Scripture passage that caught my attention today: 2 Kings 17:29-33 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived; 30 the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the people of Cuth made Nergal, the people of Hamath made Ashima; 31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also worshiped the LORD and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they worshiped the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
Observation: They worshipped many different gods according to their traditions or whims.
Application: From a religious standpoint it must have been interesting and confusing to live in those days. They would worship almost anything and everything with the hope that such devotion would make things better. Worshipping the Lord was in their rotation of worship too, but just as one ‘god’ among many. And I can almost see how it might have been difficult for them to know for sure which of these ‘gods’ might actually be real.
In the Old Testament there are distinguishing features attributed to our God. They are personal characteristics, if you will. First and foremost, our God is known as the one who acted, rescuing the Israelites from the hand of their Egyptian oppressors by leading them through the sea and, eventually, into the promised land. Our God is also known as being gracious and merciful…and jealous of people’s devotion to any other gods.
Still, these personal characteristics are not always enough to keep people from trying to secure some other form of good luck charm through carved images or various rituals—some of which were quite heinous. They would worship “God,” but also would worship their back-up gods as well.
I’m not sure if it’s that much different today in some respects. We find promises of various forms of ‘salvation’ in our culture. There are all kinds of programs/gods to ‘save’ us from financial ruin, physical malady, relationship struggles, vocational confusion, and last year’s oh-so-2010 style! We are told that we need only devote to these guru gods and all will be well. And so it’s easy to worship one God on the weekend and shuttle our devotion between a host of other gods during the week.
Somehow I think God through Jesus has something much better in mind. Something based far less on our actions and far more, once again, on what God has done and continues to do.
Prayer: Lord, help us to be less devoted to our own pursuits and more devoted to simply being more in tune with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Readings today included: 2 Kings 17, 2 Chronicles 28, Psalm 46 and James 3)
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