No other Gods
“Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.” (NIV) Deuteronomy 31:15-18
When I read the Old Testament I often get frustrated with the Israelites for their lack of commitment to God. The passage above refers to a time near the end of Moses life when the Israelites were just about to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. After all they had been through in their journey out of Egypt and through the desert, God had also performed many miracles including the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21), the pillar of cloud/fire (Exodus 13:21), the manna from heaven (Exodus 16), water from the rock (Exodus 17) and many, many others. It may seem crazy to us that after seeing all these things that a group of people would turn their back on God and commit adultery with other “gods” but that is exactly what the Lord predicts in verse 16. This section of scripture shows us that it doesn’t seem to matter how much God proves His existence. People will still doubt him and turn away and we as Christians are certainly not immune to this problem.
The tricky part for Christians today is that it may be less obvious (at least to us) what “other gods” we are serving. Most Christians aren’t tempted to serve another “deity” like the Baal’s of the Old Testament but the “gods” we now commit adultery with are things that may not seem bad at all like money, jobs, school, television, the internet, smartphones, sports or even ourselves. How can we know if these things have become “gods” in our lives? I always find it helpful to examine my life to see where my priorities lie. Watching the game on TV might not be a bad thing but if it’s taking away from my prayer life, time reading the word or serving others I have essentially decided to serve another “god”. This can happen so easily that you may not even notice but, as we have just read in Deuteronomy, it is a very serious offence in God’s eyes. When I think about it this way I can see how the Israelites got off track so many times and it makes me see how important it is to constantly “examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith…” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
As we consider how we can live our lives in total surrender to God lets renew our commitment to examine ourselves in the light of scripture to see how we can improve our lives for God. We must be ready and willing to set aside our own desires to make serving God the number one priority in our lives.