In pursuit of the Almighty…
You didn’t notice.
But, I did….the day after I posted my blog last Thursday.
As I walked through the Ten Commandments I’d researched last week, I discovered I left out number two.
A most important commandment from our Lord God.
So…
#2. Do not make for yourself any graven image.
No idols in the form of anything!
You shall not pay homage to them…honor anything/anyone other than the Lord Your God.
You shall not worship them, or give them praise.
You shall not serve them….or celebrate them.
God is jealous.
Not a sinful kind of jealous (for our God, who is holy, cannot sin!).
His jealousy is a perfect “zealous-for-you” kind of love!
This commandment is all about the magnitude of His love; and, He doesn’t want us to settle for something that promises one thing and delivers us, well………….NOTHING!
The Lord is cautioning us against SEDUCTION.
#2 is about protection.
He refuses to let us participate with anything that attracts with an intent to lure us away, beguile, or manipulate in order to control, but in the end delivers entrapment, pain, destruction, shame, and possible death (and He will go to great lengths to help us remain FAITHFUL)…
The Lord God hates anything that seduces us away from our dear Lord Almighty and His ways.
The world may try to attract our attention, and the enemy, who knows our weaknesses, may use the same tactics he used on Adam and Eve.
The Apostle John describes those tactics well;
The thing is, Jesus-follower, when we break Commandment #2, we are also breaking
Commandment #7: You shall not commit adultery.
(WHAT??????)
In this case it’s spiritual adultery (see James 4:4):
A mere few chapters following the reading of the stone tablets inscribed by God’s finger, the Israelites do just this.
They commit spiritual adultery.
They allow themselves to be seduced by a golden calf.
It undoubtedly looked just like this one in the picture above and below- as seen in the National Israeli Museum (the only difference is that theirs was covered in gold).
You can’t tell it from the picture, but I could have easily held that golden calf in the palm of my hand.
In the middle of the wilderness, the Israelites had Aaron craft this little bull to be an earthly representation of the “gods who brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 32:3).”
Ostensibly, it was to celebrate and worship.
More likely it was an opportunity to indulge the flesh in immorality (while the “cats away…”).
This (immorality) was the “real god” of the stiff-necked people God gave Moses to lead, for we read, “they sat down to eat, drink, and got up to indulge in revelry (Ex. 24:6).”
Their worship mixed a little Egyptian-religion into a pot, along with a cupful or two of pagan Canaanite worship, then stirred it all up with a spoonful of authentic reverence for Yahweh, let it stew for a bit………and, it was entirely unacceptable to the Lord.
As I studied, I discovered that the Hebrew word translated “indulge in revelry” always had a sexual connotation, frequently accompanied by immoral orgies and seductive-mixed-dancing (Archaeological Study Bible, Zondervan, 2005, pg 142).
The Lord was so angry at them, He told Moses –
“Go, for your people, have corrupted themselves. Leave me alone, that my anger may burn hot against them, and I may destroy them (Exodus 24:7, 9).”
Seduction that leaves us paying homage to the ways of the world…the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life… still leave the Lord’s anger burning…
The Lord God has not changed His character over the years!
He remains steadfastly the same.
Something had to be done…
…So, God quenched His anger in a sacrificial offering…
…and, God did not destroy them!
The Exodus is where I’ve been reading….and, researching…being reminded that
Exodus is a foreshadowing of the cross to come.
As I study, I’m pondering (here it comes)…
…Especially after last Sunday’s Super Bowl Half-Time performance.
The entire show sent my mind back to an Israelite wilderness camp, where men and women “indulged in revelry” and the Lord’s children were seduced away from the One-True-God who brought them out of slavery.
Others who got a glimpse of half-time, turned off the TV, and walked away, did so because, like me, they saw the enemy’s tactics on display, and felt the heart of God within us breaking…particularly, since we live in a prevalent season of exploitation of women and the devastation of sex-trafficking.
But, the eyes of many Jesus-followers (and, this isn’t about folks who don’t claim to follow Jesus) looked at the screen as a display of female empowerment, of cultural celebration, and of justice…
(WHAT?????????)
To these, the rest of us, appear “narrow-minded, prejudicial, judgmental and privileged.”
I know.
These were words I read, not directed at me personally (at least I don’t think so), but to believers in general…
And, I realized this week,
Dear Followers of Jesus,
We need to know the TRUTH,
the WHOLE TRUTH,
and, NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH,
so that we will not get trapped,
enslaved,
showing a form of godliness, but denying its power.
We need Truth so that we not live according to the passions of the flesh,
and be led astray, breaking God’s heart…
…BUT, are SENSITIVELY AWARE OF SEDUCTION WHEN IT IS BEFORE OUR EYES!
So, that, just as God intended when He wrote down His basic laws,
we, His children, live set-apart-lives-of-love (NOT LEGALISM), that lead others to a God of greater-love, because they see something different from the world in us…
…a love that reaches across boundaries to those who, because of brokenness, find themselves enslaved by a culture that sees this type of seduction as EMPOWERMENT..
…a love that reaches across boundaries to those who, because of brokenness, find themselves enslaved by a culture that sees this type of seduction as EMPOWERMENT..
…and, ultimately, are pointed to the God willing to pursue us…to the death…to set us FREE!
For a much better-said blogpost on this topic, connect to the following link: A Woman’s Take on the Super Bowl Halftime Show and Human Dignity