Important Takeaways:

• It would be safe to say that sexual immorality is pervasive in our society. From television shows to movies to print media and even the local park or beach, people are engaging in a level of immorality that is worsening by the year.
• When God instructed the Israelites to take possession of the land promised to them, He says this in Deuteronomy 7:1-2: “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.  Furthermore, in verse 5 He says: But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.”
• As we know from the Biblical record, the Israelites did not follow God’s commandment entirely. Because of their incomplete conquest of the land, worship of a false goddess named Asherah survived and subsequently plagued Israel…
• So that the Israelites would not be tempted to engage in religious syncretism, God also gave this command in Deuteronomy 16:21: “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image [Asherah], near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God.”
• Clearly, not everybody obeyed the command. One of the most wicked acts undertaken concerning Asherah is recorded in 2 Kings 21:7 under the direction of King Manasseh who put an Asherah pole in the Temple: “He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.’”
• The worship of Asherah was exceedingly wicked and known for its sensuality and ritual prostitution. Although the Israelites were commanded not to have anything to do with it, the worship of Asherah was a recurring problem.  Sadly, under Rehoboam, it became even worse.  1 Kings 14:22-24 records: Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.  For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images [Asherah] on every high hill and under every green tree.  And there were also perverted persons [those practicing sodomy and ritual prostitution] in the land.  They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
• The Israelites were not only warned against worshipping Asherah, but also a particularly heinous false god known as Molech. In Leviticus 18:21, God warned: “And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.”  It was not only the people who failed to heed this command.  Even King Solomon stumbled as well.  In 1 Kings 11:7 we read: “Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.”  The sacrifice of children to Molech was particularly cruel.  It is said that they were placed on the outstretched arms of the statue of the “god” and burned alive.  Around them, worshippers played instruments in order to drown out the screams.
• The Conclusion
  • Those who worship at the altar of sexual freedom soon find themselves at the altar of child sacrifice. Ideally, both altars should be brought down in unison.  In other words, the church should not only be actively praying for and lobbying for the elimination of abortion services, but also teaching the full counsel of God when it comes to matters of sexual morality.  May God equip us and strengthen us.  Lives literally depend on it.

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