The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. (Judges 10:6 ESV)Throughout much of its history, particularly throughout Judges, Israel worshiped just about anything they could find other than the one true God. Why? Did the Sidonians exhibit greater passion and dedication to their god? Or was it simply easier or more "profitable" to worship man-made, man-centered gods? (Although Molech was hardly easy to worship, since doing so required child sacrifice.)
What is it about the human heart that would rather worship rocks and trees than God Himself? I guess the question answers itself, in a way. We are born as rebels.
We are born in sin, defiant of our Creator. We would rather honour sticks and stones, pray with meaningless repetition and self-inflicted pains, even sacrifice the lives of our precious children, then bow before the Almighty.
How foolish to believe that we could ever come to God on our own initiative. If He doesn't open our hearts to Him, we will surely remain adamant against Him.
Praise God for His irresistable grace!
6 comments:
Jars of Clay have a song called Jealous Kind. One verse says,
Try to step away from rocks that keep on spreading,
look for solice in the shift of the sinking sand,
I'd rather feel the pain all too familiar, than be broken by a lover I don't understand.
8:34 AM
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Nice blog, keep up the work ;]
Tom,
Check out this crazy post concerning R.C. Sproul's grandson who works for
Ligonier:
http://jensgems.blogspot.com/2006/09/
heir-to-ligonier.html
Also, check out how much R.C. Sproul makes a year apart from church salary as a pastor and book sales:
http://drbrooker.net/?p=683
Crazy!
I would be interested in your thoughts...
Nick
I saw your comment on the blog regarding the Bart Campolo article and that you did not get a chance to read it... I don't know if you found it after leaving the comment, but the article is still up at the Journal of Student Ministries at http://www.thejournalofstudentministries.com/articles/CampoloYS.pdf
and after reading THIS blog... :)
I just have to say in my own life experience as far back as I can remember I have wanted to worship God, not sticks and stones... I distinctly remember watching a sunrise on my grandmother's deck one morning as I was eating breakfast, when I was just four years old. The joy in my little heart automatically gave glory to God, not to the sun... I was so small that I had not understood anything I had ever been told in church, I simply was small enough that I still understood God at a basic and fundamental level. I think when Jesus lets the little children come to him, it was out of joy for the closeness they automatically felt to him, as yet mostly unmarred by a fallen world. I do think we are born sinners, but I also think we are still created in the image of God and children understand that inherantly. It is as we get older and hurt by the world we become more determined to 'remain adamant against him'. You clearly are of a very differing point of view ;) However, I can't ever resist putting in my 2 cents...
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