From the Asherites we learn that pride can lead to two things – the first one being that God began to slip their minds, because, as Moses explained in Deuteronomy 8:10-14, when they’d got all they could possibly need and want physically in money, homes and security “your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.”
In other words, they’d get to thinking, “Who needs God?” They’d even get to thinking that it was by their own cleverness and strength (17) that they’d ended up “lacking nothing” (9), when it was totally God who’d got them out of Egypt in the first place (14-16), and God who’d got them into their beautiful, rich land in Canaan as well (7-9).
And what was the point too, of God dragging them “through the desert for forty years” (2) to teach them “that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of the Lord” (3) if that was only meant in the past and it didn’t matter anymore?
Which is a highly relevant question for us today, because for those of us finding ourselves in countries built on the biblical values of law, justice, morality, concern for the vulnerable, strength in the family, community and serving, all of which clearly explain why our countries grew and prospered – then why of late are our governments, academia and media rubbishing our past and condemning it as inherently corrupt and in need of being destroyed and replaced?
Is it any coincidence too, that those doing the rubbishing are noticeably from among those who have everything they need physically (just like the Asherites), who believe they can make life successful on their own strength (just like the Israelites), who think God and his word are antiquated nonsense, and they much prefer a world where you can do what you like without consequence – which was exactly the world the Asherites and Israelites preferred too (Judges 21:25).
Sounds like history repeating itself. In which case so could the outcome predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy 8:20, that “Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” And historically there’s proof of that, because great (and proud) empires have come and gone. It’s worth a look, then, at the second thing that happened to the Asherites because of pride, that also got an angry response, when “They simply didn’t care”….(next blog)
