So you shall purge the evil from your midst. Deuteronomy 17:7
The first thing I do every day when my alarm goes off is my morning prayer, which takes about a half hour as I pray for me, my family, and those around me. Often though, while praying, some intrusive thought – whether it involves resentment, pride, or lust – pops unbidden into my head. At that point, I have an immediate and obvious problem. I cannot pray and indulge in that thought. I must choose one or the other. I can’t entertain my self-destructive musings and focus on God. I’m glad to say that I’ve become pretty good at simply cutting that intrusive thought out and turning my mind to God. Or at least I’m pretty good at it while I’m praying.
As for the rest of my day . . . well, I’m not so good at it. Later in the day, I often find myself indulging in some frustration, dark thought, or gluttonous behavior that I wouldn’t tolerate during my morning prayers. Here’s my problem – That thing is still distracting me from God and from who I’m supposed to be. I’m just not as sensitive to it when I’m not actively praying. If I’m not careful, the distraction can easily turn into a habitual behavior or thought pattern that grows, metastasizing through my life. Then, when I eventually see how toxic it’s become, it’s difficult to remove because it’s become part of me.
This is why God instructed the Israelites to be so aggressive in dealing with those who would distract them from following God. In today’s passage, he commanded them to stone to death anyone among them who worshipped foreign idols. This seems extreme to us, but God knew that if they tolerated any idol worship, that the practice would grow and metastasize, turning the Israelites from God. So, for their own good, they were commanded to deal violently with anything or anyone who tried to distract them. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
We, of course, aren’t supposed to stone anyone. Jesus though, reiterated how radical we must be with any evil that tempts us – And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matthew 5:30). Jesus wasn’t teaching self-cutting or self-mutilation. Rather, he was teaching us to remove anything from our lives that may distract us from God. Again, this seems extreme to us, but Jesus was simply teaching us self-preservation. This is for our own good. Our way is disaster. God’s way is life. If we want the blessed life God intends, we must daily be willing to cut out anything that would steal it from us.