Tolerance or Compromise?

“And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I have made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers: and I said, I will never break My covenant with you.  And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed My voice: why have ye done this?  Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.”  Judges 2:1-3

God sent His angel, who apparently had been in Gilgal, which was the first encampment of the Israelites after they crossed over the Jordan River into the promised land, to speak to God’s people.  Some scholars speculate that this angel was Phinehas, the high priest and some think he was one of the prophets.  However, priests and prophets were not called angels in scripture.  Other scholars believe he was a messenger sent by God who was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ appearing in a Christophany, an Old Testament appearance of Christ.  The Angel had been in Gilgal, but now had come to Bochim, the name of which means “weepers”.  It was located west of the Jordan near the Dead Sea.  The reason its name meant “weepers” was to signify the place where God’s people spent some time in repentance over their sins just before they were to enter the promised land.

The Angel spoke in the first-person pronoun which would give us a good indication that He was indeed Jesus Christ.  He began by reminding the people that it was He who rescued them from Egypt and brought them to the land of which He swore to their fathers that they would receive.  He had promised never to break His covenant that He made with them, that is, as long as they obeyed Him and loved Him, He would bless them.  However, God’s people failed time and again to keep their end of the covenant.  Knowing their weakness, God had already made provision for this failure by His plan to withdraw His blessings and allow them to suffer the consequences (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).  And, of course, we know that God also had a long-range plan to provide a way of escape from His wrath for all who would receive Jesus, His Son, in the future, or prior to that time, those who would believe in the promise of a Savior.

As the voice of the Angel continued, He reminded the people that they were not to associate with the nations who were the former possessors of the promised land.  God made this perfectly clear to them.  They were not to make any sort of covenant with them, were to break down their altars and images, and to utterly destroy any whom they could not drive out (Exodus 23:32-33,34:12-16).  They had not followed God’s command.  The Angel asked them why.  In Exodus 24:7, after Moses read the covenant to them, they promised to do all that the LORD had said and to be an obedient people.  We all likely remember the golden calf incident which was a blatant disregard for God who had been so merciful to them.  As long as Israel was obedient to the LORD, He gave them victory over their enemies.  How differently their lives would have turned out had they removed every trace of the idolaters and their idols instead of allowing some to remain in their land.

It was God’s intention for them to be a godly influence on all those who did not know the God of Israel.  However, Israel did not drive out their enemies as God had commanded and instead co-mingled their lives with the lives of the idolaters.  There are those today who push “tolerance” to a level which brings about compromises in the thoughts, actions, and lifestyles of even those who are believers in Christ.  It is one thing to show fairness and compassion to others whose beliefs are contrary to a believer in Christ, but quite another to become accepting to their false notions and irreverent lifestyles.  There was an account in the news this week of a Philadelphia pro hockey player who refused to wear a jersey promoting homosexuality on the night that the hockey team set aside to celebrate Pride Night.  The player is Russian Orthodox which, along with many other Christian denominations, refuses to accept homosexual relationships, including gay marriage because it violates God’s creation of a man and a woman as a sacred, spiritual, and scriptural bond in holy matrimony.  Of course, the player has been ridiculed, and some didn’t want him to be allowed to play.  On the positive side, his jersey has been selling like hotcakes!

I heard on the radio that someone suggested a team should set aside a game in which Christians would be honored, and all the players would wear jerseys with crosses on them.  Those who refused to do so, and there likely would be many, would be seen as heroes standing up for their right to believe as they choose.  The hockey player did not criticize or make any remarks regarding what he believes, but just didn’t want to participate in something that he felt was against his beliefs.  He tolerated others who desired to be a part of Pride Night, but he didn’t want to compromise, you know, the old “go along to get along”.  Christians can tolerate others who believe differently, but we should never compromise our faith for the sake of fitting in or being accepted by society.