“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” (Deuteronomy 4:23,
NIV).
They were set aside in significance,
protected in every way and a preferred people. Tenderly watched and blessed
with all necessities for living and destined for abundance because of the affluence
of their benefactor and provider.
Attention to their needs and development was constant and comprehensive.
Delivered out of danger and released from oppression, free from fear and
bondage. The richness of their position in
their relationship with God was evident and envious to those around them. Great love was upon them, as great as was
imaginable and possible and as great as possible for a Father to have for His
children.
These people who were the Children of
Israel were as ungrateful as possible to their Father, the Almighty God of
Heaven and Earth. They were disloyal as
possible as they turned away in the midst of all they had been given. They offensively
mocked their provisions and clamored again to be enslaved forgetting their
misery and suffering. Finally they were grotesquely affronting to their Living God
throwing their affections and worship upon empty idols of wood and gold.
We can be like those children of long
ago. We worship with abandon, things
that will pass away and become worthless instead of the Heavenly Father who
loves us with a great love in Jesus Christ.
We can be disloyal to the Only One is forever loyal to us. The One who is even loving us
in our sin and we at times can be as offensive as the most spoiled and selfish child in
the entire world.
Yet just as the Almighty God was to
His children of ancient times … He is to us. To the most disloyal, offensive
and affronting child reeking with sin … He offers loving grace. In Jesus Christ we have a grace that saves us
and love fixed upon us beyond our comprehension. Thanks, be to God.
“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 seek 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 ancestors, which he confirmed to
them by oath” (Deuteronomy 4:28-31, NIV).
Suggested Reading ... Deuteronomy 4
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