Who is your God?

Hopefully giving you something more to think about.

We all want to believe that our God is the Father in Heaven, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.  We want to honestly say and believe that the Trinity represents our true God.  But, do we really act and pattern our lives that way?  I know I try, I really do, but I also know that I still fall down more than I should.

You see, we can and often do follow similar paths to the early Israelites and the pagans of the old Testament!  They often would drift from God and start worshiping other idols!  They made golden statues of these other “Gods”, they offered sacrifices to these other Gods, and they turned their focus from the one true God!

I’m drawn to the book of Exodus 32 while Moses was on the mountain.
When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.
Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!”
The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.The LORD told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
Then the LORD said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.
Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.”
But Moses tried to pacify the LORD his God. “O LORD!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people!
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.t You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”
So the LORD changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.
Then Moses turned and went down the mountain. He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.t They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
These tablets were God’s work; the words on them were written by God himself.
When Joshua heard the boisterous noise of the people shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds like war in the camp!”
But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration.”
When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain.
He took the calf they had made and burned it. Then he ground it into powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it.
Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?”
“Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’
So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!”
Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies.t
So he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the LORD’s side, come here and join me.” And all the Levites gathered around him.
Moses told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Each of you, take your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other. Kill everyone—even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.”
The Levites obeyed Moses’ command, and about 3,000 people died that day.
Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselvest for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing.”

There are some strong teachings in this chapter.

Don’t we sometimes fall into a similar trap.

Sometimes it’s money that becomes our God, we want to posess more and more, never being satisfied with what we have and sometimes even more reluctant to share it with those truly in need around us.

How about time?  We can be very stingy with our time and with the quality of time we spend with the Lord or doing His works.  We tend to short change Him so that we can do what we want to do, not necessarily what He wants us to do.  I find myself guilty of this one more frequently than I really like to admit.  I let the “rush” of the day interfere with the time I should spend with Him.

Posessions can also be another of our false Idols.  Seems the American way has always been bigger, better, more, more, more.  Look out for #1 first.  This one I think we are all guilty of at times.  We get caught up in all the hype and advertising telling us how good this is or how we really need this or that to show how successful we are.  All of this then becomes another idol that we worship.

I’ve been reading more and more quotes from John Wesley.  I’m trying to get a better understanding of this great man and how he saw things.  A quote he used that helps drive some of this home a good view on our want/need for possessions is this:

“Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can.” —from a sermon in the Works of John Wesley

I hope and pray that we all can learn from this, we are all guilty of putting other “Gods” before our one true God, I pray that we can find a way to return to Him before we get to the point illustrated by Moses in Exodus and also in Judges 2:19-23 – 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
20 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did.” 23 The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

And also the lesson from Jerimiah 44:1-22
1This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt–in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis–and in Upper Egypt:2″This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins3 because of the evil they have done. They provoked me to anger by burning incense and by worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew.4Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ 5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.6 Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.7″Now this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant? 8 Why provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations on earth. 9Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your fathers and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?10To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your fathers.11″Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah.

The Lord is slow to anger, but we need to be careful not to provoke Him to the point illustrated above.

Friends, let us be careful of our “idols” and I wish you the peace and joy that comes from a life truly focused on the Lord.

Until next time, God Bless!