong, they might be wrong, Jesus is right.  I’ve gotta trust Him.  I can be free of shaking my head at people who I think just don’t get it because if I try to make them get it with an oink it is destructive. Besides they are equally convinced they are right or they wouldn't be doing what I think is wrong.  If they are wrong, ultimately it will be Jesus that shows them.

 In the meantime the good news is the next sentence in that chapter reads…

          Jesus doesn’t say, once a pig always a pig, so label them and push them away forever. 

          Thank you Jesus for your kindness, I don’t deserve it.  I’m gonna use my new Matthew 7:1 filter and trust You more.  Only you can change this in me. And if I still have something wrong here, please keep teaching me.