spiritual battle, Avoid Pagan Rituals (Lev.18-19)

Psychologists will tell us that it is very difficult to just stop a habit.  We must replace it with something else.  So when the Israelites were told not to worship idols, God told the people to only look to Him, to worship...

(Leviticus 19:1-4)  Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. 4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God.

When God told the Israelites not to practice pagan rituals or follow their customs or standards, God gave them other things and better things to follow and practice......

(Leviticus 19:26-28)  ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying. 27 You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. 28 You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

(Leviticus 18:3-5)  “You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. 4 You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. 5 So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.

It's amazing that God even had to tell the Israelites not to practice the following.  Dedications to Molech (an Ammonite deity) sometimes involved human sacrifices; 

(Leviticus 18:21)  You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

From this we see:
- the occult includes death
- the occult includes desecration
- the occult includes destruction of others and oneself
- the occult includes unhealthy practicers

Personal experience:  I remember seeing a National Geographic special on television some years ago.  An isolated jungle tribe had just been discovered;  and it was clear that the producers were intrigued and enamored by their rituals and ceremonies, which included mutilating their bodies.  They even went so far as to say that - as this tribe began to merge with society - they hoped this group of people would not feel the pressure to change their "quaint customs".

Today's takeaway: people sacrifice their loved ones out of fear - in order to appease "the gods" (the demons).  And we have never heard any of those gods or demons say, "No-no-no, don't do that.  It's okay, I've got this." 

But when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, the Lord supplied the ram to sacrifice in place of his son (Genesis 22) - - - just as the Lord - out of His great love - supplied the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God - to die in our place for all sins...

(John 15:12-13)  “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

(Romans 5:6-10)  For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.