Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Eva, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. And it was so at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, the nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them. Indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the god of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, send there one of the priests whom you have brought from there. Let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the god of the land. Then one of the priests, whom they had carried away from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. However, every nation continued to make gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nation in the cities where they dwelt. The men of Babylon made Sukkoth-bin-Oth. The men of Kuth made Nergal. The men of Hamath made Oshima. And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak. And the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Enamelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared the Lord, and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods, according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. To this day they continue practicing the former rituals. They do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandments which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever. You shall not fear other gods. And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear, and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies. However, they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals. So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images. Also, their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we beg once again your illuminating spirit as the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Christ. Pour him upon us that we might understand this word that he has given to us. Be with us, Father, meet us. Show us your heart, how much you hate syncretism. We pray that you would free us from distraction, that you would open our hearts to receive the truth of your word. cleanse us, we pray in the name of your living word, our Lord Jesus Christ and all God's people said amen. The title of tonight's sermon plays deliberately on the classic 1930 work by Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents. In that book, of course, Freud argued that there are two principles at work, the pleasure principle and the reality principle, and that all of us are born into the world seeking only pleasure. But the reality principle repeatedly bludgeons us and teaches us that We can't always have pleasure. So civilization, as Freud saw it, consists in the interplay between the pleasure principle and the reality principle. And insofar as the reality principle triumphs, civilizations stand. When the pleasure principle starts to triumph, civilization falls. Well, that was Freud's reading, and Freud posited in that book that there was actually a third principle that topples both the other two, and he called that the death drive. Fundamentally, when both reality and pleasure are exhausted, once we figure out that neither one is ultimate, we begin to long for death. Not the most cheerful book, but that was the name of the book. As long as you're seeking pleasure, you can't have civilization. Well, our passage tonight deals not so much with civilization, but with syncretism and its discontents. You could read this, of course, in Freudian terms as these people following the pleasure principle and so on. But what we really see, syncretism is the habit or the practice of worshiping multiple gods, picking and choosing from a variety of religious traditions and kind of comforting yourself under the resulting quilt of traditions and saying, this is my religion, this is what I like, this is the way I'm going to do it, and I realize that it's none of these religions in their purity, but it's the best pieces of them all. Well, that's syncretism, and that's what was practiced in the territory of Israel after the exile. Of course, the one who is supremely discontent with that reality, is God himself. God is the one who's most discontent with syncretism. So our passage tonight shows us the ironies of syncretism. There are many. It is completely absurd from any rational perspective. Syncretism does not make sense. And the ironies multiply here in the first nine or so verses of our text. But then our text also shows us the antithesis of syncretism. Instead of syncretism, what is it that we need? We'll see that we need exclusive worship, we need God's election, we need God's covenant, and we need God's salvation. Then finally the chapter winds up, again on a depressing note, almost by positing a death drive. and saying syncretism is very stubborn it's hard to drive this demon out God's people love syncretism and only his election and covenant are strong enough to keep us from it that's what we'll see in our passage tonight well the ironies of syncretism the first irony of course is that Assyria, in accordance with its standard policy, resettled the depopulated territory of northern Israel. Assyria had systematically removed about 27,000 Israelites, deported them. Likely, these were the elites, anyone who could organize any kind of resistance against Assyrian domination. And then Assyria brought people