Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. The prohibition on covenant with the nations and their gods is the negative form of the covenant exclusivity the law has required throughout. A covenant with the nations would create a legal obligation to their gods — the religious and the political cannot be separated in the ancient world. Judges 2:2 records God's rebuke when Israel made covenants instead of demolishing altars. The failure of covenant exclusivity begins with the formal alliances the law prohibits. 2 Corinthians 6:14–16 applies the same principle to the church: do not be yoked together with unbelievers — the covenant incompatibility of light and darkness, Christ and Belial, is the New Covenant form of the Old Covenant's prohibition on alliances with foreign nations and their gods.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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