Our passage begins with a warning we've seen several times already because it bears repeating. "When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there." (Deuteronomy 18:9) Time and time again we'll find the Lord stressing the "differentness" of Israel. The Lord's people must stand out; they must not conform to the ungodly ways of the world. When they enter a land filled with idolatrous images and altars where wicked things have taken place, they are not to give in to curiosity about the occult practices of the tribes of Canaan. They are not to allow themselves to be influenced or tempted by these unholy mystery religions.
The Bible says the same thing to all of us today who believe on the name of the Lord: we are living in the world but we are not of the world. On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed for all who would believe on His name, saying to the Father, "My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it." (John 17:15-16) We are to stand out and be different. We are to be the light of the world, leading others to the Lord. But if we fall into the same ungodly practices as unbelievers, we will not be able to light anyone's path to anywhere. We will blend in with the crowd and end up wherever the crowd is going.
The Lord says the ways of the nations of the land of Canaan are detestable and, as we've noted before, this same word is also translated as "abominable" a lot of the time. I actually prefer the word "abominable" because I feel it better conveys a sense of revulsion. A thing that is abominable is, according to the thesaurus, a thing that is "abhorrent, atrocious, contemptible, cursed, despicable, disgusting, hateful, heinous, hellish, loathsome, nauseating, reprehensible, repugnant, revolting, vile, and wretched". Here is a brief list of the things the Lord says the tribes of Canaan were doing---the things the Israelites are to avoid: "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 18:9-13) The Lord is saying that the one who engages in abominable practices is an abomination in His sight.
The Lord is able to protect the Israelites from falling into idolatry in the promised land if they will lean on Him for help. They are going to see things in Canaan that they've never seen before. Human beings have a natural curiosity about things they've never seen before but curiosity about ungodly things can lead us in ungodly directions. The Israelites aren't to allow themselves to gaze upon, think about, and become curious about the pagan things they'll see in the promised land. Instead they are commanded to destroy the idolatrous images and altars so these objects cannot become a temptation to them. "When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places." (Numbers 33:51b-52)
You and I can't destroy all the things of this world that we find tempting. Or at least, we can't destroy them literally. But we can, in a sense, destroy them spiritually because we can destroy their power over us by doing this: "Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5b) We don't have to allow ourselves to keep mulling the thing over in our minds. The longer we allow a sinful thought to take up residence in our minds, the more likely we are to act on it. We must turn our thoughts as well as our eyes away from it.
Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden because, after looking upon the fruit and finding it pleasing to her eyes, she kept thinking about it. She kept thinking about how beautiful the fruit was and how good the fruit would taste and how exciting it would be to receive the knowledge that came along with eating the fruit. When she first stopped to gaze upon the fruit and think about it, she never could have imagined the far-reaching repercussions her actions would have. She never dreamed how taking a bite of the fruit would affect not only herself and her husband but every human being of every era from then on.
King David is another example of one who allowed himself to dwell on sinful thoughts and then take action. He happened to catch a glimpse of a woman bathing. He didn't intend to see this sight; he was confronted by it accidentally. But after he saw Bathsheba in the nude, instead of turning his eyes and thoughts away from her, he kept looking at her and thinking about what it would be like to take her to bed. His thoughts led to him sending for her, which led to her becoming pregnant by him, which led to David trying to deceive her husband into thinking it was his child. When that didn't work, David arranged to have him killed and then David took Bathsheba as his own wife. On the night he idly allowed himself to think lustful thoughts about another man's wife, David wouldn't have believed it if anyone had told him he would commit adultery and murder, but that's exactly what he did do.
It may seem harmless to us to look at the things that tempt us. We might think we are capable of looking and not touching. But looking leads to thinking and thinking leads to action and action leads to far-reaching repercussions that we can't even imagine at the time we're toying with ungodly thoughts. This is why it's vital that we "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ". We must turn our thoughts away from the sinful thing and turn our thoughts to the Lord.
In order to facilitate this turning away of thoughts, the Israelites are to destroy the heathen idols and altars of the promised land. They are to destroy them as quickly as possible, without allowing their eyes to gaze upon them, without allowing their thoughts to rest upon them. And after these things have been wiped from the land, the people are to wipe them from their minds as well. The best way to wipe sinful images and sinful thoughts from the mind is to fix the mind on the Lord.
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