from all over the east from Babylon way down in the south of modern-day Iraq all the way up to Hamath in the north of what's today Syria and many other cities. And these people came and they brought their gods with them and right away God started punishing them with lions. Now what's the irony here? Well, they sent to the king of Assyria and said, hey, could we get some religious help? Clearly, what we're doing is not pleasing the local deity, and he's attacking us. And so what we need to do is figure out what he wants. It seems like a pretty simple line of thought. But the irony, of course, is that Israel for 250 some years previous to this time, had suffered God's judgments, judgments upon judgments upon judgments, and never once, well, once, but only once, had Israel stopped to say, wait a second. What is it that God wants from us? Why are we suffering like this? Maybe we should think about doing what God wants. We had one king. who was that Jehoash, I believe, who prayed and asked for help and God sent him help. And otherwise, all the kings of Israel walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. It never crossed their mind that the sufferings they had could be helped by serving God. That's the point that's being made. You know, we can wonder, well, why did God send lions when he hadn't sent lions against Israel? And when did God stop sending the lions? And why did God stop? Was he satisfied with syncretism? We're not exactly sure. Clearly, he did stop. Otherwise, the lions would still be coming. The point seems to be simply this. How ironic that the new settlers who don't fear God at all care more about what he thinks than his own people did. And, of course, the other thing to recognize is that syncretism often works. If you pick and choose a variety of things that you like, you'll often find that, on a worldly level, it makes your life a lot better. Some of you may know people like that who had a terrible life and then latched on to some different New Age ideas and different Jedi ideas and this piece of this and a piece of that, and their life has been much more stable and better lived since that time. Well, that seems to be what's being mentioned here. Syncretism often pragmatically yields results. Doesn't make it right, but it does make it appealing. So foreigners care more about what God thinks than God's people thought. Irony number one. Irony number two, a false worshiper comes to teach true worship. The king of Assyria says, yeah, I can help you out. I got a priest here. He's got nothing to do. I'll send him right back on over. So one of the false priests who had been carried into exile comes and teaches them what God wants. He taught them how they should fear the Lord. And, apparently, the lion stopped. So this leads us to the question, how do you evaluate your worship? Do you evaluate your worship, your religious paradigm, based on whether it works for you? Because, by that standard, the rituals practiced in Samaria after the exile were perfectly appropriate. They worked. They kept the lions off everybody's backs and that was the main thing they were looking for. Keep us alive? That's what we want from our religion. So do you judge your worship, your religion, based on whether it works or based on whether it conforms to what God has already told you about himself? The narrator, you can tell that he disapproves of this practice. And yet he freely admits that it produced some pretty decent results. The cash value of syncretism is often quite high. It can get rid of a lot of your problems. The only problem it can't get rid of is your biggest problem, which is that God is angry with you over your sin. The worship of the Samaritans didn't even begin to address that problem. Well, another irony, every nation multiplied its gods in the cities of Samaria. And the narrator's way of presenting this, men of Babylon made Succoth-Binoth, the men of Kuth made Nergal, Nivhaz, Tartak, Ashima, Adrammelech, Enamelech. Now, God is not listed in that list, per se. But it almost gives the impression that the god of the entire earth has become just another regional god. That Jehovah is on a level with Sukkoth, Binoth, and Nibhaz, and Tartak, and all the rest of them. Pick one, pick a different one, pick three, they're all about the same. That is the official party line of our culture. Jehovah is basically like Allah, or Brahma, or altruism, or poverty relief, or any of the other million and one things in which human beings find meaning and significance for their brief lives. You can hear that in the classrooms of any public school in America. If that religion works for you, that's wonderful. But syncretism rules. Whatever you want to believe, whatever god you want to worship, pick from the list. They're all equally good. So that was what was embraced by these settlers in Samaria. That's what's embraced by the culture around us. What's the point? Don't believe it. These gods are false gods. But notice what happens when you embrace this kind of syncretism. Verse 32, they feared the Lord. Now again, ironically said, they feared the Lord. And from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. What's an infallible sign of syncretism? Well, it's the lowering, the loosening of standards for ordination. If any god is worthy, then any way of worshipping