March 21, 2026 -Get to Work

Psalms 80:1-19

Luke 13:1-35

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Deuteronomy 7:1-26

Bible in a Year Through Song - Day 80 of 365

Deuteronomy 7:5-6 NIV

[5] This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. [6] For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

This is what we should do with things of this world that tempt us to take the place of God in our lives.

Break down their altars. The altars of the world are the things that the world sets up as being important. The values and standards that cater to the self-interest of the lost. One example would be the altar of sexual promiscuity and diversity. It is something that acceptance/worship of is held up as a standard to determine the worthiness of a person's enlightenment. The number of people who come and worship at that altar grows daily. Even those who profess to believe in Jesus have changed their standing and defy God's word. They come to that altar and sacrifice their moral convictions and faith in God and His word.

Smash their sacred stones. Sacred stones were stones or pillars that would be carved with an image to represent the god they were set up for. They also were believed to house the spirit or essence of the God they represented. The image of the god of sexual promiscuity and diversity would be things like media. Social, TV, and movies. It starts with graphic content the gradually increases. We start off feeling uncomfortable but by exposing ourselves to these images over and over again we easily come to justify that it's okay. But then just like the Israelites who eventually started worshiping at the alters of these false gods and justifying it we begin to no longer feel uncomfortable and even begin to justify our enjoyment/worship of this god of sexuality. And because we did not smash the sacred stones they are being made bigger and multiplying. Now every limit is pushed, and you can't even watch a children's show that does not contain an image of ungodly sexuality.

Cut down their Ashera poles. The goddess Asherah was the Canaanite fertility goddess. These were poles that bore an image that represented the goddess. Often times even when the "high places" were removed by Israelite leaders they would still leave some representation still standing for whatever reason. We can do that as well. We may hold firm to our beliefs on sexual immorality but allow and even participate in things that would support what we profess is immoral. Our actions do not match our words, and our actions are a reflection of our heart. To be able to withstand the temptation of worshiping any other god than God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit we need to remove all representations of those things from our personal lives. When it comes to sexual immorality it may mean that you no longer watch your favorite TV show that has same sex relationships in it because you find yourself justifying the immorality. Or you stop watching a movie or reading a book because of the graphic sexual content. We also have government and society condemning people who stand up for God's moral standard on the subject so you may have to remove your own desire for approval from society and or family. I am not saying you need to preach against it. You sure can as God prompts but you don't have to especially if you aren't called to do that. But I am saying that if asked your beliefs on the subject there cannot be compromise.

Burn their idols in the fire. When we remove the sinful things from our lives, we shouldn't just pack them away in a box and put them out of the way. They need to be permanently removed that we might not be tempted to turn toward them in the future. Also, we will not unintentionally lead someone else astray.

I used sexual sin as an example because it was easy to come up with associations for the analogy, but we can apply these same instructions to anything that could become a god in our lives. The desire for riches, power, fame or anything else that would become more important to us than our relationship with Jesus.

When faced with the question what is most important to you? Or what do you put your trust in? If the answer of your heart is anything but Jesus, then you have some work to do. Break down an altar, smash a stone, cut down a pole and/or burn and idol. And if you can't think of anything that you need to remove from your life then seek God's face and direction for Him to reveal to you what idols you have that you haven't yet recognized.