Word of Encouragement (01/18/2023)
“But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. (Deut. 32:15-18)
Jeshurun’s evil consisted of two things: 1) he forsook the LORD; 2) he went after and served other gods. Last time, we saw Jeshurun’s evil and foolishness of forsaking the LORD. Today, we will reflect on Jeshurun’s evil and foolishness of going after and serving other gods.
Again, we see that man, having been made in the image of God, cannot escape from worship. An image-bearer cannot find his meaning and purpose in himself; he must find them in something else that is greater than he—not just an image like himself but a self-defining substance. We were created as worshippers. Our ultimate meaning and purpose are found in acknowledging and proclaiming the supreme worth of something greater than we. Because we are made in the image of God, it is God we are made to worship and serve. As a portrait that bears no resemblance to the subject is worthless and appalling, so is man, who does not worship God, his Creator.
This was all the more so for Jeshurun: not only was God his Creator but He was also his Redeemer, the Rock of his salvation. If all the nations of the world owed their worship to God, Jeshurun even more. But he forsook his God and the Rock of his salvation. Why? Was it to set himself free from the burden of worship and service? Was it because he did not want to bring offerings and offer sacrifices to the LORD anymore? If so, he miserably failed.
But that was not even the case. Jeshurun did not forsake the LORD so he could declare his independence from (what he perceived to be)) the foolishness of worshipping Someone other than himself, having to set aside his precious possessions to offer sacrifices. He forsook the LORD to worship “strange gods” that were “demons that were no gods,” “gods they had never known..., new gods that had come recently”!
Here we see clear identifications of the pagan idols. They are “strange” (or foreign) gods—that is, the gods of pagan nations. They were “demons that were no gods”—that is, they were fallen angels, who were mere creatures that were pretending to be gods, whose mission was to destroy whoever was foolish enough to worship them. They were “gods they had never known..., new gods that had come recently.” What? “New gods that had come recently”? How can that be? Do gods move from one place to another as if they were confined to a territory? Can new gods be imported from another place and worshipped as the new lords and masters of the land?
What did Israel’s exodus show, especially the ten plagues, with which the LORD devasted the land of Egypt? That God was the true Lord and Master of the Nile, the animal kingdom, the sun and the sky, and life and death! The Egyptians worshipped the creatures rather than the Creator, who controlled and reigned over all aspects of life, even those of the Egyptians. Jeshurun was foolish enough to forsake the one and only true God and went after the pagan idols that were not gods at all! To borrow Jeremiah’s expression, “they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).
God has shown us in Jesus Christ the extent and intensity of His love for us. Far worse will be our sin of forsaking Him and serving the idols that are not gods at all. “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29)? Let us hold fast to the gospel of Jesus Christ and worship our true God with all sincerity and devotion!