is equally valid. And of course, if any way of worshipping is equally valid, then any officiant is equally good. That's the logic here. Any god you want, any way you want, with any one you want. So if you have a body whose ordination standards are low, who basically says, if you want to be a minister in this church, we don't care what your lifestyle looks like, we don't care what you believe, we don't care what you embrace, we don't care who you sleep with, that's all irrelevant. You can be a minister in this church. Well, that is the definition of syncretism. If everyone is equally good at leading me in the worship of God, it must be because every way of worshiping God is equally good. And of course, the entire Old Testament, the entire Bible, witnesses to the fact that not every way of worshiping God is equally good. Some ways are wrong, some ways are unacceptable, some ways are false. So in other words, we need to have strict standards for ordination. Who will we vote to vote on as an elder, as a deacon, as a pastor? Who will we as a denomination allow to be a minister? And so on it goes. That is a corollary of the truth that God wants to be worshipped in a particular way and therefore ordination is not for anyone from any class of people Ordination is for those who know how to worship God correctly and who meet the standards that God requires in those who would lead his people in worship. Well, verse 32 and 33, of course, stand in formal contradiction to verse 34. Verse 32, they feared the Lord. Verse 33, they feared the Lord. Verse 34, they do not fear the Lord. What's the point? Well, the point is that Israel has become just like the nations in really three ways. All the nations seem to fear the Lord. And, you know, we just had this list. They made all these deities, but on top of them, they feared Jehovah. Oh, yes, I'm a Christian, but I also worship Nergal on Saturday nights. Oh yes, I'm a Christian, but I think it's important to not leave a Shema out of this. Nibhahs and Tartak, oh yeah, they're very important to me. Now obviously that sounds silly to us. We don't worship those gods. Those aren't the gods of our culture. To say, oh yes, I'm a Christian, but my bank account, now, you know, that's important. I gotta watch my bank account. I'm a Christian, but my comfort, my convenience, my ease, my pleasure, my personal peace and affluence, my human relationships, my power or my pleasure, these are the gods that our culture worships. Oh yes, yes, I'm a Christian, but if you interrupt my free time, woe be to you. You can't worship, you can't fear the Lord, and fear some other god on the side. It doesn't work that way. And yet, of course, just as in ancient Samaria, so today, there are entire societies full of Christo-pagans. Some more obviously so, some less obviously so, but they have a veneer of Christianity in some way, shape, or form. And yet, they also very clearly engage in superstition or in the worship of other gods, other entities, other things. That can't be us. The idols have to go. That's the message here. To fear the Lord and to serve your own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom you're carried away captive, that isn't fearing God. That's the point the text is making. So all the nations seem to fear the Lord, but they all serve their own gods. Israel has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams in its quest to be like the nations, and Israel has suffered the fate of the nations. What do all the nations have in common? Babylon, Ava, Hamath, Kuthah, Sephirvahim, Oh yeah, all of these places were conquered by Assyria. That's why they've all been deported to this land far away from their country called Samaria, and that's why the Samarians have been deported from their country out into the east to all these other lands that they were not familiar with before. All the nations were conquered and destroyed by Assyria. In other words, Israel suffered for its sins just like the nations. They had that in common too. We want to look like the nations around us. We want to be like the nations around us. We want to worship like the nations around us. And if you do that, then you suffer the fate of the nations around you. So if your main ambition is to fit in, to look like the Americans around you, to think like them, to be like them, to enjoy the things that they enjoy, to have the same cultural commitments and loyalties that they have. What is your fate going to be? What's your final destination? Well, it will be the same as theirs. That's the warning in the text. The irony, again, the biggest, fattest irony of them all. Israel had adopted foreign gods for the sake of security and success. And what did they find? Insecurity and military defeat and failure. They said, oh, these bull calves, they'll keep us going. Oh, it was the bull calves that destroyed them. So what is the antithesis of syncretism? The text moves from talking about the ironies of syncretism with the greatest irony, of course, being that it works so well for everything except your biggest problem. The irony of syncretism to the antithesis of syncretism. What is the antithesis of syncretism? Well, it's to truly fear God and to worship Him according to His commandments. To this day, verse 34, they continue practicing their old rituals. They