If the enemy can’t curse you, he’ll destroy you through immorality

Somewhere in the last 7 years I stopped my incessant participation in the mainstream culture.

The Covid Years opened my eyes to a lot of things.

The way people will blindly follow without questioning.

The way that pretty much every single news medium is propaganda for one of a few ideologies.

The way that popular music and movies condition us to the general narrative at best, and deplete our souls with anti-God, demonic rhetoric at worst.

It was a wake up call. And a much needed one.

I remember a season where I prided myself on watching nearly 30 movies in a month. Deplorable things, filled with immorality and witchcraft. Where I unquestioningly went along with the latest, fear-laden breaking news, and dutifully did my part as a social justice keyboard warrior.

All without asking the question:

Who am I becoming?

I used the hear preachers say that we should redeem the culture, and while that may be possible in some circumstances, I came to realize that there's a wisdom in YHVH's instruction to not participate in the ways of the idolatrous nations. To set yourself apart.

In His infinite wisdom, God knew the subtle allure of the culture. To draw you away from the Almighty, through doubts and desensitization to what He declares is evil.

"Did God really say?" whispers the serpent still today.

The story of a pagan sorcerer: Balaam

We see a similar patten in the story of Balak and the sought after Balaam who practiced divination. Over and over at the request of the enemy king of Israel, he attempts to curse God's people.

Three times YHVH blocks him, with a clear declaration that it's a simple matter of fact that it's not possible to curse what God has blessed.

And while this story is inspiring and worth celebrating if we stop here, we would miss a crucial point.

After realizing that Balaam couldn't directly curse God's people, he instead uses God's instruction against them. Well versed in the commands against the idols and sexual immorality of foreign nations, he initiates a plot of subterfuge.

With a change of strategy, the pagan priest invites the God's people to worship, to feasting and revelry, but not to the God of Israel—to the god of Ba’al-Peor. He convinces them to ignore the instructions of the Torah and to take wives from among the foreign moabite women with the overt intention that this act would be their downfall.

YHVH is jealous for His people. He won't stand idly by why they chase after cheap substitutes of worship and affection. 

And often, when we bind ourselves with these false lovers, we suffer the natural consequences of our disobedience. We suffer with failed marriages, sickness of the mind, difficulty maintaining friendships, a bleak, depressing outlook on life, a dark separation from our Creator and first love.

In the case of God's people, the consequence was the death of 24,000 people by a plague. 

Only those who were zealous for God's instruction were able to stop the onslaught. Only those with clear eyes who could see through the plot of their enemy. 

Repent and Return!

Thousands of years later in the the Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah given to John, we hear echoes of the same crafty pattern.  The church in Pergamum, though faithful to God’s Name even while living near Satan’s throne, have still allowed themselves to entertain the teachings of Balaam.

The antidote and stark warning, according to the words of Yeshua in Revelation 2:16-17: “Repent then! If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of My mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to Messiah’s communities.”

And so today in our modern culture we find ourselves facing the same dilemma.

No one can curse what God has blessed, but our adversary is still roaming about, looking for our weakness.

Will we choose to assimilate to the idolatrous ways of the nations we live in? Whether it be sexual, religious, or political. Will we grow callous to the pervasive explicit content, the fear mongering, the ritualistic abortions, and the false idols of the Ba’al-Peor of our day?

Or will we choose to follow the voice of a Father who loves us deeply. One who is always leading us down a path that leads to good things, full of promise and hope? 

Will you have ears to hear what He's telling you to put down and repent of? Will you be courageous enough to follow Him even when it contradicts the way of the world you find yourself in?

May you be strengthened in the words of a Father who loves us. 

May you be willing to stand firm against the rising tide of culture. 

And may you participate with joy in the Kingdom of Heaven that Yeshua is graciously inviting us into. 

Shalom!