Overthrow הָרַס

We are in chapter twenty-three of Exodus with our word for today. הָרַס tear down, throw down, break, annihilate, overthrow, ruin. It is used 43 times in the Old Testament. We see it used in the sense to cause the downfall of governments, rulers, or other authorities. We find God doing this action like in this example. Exodus 15:7 In the greatness of your majesty you תַּהֲרֹ֣ס threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble. This was the Egyptian army that God wiped out. This sense of overwhelming annihilation is how God is using our word in our chapter today. Exodus 23:23-24 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall הָרֵס֙ תְּהָ֣רְסֵ֔ם [literally to overthrow you will overthrow. So we have the infinitive and the verb both in the Piel which is an intensive voice. This is a lot of emphasis on this action] utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. Did you notice the contrast? Instead of bowing down or worshiping their gods they were to instead utterly overthrow them. Yesterday we looked at our word blot out which God was going to do through his angel but today we have God also commanding his people to utterly overthrown. So they participate in getting rid of the evil that is present. We see another example of this with God’s instruction to Gideon. Judges 6:25 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. וְהָרַסְתָּ֗ Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.” God wants all of the evil and sin completely destroyed and removed from the lives of his people. Because he loves us and knows how dangerous it is. It is one thing for God to save us from evil it is another for us to also willingly let go of its influence on us. We see this dynamic over and over again throughout the Bible. When Jesus was with the woman caught in adultery notice what he says. John 8:10-11 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Did you catch Jesus saves her from the consequences of her sin in that he prevented her from being stoned to death but then he also commands her to leave her sin. James emphasizes our need to continually keep evil from influencing us in his summary of the Christian life of faith. James 1:26-27 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. I’ll close with David’s understanding of this in not just calling God his redeemer but also his desire to live in a way that pleases God. Psalm 19:13-14 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.