do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow the statutes or their ordinances or the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob. God demands exclusive worship. He decides which rites are acceptable. That's the implication of mentioning that they follow their former rituals. In other words, these former rituals were invalid, were incorrect, were things that God did not approve of and did not want to put up with. This way is not the way to worship me, he said. And those who refuse to do it God's way don't actually fear him. They continue practicing the former rituals, read, in other words, they do not fear the Lord. to say I'm going to connect with the divine in the way that my culture does regardless of whether it's the way that God wants me to connect with him is a failure to fear God. Failure, therefore, really to be truly religious. And then notice that faulty rites also produce faulty behavior. Because they've practiced their former rituals, Therefore they don't follow the statutes or ordinances or law and commandment which God commanded the children of Jacob. False worship leads to sinful behavior every time. That's the quickest way to start living a sinful lifestyle. To worship God incorrectly. To say, well I connect with the divine through sex, drugs, and rock and roll. back in the 60s with the hippie generation and so on. Not so very uncommon today either. Well, if that's the way you connect with the divine, it's not too hard to predict that your life will be riddled with violations of God's commandments. God never said, connect with me through sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And yet, those are humanity's favorite way to reach the divine. Powerful sexual experiences, powerful loud music, and powerful intoxicating substances. God said, don't worship me that way. But these people, the men of Babylon, the men of Kuth, the Avites, the Sefervites, guess how they worshipped? More or less along those lines. Nothing is new under the sun. God tells his people, don't do that. Yes, there's a place for church music, but when it becomes all about generating a particular feeling, then we're connecting with God, we're worshiping the same way that the Babylonians did, or that native cultures that use powerful music to get themselves into trances do. It's the same thing. God says very clearly, don't do that. The quickest way to become a disobedient Christian is to worship God falsely. To adopt some human cultural practice of connecting with the divine, baptize it and say, this is Christian worship. That's what the Sumerians wanted to do. We can worship the Babylon style and we can worship Judah style at the same time in the same way. What's God's verdict? If you do that, you don't fear me. Then the text mentions election. This is the second antithesis of syncretism. On our side, the antithesis of syncretism is true worship. But from God's side, the antithesis of syncretism is election. Syncretism attempts to break down and destroy any barrier between God's people and the world. God's election, on the other hand, builds that barrier and says, no, I define your identity. So notice, the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, that's the original name of the patriarch, whom he named Israel. Why does the narrator go out of his way to remind us about something that happened way back in Genesis 32? Right? We all know that yes, his name was Jacob and at some point God met him and wrestled with him and changed his name to Israel. What does that have to do with Samaria 1,200 years later? And the answer is that election is the opposite of syncretism. God defined Jacob's identity. God said, I choose your name. I decide who you are. You are no longer the cheater, Jacob. You are the one who wrestles with God and prevails. God changed Israel's identity unilaterally. That's what election means. That's the opposite of syncretism. allowing God to define who you are, rather than saying, well, I'm gonna be my own religious innovator. I'll remember Robert Bella, the sociologist who interviewed someone and said, what's your religion? And she said, well, you can call it Sheila-ism, just my own little voice. That's syncretism. God says, no, you're not gonna have Shelahism, you're not gonna have Jacobism. I choose who you are, you are Israel. And then the text mentions God's covenant. Jacob, whom he named Israel, verse 35, with whom the Lord made a covenant. So what's the opposite of syncretism? God's covenant, that is a sovereign relationship whereby God says, I am bound to you by a blood oath. I will be your God, you will be my people, and as part of that relationship, you will not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, to Him you shall offer sacrifice." So God's covenant This relationship that God enters into with us is, again, the opposite of syncretism. God says, I rescued you from Egypt. Any obedience you render me is based on the fact that we're in covenant with each other. Obedience is based on relationship. This is not a God who's far away barking orders from on high. This is a God who met them and brought them up from Egypt. Therefore, the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandments which he wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever. You shall not fear other