Of Greater and Lesser

 

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Then he [Josiah] gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser:  “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah.  Inquire about the words written in the scroll that has been found.  For the Lord’s great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord.  We have not been doing everything this scroll says we must do.”  So Hilkiah and the other men went to the New Quarter of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet Huldah. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, the keeper of the Temple wardrobe.  She said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken!  Go back and tell the man who sent you,  ‘This is what the Lord says:  I am going to bring disaster on this city and its people.  All the curses written in the scroll that was read to the king of Judah will come true.  For my people have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods, and I am very angry with them for everything they have done.  My anger will be poured out on this place, and it will not be quenched.’  “But go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek the Lord and tell him:  ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the message you have just heard:  You were sorry and humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this city and its people.  You humbled yourself and tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance. And I have indeed heard you, says the Lord.  So I will not send the promised disaster until after you have died and been buried in peace.  You yourself will not see the disaster I am going to bring on this city and its people.’”  So they took her message back to the king.  Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.  And the king went up to the Temple of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, along with the priests and the Levites—all the people from the greatest to the least.  There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in the Lord’s Temple.  The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul.  He promised to obey all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll.  And he required everyone in Jerusalem and the people of Benjamin to make a similar pledge. The people of Jerusalem did so, renewing their covenant with God, the God of their ancestors.  So Josiah removed all detestable idols from the entire land of Israel and required everyone to worship the Lord their God.  And throughout the rest of his lifetime, they did not turn away from the Lord, the God of their ancestors.  

2 Chronicles 34:20-33

In the 21st century culture of the United States, this act of King Josiah would be considered treason.  He took the Scriptures, held it up to God and vowed he would live by it (a good model for any world leader), and then (the treason to a modern-day American) King Josiah required everyone else in his service, and all the citizens of the land to pledge likewise. 

I feel a storm brewing here, between the modern-day culturally-hallowed icon of individual freedom and a Josiah model of surrendering-all to the will of God.  The former, being popular, ingrained from the first time we say the pledge of allegiance, or sing the Star Spangled Banner, is no longer an outcome of the later, but the very target at which every allegiance is aimed these days.  Yet, Biblically, our personal freedom is still the lesser, compared to the greater claim on our lives by the Creator, the God of Josiah’s Scriptures.

For You Today

I get it…as those who honor a God who gave us free will, we cannot abandon the quest for liberty, but I get it even more that, when it comes to obeying God, that personal liberty is the first idol that must go.  Anything other than God in first place is an idol; such is the essence of His first commandment: 

Then God gave the people all these instructions:  “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.  “You must not have any other god but me.  Exodus 20:1-3

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  WikimediaCommons Calvin Wesley Luther Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Idols of the Nations

[1]

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands.  They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see.  They have ears but cannot hear, and mouths but cannot breathe.  And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.  Psalm 135:15-18^(NLT)

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.  These are not from the Father, but are from this world.  And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.  But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.  1 John 2:15-17^(NLT)

Forty years ago rock singer Bob Dylan wrote:

You might be a rock ’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage
You may be a businessman or some high-degree thief
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody[2]

What Bob Dylan understood is how we humans are hard-wired to worship.  And, despite all the choices we have of what to do with our time and energy, the choices are amazingly simple and clear cut; we either worship God or we worship ourselves as god.

What?  Explain that a little, please.

Whether your choice of idol is money, sex, power, personal accomplishments, being a groupee for the next American Idol, or carving-up a tree into a totem pole, the whole idea of a crafted, carved, accumulated, experiential, historically-meaningful idol is still an idolatry.  And an idol does not see, hear, or speak; an idol is lesser than its creator/carver.  So, anytime you encounter an idol in your life, understand that you have created it, and therefore, you are its god.

Simpler translation:  when anything other than God is given greater significance than God in your life you have become an idolater! 

Or, as the apostle John put it, you do not love God, you love this world.

The sad thing about that is this world is passing away; you miss the eternal for something that will fade, fizzle, and disappear.  And that’s a really poor choice.

For You Today

Giving up the world’s stuff in order to serve Jesus is a matter of discarding the idols that cannot see, hear, speak or have the life to breathe…in favor the life offered by He who sees all, hears all, knows all, and will live forever.

Not much of a contest there!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Gotta Serve Somebody, Words and Music by Bob Dylan © 1979 by Special Rider Music