WE CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.”

Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.

Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.

To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: “Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. You must always be careful to keep the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.

2 Kings 17:24-41

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In my last devotional, we read the following words from the scriptures:

“…they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the LORD their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.” 2 Kings 17:14-15

From this, I posed the question, “Are we worthless?” with the answer depending on what we worship in life. If we worship anything outside of God, then we worship the worthless and in turn, as the scriptures assert, become worthless ourselves. Conversely, when we worship the one true God…our Maker and Creator…then we become rich in Him and all He is.

So what is the second worse thing to not worshipping God at all and instead choosing something else to place our faith, trust and hope in?

It’s when we choose to pick and choose when we worship God and when we don’t.

Reference the people of Israel in today’s scripture.

As we saw in the scripture from earlier in chapter 17 of 2nd Kings, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had angered God so badly as a result of their idolatry that the Lord gave them over to the Assyrians. Shalmaneser, Assyria’s king, “brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites.” We read that the new inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom “did not worship the Lord” and so God “sent lions among them” which “killed some of the people”. The news of this was “reported to the king of Assyria” who gave the order for one of the captured Samarian priests to “go back to live” in Samaria to “teach the people what the god of the land requires”.

And that’s what happened.

So did the relocated Assyrian people abide by the priest’s teaching?

Not exactly.

For our passage tells us that “each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.” And we further learn that “they persist in their former practices” to this day as “their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did”.

So what about us today? Do we act just like the Assyrians…worshipping the Lord while at the same time serving others gods, like money or lust or pride or celebrity or any other number of things that could draw our devotion away from the only One who is worthy of it? Or maybe, just maybe, we decide to not adhere to God’s commands and expectations or pick and choose when we do and don’t want to comply?

This scripture passage does far more than show us what first led the people of Israel and then the people of Assyria who moved into Samaria to go wrong and incur God’s wrath. It also calls us to be introspective in looking at our own lives and how we’re living in the sight of the Lord.

For way too often, we, like the people of the Old Testament, decide that we want it both ways. We want to worship and follow God’s will but we also want the ways of the world and its enticements that lure us to turn from God to them.

Friends we can’t have it both ways. We have to choose.

God gave up everything for us when He allowed His only Son to be crucified on Calvary’s cross.

How willing are we to give up everything for Him, surrendering our own desires to pursue His desire for us?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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