gods. And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods." In case you missed it, don't fear other gods. Don't worship the bank account. Don't worship prosperity and pleasure. don't worship convenience, those things are not for you to worship. Why? Because you know God. You're in relationship to God. He defined your identity through election. Then he entered into his covenant with you. Baptism is the sign of that covenant. If you've been baptized, you are formally in relationship with God. These words apply to you. If you've partaken of the Lord's Supper, again, the sign of that covenant, these words apply to you. That was God's way of saying to you, don't serve other gods. Remember our relationship. So, you know, when you're single, it's okay to go into a room and say, is there anybody single in here who might be a good life partner? When you're married, that's not okay. Why? Because you need to remember your relationship. Oh yeah, I'm married. I don't need to look for a life partner. I have one. God says, I'm in covenant with you. Don't walk around looking for a God to worship. Don't walk around looking for something ultimate to pin your faith and hope and trust on. You already have me. And that relationship remembers what God did. It remembers the exodus. It remembers salvation. It remembers the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It remembers how God has built the church through the centuries since Christ went back to heaven and poured out the spirit. Just like, you know, next week is Valentine's Day. And if you go out with your spouse, To celebrate Valentine's Day, the spouse says, boy, wasn't that a great time 10 years ago when we went to Devil's Tower for Valentine's Day? And you say, I don't remember that. I can't remember anything that I've done with you that was significant at all. That's a way of destroying the relationship. To purge from your memory those things that you've done together. Well, God says, remember my saving acts in history. Don't delete those, don't purge those. Keep those in mind, and that's part of why you should be reading your Bible daily. Relationship remembers God's saving acts in history, and the way to remember is to remind yourself. Pick this book up, read it again, and say, oh yeah, I had forgotten that about the Exodus. I had forgotten that about the life of Christ. That's why God gave us a book to help us remember. This book and the memories it contains is one of the antidotes to syncretism. Idolatry destroys that relationship. That's why God says don't fear other gods. They broke God's covenant. He kicked them out of the land. They broke it by fearing other gods. So if you find ultimate meaning, ultimate satisfaction in something other than God, that torpedoes your relationship with Him. Don't worship other gods. Syncretism is the opposite of election and covenant. That's the point. Worshiping other gods, fearing other gods, is simply another way of saying, I've forgotten God's covenant. I've forgotten his election. I've forgotten that he defines my identity. And I want to go back to defining my identity. The chapter says, don't do that. And yet, even here, as we see Israel's taillights vanish, speeding away down the road of rebellion, through the dust cloud, we see a glimmer of hope. in verse 39, the Lord your God you shall fear and he will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies. That's part of the covenant. Israel had just been destroyed by their enemies. God comes to them with this reminder, if you fear me, I will save you from your enemies. It's a promise of salvation, but did Israel accept it? No. Their syncretism was too stubborn. They did not obey, verse 40, they followed their former rituals. Their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did even to this day. Start your family down the road to syncretism and guess what happens? More than likely, they will continue following that road and you'll get to watch your grandchildren worship gods that you never ever would want, that you personally would have never worshipped. So is there hope here? Well, there's hope in that God hates syncretism. God is the one who gives us the power to fear him. God is the one who, through election and covenant, delivers us from syncretism. But it's still our job and our calling to worship Him rightly. Not to baptize pagan worship and call it Christian, but to worship God in the way that He has commanded. So look with care on the fate of Israel, and then turn your eyes to the Savior of the world. Christ died for sin, He conquered sin, including the sins of syncretism. Let's pray. Father God, help us to have no other gods before Your face. Help us not to make graven images or any likeness of anything in the heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. Father, keep us from worshiping by means of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Teach us to worship You in the way that You command. Help us to come into your presence, to meet with you, and thereby to see how hateful syncretism is, how much you hate it, how discontented with it you are. Teach us, Father, to fear the Lord our God and to serve Him only. We pray this in the name of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, who perfectly feared you, who perfectly served you alone. And all God's people said, Amen.