That there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood. (Deuteronomy 29:18)
Moses explained to the people that giving undue attention and admiration to these idols would result in death. Idolatry, in fact, is a degenerate seed that produces cursed fruit in the lives of those who participate in such behavior. It would be akin to allowing a poisonous seed to be planted within one’s garden and producing a deadly fruit, thus threatening anyone deceived by its “good” looks. Furthermore, the fruit containing the deadly seed will then be disseminated throughout the rest of the garden — or in this case, the nation of Israel.
Moses refers to this poisonous outcome as “bitterness and wormwood.” The Hebrew word translated as “bitterness” — in other translations “gall” — comes from a word that typically associated with “head” as in “heads of grain.” In the natural, the variety of seed determines the type of fruit or “head.” Likewise in the spiritual, the seed determines the fruit; if the seed is poisonous, the “head” will also be poisonous. In this case, idolatry is the seed that produces “wormwood,” a term translated from a Hebrew word used for “curse.”
The message should be obvious: turning away from the Almighty to embrace other gods, or other philosophies that conflict with His Word, will result in a deeply rooted problem for those who choose this path. It becomes a deadly plant that chokes out the life of what is good, bearing a poisonous, as well as pervasive, fruit that is propagated through future generations. The eventual outcome is the curse of death, and therefore, God’s people must continually be guarded against any and all beliefs, philosophies and ideologies that oppose the truth of God’s Word.
We must be keenly sensitive to His Word, which is the only Good Seed, allowing it to grow and thrive within us, thus producing the fruit of the Spirit. Let us be, as the Psalmist said, “A tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalm 1:3).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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