Exodus 34:¹¹ Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ¹² Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you. ¹³ You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles ¹⁴ (for you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God). ¹⁵ You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice. ¹⁶ And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods. 

This was a very important command. Making a covenant with people of the land is much more than making a peace treaty. Covenants bind two nations together as one. Making a covenant with another people invited the Israelites to share the spiritual habits and loyalties of the covenant partner. As the scripture says, doing this would be a “snare” to God’s people – and it was. Over and over again. Most unfortunate.

I also think it’s interesting that God describes himself as “jealous”. God doesn’t want us to share our loyalties with other things. I’m thinking this morning of the ways I may be doing just that, making other things in my life a priority over the Lord.