JamesL
The premise is a bit of a misnomer. Numerous times, when God hurled out a list of restrictions to the Israelites in the wilderness, He said "When you enter the land..."
Context is key. If the "thing" was at the heart of the issue, the restrictions would have been relevant before they entered Canaan.
As soon as God gave the commands they were relevant. Every command of God is Holy ,just ,and good.
Why did they have to wait before tattoos were wrong? Why did they have to wait before it wrong to wear clothes made of two kinds of materials?
They did not have to "wait". The language just indicates that when they go into the land they were going to be exposed to these things.
Because there's nothing wrong with many of the "things" except that those were expressions of worship, homage, fear, hope, of the false gods the Israelites would encounter.
If something is right or wrong is for God to declare to us.
Sexual activity in a marriage bed between a man and his wife is ordained of God. Any other sexual activity is prohibited. Canaanite sin and perversion was wrong and lead to the land itself being defiled.
20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.
21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25
And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled
28
That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
These sins were filthy abominations that were not to be "tolerated".
Priests cutting their hair and marking their bodies to look like an image of a god they had created. The Canaanites did not honor their parents because they thought it was obvious the fertility gods had forsaken them.
It would be a good idea to study the Canaanite gods, and what they supposedly offered, and see how virtually every commandment given to Israel struck directly at a god.
The article in the OP deals with enough specifics to get the idea.
The issue was not the "thing", but what the thing expressed. And that partaking in the thing would drag them away to the false gods
You do not know this unless you can show a positive command that allows the "thing":thumbs:
