Bible Overview: Sin and God's Desire to be the God of His People - Part 6

 Sin and God's Desire to be the God of His People - A Renewed Covenant with Israel

Because of the golden calf, Israel broke their covenant with God immediately after they made it. Fortunately for them, God is merciful and gracious and He renewed His covenant with them. Under the renewed covenant, God included many feasts and laws that were necessary for Israel to observe in order for the covenant to be binding (Exodus 34). One of the primary elements of the covenant was that they would not be at all involved in the worship of any other gods, and in fact they would be required to destroy them:

Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.

Exodus 34:11‭-‬17 

Israel were the people God had chosen to be the people of His Kingdom. His plan was to lead them to the *Promised Land, **destroy the people who inhabited the land, and be their God and their King. Unfortunately, Israel even broke their end of this renewed covenant by breaking the laws, and participating in the worship and sacrifice of false gods and idols, and therefore sinning against God, time and time again.

*The Promised Land was the Kingdom where God would reign as King and be the God of His people Israel who were the subjects of His Kingdom.

**God commanded Israel to destroy the inhabitants of Canaan (the Promised Land), because He knew that Canaan would entice Israel to worship false gods and commit idolatry. God is a jealous God and wants total devotion from His people. Israel again failed to obey God's command, thereby committing idolatry against Him, and "playing the harlot" all throughout the course of their history.