Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
"Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips." Exodus 23:13
Today’s verse from Exodus 23 has two important parts to it, one firmly anchored and connected to the other.
First, God instructs Israel and us as well to "Be careful to do everything I have said to you." As we have read, God has had a lot to say already to Israel and, when it comes to us, He has certainly said much more. In order for us to obey the first part of the passage, we had better know what He said and thus the importance of bible study each and every day. How can you know what God has said if you don’t read it?
Notice that God doesn’t say "do most everything that I have said to you" but rather "do everything I have said to you." There’s no wiggle room here because if we are to be holy as God is holy…if we are to be as He created us, in His own image…then we must obey all He has said.
So why do we fail in this? Well, because we’re sinners and prone to want to fulfill our own desires before fulfilling God’s. The world, Satan’s domain and playground, offers a lot of enticing things to try and lead the children of God astray. Too often, we fall prey to these temptations. We seek joy and pleasure in the wrong places and end up distancing ourselves from the One who alone can bring us the greatest joy and pleasure…the One who alone can offer us hope both now and after death through His only Son, Jesus.
Well, the second part of the scripture for today deals with false gods, something you’ll remember that God commanded us about. Recall the first two of the ten commandments in Exodus 20. God said:
"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…" Exodus 20:3-5
Our scripture today reminds us that we are not to call on the name of any false god. That we’re not to let them be heard on our lips. We’ve looked at this subject of false gods before. Here’s an excerpt from the "No Other Gods" entry of January 21st:
"There are any of a number of "gods" we can prescribe to...money, sex, celebrity, alcohol or drugs, food, television, video games, work and success...I could go on and on. Ask yourself this question...What do you invest most of your time in? What most occupies and governs your every action, your every word spoken, your every thought? If it's anything outside of God, then you may need to reassess your life priorities. He expects us to place Him and His Son Jesus above all things in our life. They have given us their all in delivering us to this time and place. God expects us to give Him the same, worshipping Him always...for all things are in and through Him."
In the times of Israel, it wasn’t uncommon for polytheistic societies to call on their gods at any time while they were doing anything (i.e harvesting, praying, worshipping, sacrificing, etc). There was a god for almost everything. Here’s an excerpt from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary and the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament:
"The pagan civilizations of Bible times worshiped many gods. They had male and female deities, high and low gods, assemblies of gods, priests and priestesses, and temples and sacrifices. All the forces of nature that could not be controlled or understood were considered supernatural powers to be worshiped and feared. Most of the people of the ancient world worshiped more than one god. These gods were worshiped in the form of representative idols. This practice is called idolatry. The pagan nations made statues or images to represent the powers which they worshiped. Most of these idols were in the form of animals or men. Each civilization and culture had its own mythological structure, but these structures were often quite similar. The names of the gods may have been different, but their functions and actions were often the same. The most prominent myth to cross cultural lines was that of the fertility cycle. Many pagan cultures believed that the god of fertility died each year during the winter but was reborn each year in the spring."
"The ancient Babylonian and Assyrian goddess Ishtar symbolized Mother Earth in the natural cycles of fertility on earth. Many myths grew up around this female deity. She was the goddess of love, so the practice of ritual prostitution became widespread in the fertility cult dedicated to her name. Temples to Ishtar had many priests and priestesses, or sacred prostitutes, who symbolically acted out the fertility rites of the cycle of nature. Ishtar has been identified with the Phoenician Astarte, the Semitic Ashtoreth, the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Aphrodite, and the Roman Venus. Ishtar's male fertility counterpart was Tamuz who was closely associated with the Canaanite fertility god, Baal."
"Adremelech was a god worshiped by child sacrifice. Egyptians gods were figures of men with heads of animal or birds. The Canaanite god most often referred to is Baal who was thought to provide productive forces of nature. Baal was worshiped with much sensuality. As with the male shrine prostitutes. Baal and related deities are also portrayed as a mating bull, symbolizing fertility."
Truly, there were competing factions against God then and there still are today. It’s no wonder then that God wanted us to understand His expectations in the face of the temptations of worshipping false gods and idols. For when we call on things that are not of God and invest our time in them, we turn our worship toward them and less toward the One we should be worshipping. Sometimes we even deify other human beings. I had a brief discussion with someone over the matter of science the other day. He said that Christians all feel science is bad. I disagreed with him. For if science were bad, God wouldn’t allow it. Science, like other things, is a gift from God. He blesses others with the knowledge and use of it to bless His children in many ways. But, like in so many other things, man takes something that God intended to be a blessing and abuses it. Too many scientists forget that it is by way of God that they are able to do the things they do. They seek to take all the credit for their work and thus seek to deify themselves. To them and so many others, science becomes a religion and tries to transcend the One who created it in the first place. If they would only read the Word would show them that this is a fleeting endeavor because God is ready to frustrate and judge anyone or anything who tries to rival Him as a god.
David said in the 16th Psalm, "The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods." (Psalm 16:4) Clearly God is not pleased with us when we focus on false gods and not on Him and what He has commanded. In fact, He has shown before that He will take action when false gods are worshipped. Consider these passages from two Old Testament prophets:
"I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked." Hosea 2:17
"On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more," declares the Lord Almighty. "I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land." Zechariah 13:1-2
Truly, one of the things that angers God more than anything is worshipping anything or anyone more than Him. Question: Where are you at in your worshipping? Who do you dedicate your life to the most? Who do you call on when you are in need? Who do you rely on to guide and direct you in life? In the final translation, there is only one answer to these questions and it is God. Be careful to do everything He has said to you.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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