We Cannot Fool God
Today’s reading almost mocks the Israelites. It starts out by telling them to go to Bethel and Gilgal and offer their sacrifices, but it is completely sarcastic. When Israel split into two countries (Israel and Judah), Jerusalem, the city where God had commanded the people to worship and sacrifice, was located in Judah. Israel refused to concede that God’s house was located in Judah and created alternative locations for worship: Bethel and Gilgal. Unfortunately, these were not the places that God commanded the people to sacrifice. So here we have God telling the people to go ahead, offer their corrupt sacrifices in their replacement cities. It didn’t matter anyway because their hearts were not seeking the Lord but themselves.
While we don’t have one location in which we are commanded to worship the Lord, we still need to take God’s words to heart. Again, I am reminded of Galatians 6:7: Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” We can stand in church and sing with the voice of an angel and yet have our heart and mind far from the Lord. We can donate to worthy charities and provide our tithes without fail but do so to be seen instead of to honor God. We can be the most “Christlike” in appearance and yet have no trace of him in our hearts. We may fool the people around us. We may even occasionally fool ourselves, but we do not fool God.
The remainder of today’s reading lists the various punishments to be thrown against the Israelites. They sound devastating and they were, but David Guzik points out a very important truth hidden in these various disciplines. He wrote, “This wasn’t a demonstration of God’s anger, but of His love. He starts His chastisement slow and increases it incrementally, so that God can use the smallest amount of discipline necessary to turn our hearts back to Him. If we will not turn back the hand of chastisement grows heavier and heavier, out of loving desire to see our repentance.”
God calls out to His children: repent. None of us are perfect. We all sin. We all fail from time to time, but there is a difference. Accepting our imperfections is necessary. If we could do this Christian walk on our own, we wouldn’t need God. The cross would have been a wasted exercise. There is a major difference between being a fragile clay pot and living in rebellion under the guise of false righteousness. That is the major warning of today. Be honest with yourself as to the nature of your relationship with God. He already knows the truth. We cannot fool the Creator of the Universe. If we are to worship, let our worship be true, personal, and intimate. If we face God’s discipline, let’s pay attention. The length of the trial depends on us. If the Israelites had relented in their sin, they would never have experienced the severity of the fullness of God’s judgment. Let us learn from their failure and turn back to God as soon as see we have drifted off course.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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