“I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.” (Exodus 23:31-33 NIV84)
Oil and water just do not mix. Shake and stir all you want, but you will not get them to blend. They never have, and they never will. We accept this to be a plain truth. But in the world of truth and falsehood we do not accept this logical inference. We are constantly trying to mix truth with falsehood to see whether they blend. We even remove the title of falsehood and describe the differences as two different truths. I’m sure you’ve heard it said, “You have your truth and I have mine.” The more we water down the truth the grayer everything gets.
This is exactly what God, through Moses, was warning the Israelites about. He told them that if they went into the Promised Land and began to accept and negotiate with the people of the land they would soon be affected by their religious worldviews. God’s fear was that, over time, the Israelites would try to mix their neighbors’ worldview and their own and try to call both true. And that is exactly what the Israelites did. But if truth is true, then everything contrary to or opposing it is false. Two opposing truth claims cannot both be true. God expects and demands that we recognize and understand this to be true. He expects us as His children to profess and defend the truth. We need to understand that truth and falsehood are like oil and water.
Peace!
Pastor Tom
www.firmlyrooted.church