This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. – Deuteronomy 7:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 24, 2015): Deuteronomy 7

This past summer, long before the Canadian Federal election that took place this week, a cartoon appeared showing the incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper bowing down before the statue of another politician. The caption read “What now, O Great One.” But the punch line was found in the identity of the politician that the statue honored – and that politician was clearly Richard Nixon – a President whose legacy has been all about political corruption and feigned ignorance. It was not the first time Nixon and Harper found themselves as comrades in a political cartoon. Sometimes they talk on the phone and sometimes it is the ghost of Nixon that seems to haunt Harper, but the common denominator seems to be a Harper – Nixon connection and an implied message about political corruption.

Harper’s problem is that he promised to take care of Canadian Governmental corruption at the beginning of his reign as Prime Minister and yet most of the corruption that has been uncovered during his reign has been within the Prime Minister’s own party and his appointments. But the Prime Minister has always maintained his own ignorance on the issue. It seems that Harper knows nothing on the subject of corruption. How much he really knows is probably a story Harper will never tell. But what the evidence lead us to believe is that Harper failed to crush the corruption. Instead he ignored it.

Ignoring something is probably the most human of activities, especially for those of us who hate conflict. We overlook it, somehow believing that what we can’t see, can’t hurt us. But the truth is that the things we don’t see usually blindsides us.

When Israel moved into the Promised Land, they were not to overlook the gods of their new homeland. They were to crush them at every opportunity. These gods would become a noose around the neck of Israel if they decided to overlook them. They had to be destroyed.

Unfortunately, Israel failed at the task. Instead, they chose to ignore the altars – and in some cases they even rebuilt them. And instead of being a potential noose, these altars became a very real trap for the people of Israel. A trap that would one day threaten the very existence of the nation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8