A Bad Mix - Psalm 106:35 -36

“But they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works; they served their idols, which became a snare to them.” - Psalm 106:35-36

    Peer pressure, worldly influence, “go along to get along;” these are all modern expressions referring to ‘mingling’, learning’, and ‘serving,’ in the broader context of the psalmist’s accusation as laid out in Psalm 106. Since we are God’s ‘chosen’ (or ‘elect’) we too are faced with the dire warnings of mingling, learning, and serving the carnal world.
“Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.” - Judges 3:5-6.  We are few and they are many. How far have we as Reformed Christians stumbled down this slippery slope? And to what end?
    What stands out in the psalm is the fact that the Canaanites and their ilk were already in the world serving their idols when God’s chosen people came along. The command to God’s beloved was simple: “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” - 2 Corinthians 6:17. However, the chosen people mingled with them, learned their ways, and began to serve their gods!
    Many will argue that Christ’s “Great Commission” ( Matthew 28:19-20) prevents the chosen people from separating themselves from the Gentiles. But it was God’s people who failed to follow the Great Commission when they encountered the unbelievers. Instead - “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.” - Judges 2:11-12.  This is the embodiment of mingling, learning, and serving strange gods. We first mingle (or mix) with the unbelievers; we then learn their wicked ways; we then follow in the cloven hoof-prints which lead to the ‘snare’ of spiritual destruction. It is like a physician who goes to cure a disease then becomes infected himself!
    It is a difficult task indeed for a Reformed Christian to compete with the allure and attractions of the world. The audience is sparse and more often than not antagonistic to the “hearing of the Word.” But spread the Word we must, and in so doing reject the entrapments which beckon us to mingle, to learn, and to serve the modern idols.
May the Holy Spirit fortify us in out daily struggle to reject the carnal world and to speak boldly about the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.