Monday, June 1, 2009

Scripture reading: Jeremiah 1

Jeremiah 1:14-16
The LORD said to me, "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms," declares the LORD. "Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah. I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made. (NIV)

The year was about 600 BC. The northern kingdoms were the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The cities of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, were completely ransacked. Eventually Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and Jerusalem would fall. The Hebrews were taken as captives into the ancient lands of Iran and Iraq.

Why did all this take place? God had 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, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers 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 (Exodus 20:3-6, NIV).

God takes this matter of idolatry seriously!

There is a principle of life that goes like this: We cannot rise above what we worship. We do not even rise to the level of what we worship. When that which we worship drops down, we drop down. The danger inherent in idolatry is this: our gods shrink and so do we. If we make a god in the image of a dog, for instance, we cannot even rise to the level of a dog. The best we can be is a flea.

When we worship that which we create ourselves we always dumb down. We descend below ourselves. We stoop below our potential. We become base. And it becomes impossible to achieve our Creator’s intention (see Romans 1).

This is why God is so serious about idolatry. The only way man will ever climb out of the morass we presently find ourselves in is to worship the One who is infinitely higher than ourselves.

Do yourself and your race a favor today: contemplate on God… and worship!

I love you.

Bro. George