Word of Encouragement (01/25/2023)
"The LORD saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. 20 And he said, 'I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21 They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Deut. 32:19-22)
Yesterday, we saw what it meant for God to be provoked to jealousy and anger. We also saw why it was right for God to get jealous and angry. Today, we will see another reason.
We read in v. 21, “They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols.” Some may think that it was beneath Him to be so angry that the Israelites worshipped “what is no god.” Should we be upset if an ant wanted to challenge us? But God was not angry at “what is no god”; it was, rather, Israel worshipping “what is no god” instead of worshipping the one and only true God.
Do you sense the pathos of these charges? The Israelites made God jealous with what is no god! Israel’s idolatry was like a wife cheating on her handsome, faithful, and loving husband with an abusive, ugly man infected with all kinds of venereal diseases. Marital infidelity is bad. But when a wife cheats, you would think that it should at least be with someone who is “better” than her husband. If not, it would be a double blow, adding insult to injury. “You cheated on me with that?”
That was the spiritual reality of what the Israelites did when they forsook the LORD and went after the pagan idols. There was no comparison between their LORD God and the pagan idols: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me...” (Isa. 46:9). Yet, the Israelites chose to worship these pagan idols as if they were better than the LORD. Only it was worse because the pagan idols were no gods at all. They were figments of people’s imagination. They were demons, who were mere creatures (though powerful), who terrorized people with their supernatural powers as if they had the authority to do whatever they pleased with the lives of their worshippers. (There is a sense, in which pagan worshippers are under the authority of the devil and demons. Paul calls Satan “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). This doesn’t mean that he can do whatever he wants to do with unrepentant sinners. Consider the case of Job. Satan could not do anything that God did not allow him to do (Job 1:12, 2:6). Whatever authority Satan had was under the sovereign authority of God.)
What is it that you are obsessing with these days? What is it that you cannot let go even in the presence of God? However precious it may seem, however necessary it may feel in your life, it is no God. If it is not God, you don’t need it; you can live without it but you cannot live without God even for a moment. Don’t cling to it as if your life and happiness depended on it.
If anything is raised up as a rival or replacement of God or a supplement to God, it is an idol. If it is an idol, we must remove it from our hearts as quickly as possible before it destroys our lives in some significant ways. When we receive God’s gifts as God’s gifts and do not lose sight of the surpassing value of the divine Giver over the gifts, we can enjoy them with pure delight. But the moment we value them more than God, we turn them into idols and stumbling blocks; they no longer hold any good value. Is there anything good about the church if it is without Christ? Is there anything good about heaven if Christ is not there? And what is our life worth if we don’t have Christ? Let us count all things as loss—as rubbish!—in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:8). When we are thus freed from the tyranny of the worldly things, we will be able to enjoy them as they should be enjoyed (as they are God’s good gifts to us) to the glory of God!