Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars - all the heavenly array - do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under Heaven. But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you now are.”
“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that He made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
“After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time - if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking Him to anger, I call Heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.”
“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath.”
Deuteronomy 4:15-20, 23-31
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As Deuteronomy, chapter 4 closes, we find Moses continuing his counsel to the Israelites, reminding them about what God expected in regard to idol worshipping. This counsel could be really summed up in two words: zero tolerance.
For we can go back to when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments to pass onto His people in Exodus, chapter 20 and read the following:
“You shall not make for yourself an image 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, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Vv. 4-6
As we see, the Lord’s direction wasn’t vague. He made it perfectly clear that they weren’t allowed to even make an idol let alone bow down and worship one. When it came right down to it, the nation of Israel was not permitted to place any other god or gods before their God, the only true God, for there was nothing in Heaven or on earth that could rival or supplant Him. He and He alone was the Maker and Master of all creation and expected created things to revere Him as such.
Now, as we return to Moses’ words here at the conclusion of Deuteronomy, chapter 4, we know that the Israelites had broken this commandment on more than one occasion thus the importance of the reminder as they were preparing to enter Canaan, a land full of paganism and polytheistic practices. And since we know how this story goes before it even happens, the wonderful benefit of having history at our disposal, we know that the Israelites will again break this command against idolatry and end up experiencing the judgment spelled out by Moses in this passage:
“After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.”
All of this could have been avoided if the people of Israel would have just placed their full trust and hope in God but once they will enter the Promised Land, they would experience the pull of many counter-cultures with their own religious systems, religious systems that often played on and encouragement fulfillment of human desires. After not displacing all these people as God demanded, the Israelites found themselves corrupted by them and failed to remember “the covenant of the Lord” which ordered them to “not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything” that God had forbidden.
And so Israel had to learn the hard way. They found out first-hand that God was a “consuming fire” and “a jealous God.” as He brought judgment on them for the unfaithful, spiritual adultery against Him. First, through the Assyrian assault of the northern kingdom of Israel, followed by the Babylonian conquest of the southern kingdom with the ensuing 70 year exile, God did indeed “scatter” His people “among the peoples (the Assyrians and Babylonians)” with “only a few” able to “survive among the nations to which the Lord” drove them. Like the imposed forty year penalty for disobediently not crossing the Jordan River into Canaan the first time, a generation would perish and not get to experience God’s restoral after the exile in Babylon ended. We find Moses sharing God’s promise of redemption and restoration in the final verses of our scripture for today:
“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath.”
Indeed, the Israelites would be permitted to return to rebuild their nation, especially the holy city of Jerusalem and God’s temple. During that time, they also would get to rebuild their relationship with Him and we can read about how this played out in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Okay, so how does this relate to us as believers today?
Well, the world we live in contains many things that would tempt us, seeking to draw us toward sin and away from the Lord, stealing our focus from Him and placing it on our own wants and desires. Often times, these are things we can possess, material items that we can touch, feel, and yes, even worship. They become very real to us because we can see them and know they are real and exist whereas God is completely unseen in the same tangible ways. Further, God can’t be held onto and embraced like a human person nor can He be possessed by anyone. No one can exclusively claim Him as solely being their own.
Conversely, He can do this - and does this - easily with us. If we would only allow Him, He will completely posses us if we would only submit and surrender fully to Him. For when we lay our own longings aside, He brings us more than we could ever want or need as He consumes us, not with fires of judgment but rather with the fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit whenever we place our belief in His Son Jesus (Matthew 3:11).
Friends, like the people of Israel, the end of this passage for today brings us all good news. For just as God predicted that His people would stray from His expectations and fall into sin, He knew that we would do the same for we’re all sinners who fall short of His glory (Romans 3:23). And yet, He also knew that they would want to come back to Him and when that would happen, He would lavish them with His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love, just as He will do for anyone today who may have gone astray.
Our God has made the way for sinners to return to His good favor, particularly when they find themselves in distress from the poor choices they have made. The scriptures are clear that the Lord’s redemption is possible but in order for that to happen, one must genuinely want to change, to turn their life around in a direction that points them toward God and away from the world. This re-centering happens when anyone comes to the Lord and repents before Him, confessing their transgressions while truthfully committing to never repeat them so to more become the person He wants them to be.
In the end translation, we serve a Lord who is a merciful God, a blessed heavenly Father who loves His children and wants the best for them. To that end, He demands our absolute obedience and yielding to His autonomy over our lives. There is no room for anything or anyone else. Only Him.
And when He is in full charge of us, we will only worship and love Him with the fullest measure of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In other words, we will give all to the One who gives His all to us.
I can tell you from experience that there’s no better life to live than that.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment