Exodus 34:12, commentary and pictures

To take heed means to carefully guard against entering any covenant with the people of the land being entered, because such an alliance will become a snare in the midst. The snare is being drawn through such confederacies into idolatrous worship and turning from following God. The warning was given in the renewed covenant to keep Israel in obedient connection with God, who promised to drive out the Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite and commanded the destruction of idol altars, images, and groves, for the Lord whose name is Jealous permits the worship of no other god. God's people must therefore remain distinct from idolaters and enter no confederacy requiring harmony in spirit and action with them. That instruction applies unchanged today as a call not to bind in covenant with the world, to make no concessions to transgressors, and to refuse intimate ties such as intermarriage with the ungodly that turn the mind from the divine to the human and hinder cooperation with God.

Covenant Setting and Context

The warning belongs to God's renewed covenant given with the second tables of stone, by which His people were to maintain their connection with Him through obedience, while He renewed His favor to them and promised to do marvels before all the people. Its setting was Moses remaining forty days and nights in the mount, miraculously sustained and alone with none permitted to go up with him or approach the mount, having prepared two tables of stone on which the Lord wrote the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. During that long communion his face reflected the glory of the divine presence and shone with dazzling light unknown to himself, so that Aaron and the people, conscious of guilt and under divine displeasure, were afraid to come near and could not endure the heavenly light. He pitied their fear and assured them of God's reconciliation and restored favor, and thereafter put a veil upon his face whenever he returned to the camp from communion with God.

It stands together with God's promise to drive out from before Israel the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. It is joined to the command to destroy their idol altars, break their images, and cut down their groves where idolatrous feasts were held, and to worship no other god. This exclusiveness rests on the fact that the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God who permits no other god. The warning guards against mixing with idolatrous nations whose attractive shrines and worship could deceive the people and take God's place in their minds.

The same covenant instructions are connected with the Sabbath command, requiring rest on the seventh day even during plowing and harvest, when pressing work would tempt Israel to disregard sacred time.

Meaning of the Warning

The command is to carefully take heed and guard against making any covenant with the inhabitants of the land being entered, because such an alliance would become a snare in their midst. That snare is being drawn into idolatry through confederacies and close alliances that draw into idolatrous worship. The snare also turns the mind from the divine to the human, leading to trust in men and making flesh their arm. It brings conformity to a human standard and turns the son away from following God, which prevents and hinders cooperation with heavenly agencies in personal salvation and service. Therefore God's people must remain distinct from idolaters and not enter confederacies or close alliances requiring harmony in spirit and action.

Application for Today

The charge first spoken to Israel stands unchanged for God's people today, calling them not to bind themselves in covenant with the world. That alliance becomes a snare in their midst, for Satan works through those who do not know God and do not acknowledge Him as Creator and Ruler to draw them away from loyalty to Him. For professing Christians this means acting like Christians by refusing alliance with idolatrous associations in order to keep connection with God. It means making no covenant or confederacy with the world and making no concessions to transgressors.

The same principle requires remaining distinct from idolaters and entering no confederacies that draw into idolatrous worship. It applies to intermarriage and to other close alliances with the ungodly, including intimate associations requiring harmony in spirit and action. Such ties can turn the son away from following God and hinder cooperation with Him in personal salvation and service. They turn the mind from the divine to the human, leading to trust in men and making flesh their arm and to conformity to a human standard, and whatever so turns the mind from God prevents cooperation with the heavenly agencies.

God's messengers must therefore bear the message of God's law and Sabbath earnestly and decidedly to all peoples, nations, and kindreds. They must form no confederacy with those who hear the message yet refuse to search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so, but must deal with evil as God has directed, because any such covenant will become a snare in their midst. Making such a covenant means mixing with the inhabitants of the land and going in with them instead of serving the Lord God of Israel with all heart, soul, and mind. The warning is given lest anyone become careless and indifferent and think it does not matter what day is kept, for God as a jealous God requires keeping His Ten Commandments and His sanctified Sabbath by taking the Word to see that the Sabbath declared there is the seventh day, specified so plainly that there is no excuse for keeping the first day of the week.