A Nation that worships idols instead of God

The Bible is a wholly remarkable book.  It is the only book on the planet that gives us the literal word of God.  The God we worship is the same today, tomorrow, and yesterday.  As such it would be safe to say that He responds to disobedience as He always has in the past and will do so again in the future.  His response to disobedience among Israel, his chosen people, is well documented in the Old Testament.  Using what God has done in the past as a guide, a pattern if you will,  to how He will judge disobedience in the future, we can get an idea of how he deals with His people when they become rebellious.

¹Then God gave the people all these instructions ◙ :

²“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

³“You must not have any other god but me.

⁴“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. ⁵You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. ⁶But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those ◙ who love me and obey my commands.  Exodus 20:1-6

On our journey into how to apply the 10 Commandments to the 5 aspects of our lives, we cannot start with us, but with God who is at the center of all, and today we will explore what happens to a people as a collective and individually when they violate this primary commandment.

God tells us that we are to have no other god but Him, and that we must not make for ourselves an idol of any kind.  He promises us that if we obey his commands that he will lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love him.  He also proscribes a curse for those who don’t.

God makes it clear that not only are we not to have any other god but Him, but prior to the nation of Israel entering the promised land, God made it clear as to what Israel was to do about the god’s that were worshipped in the land:

¹“These are the decrees and regulations you must be careful to obey when you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must obey them as long as you live.

²“When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods—high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree. ³Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Completely erase the names of their gods!

⁴“Do not worship the LORD your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.”  Dt. 12:1-4.

Not only was Israel warned about destroying these other gods, but they were also warned not to worship them:

²¹“You must never set up a wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the LORD your God. ²²And never set up sacred pillars for worship, for the LORD your God hates them.” Dt. 16:21.

God hated these idols and other “gods” so much that the nation of Israel became the arm of justice against the nations who worshipped them:

⁴“After the LORD your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The LORD has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. ⁵It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The LORD your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Dt. 9:4-5.

God was punishing these nations because of their wickedness, and Israel was God’s instrument.  This is strikingly familiar to the way God utilized the Assyrian’s to punish Israel for it’s unfaithfulness – a pattern is emerging….something God calls “a sign and a warning among you and your descendants forever.”  Dt. 28:

God lays out this pattern as to how he will destroy a disobedient people:

1.  Frustration in all they try to do:

                  ²⁰“The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.” Dt. 28:20

2.  Their wealth and sovereignty will be destroyed:

                  ⁴³“The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. ⁴⁴They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!” Dt. 28:43.

 3.  Those who hate God’s people will rule over them:

                  ¹⁷I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!” Lev. 26:17.

4.  Utter and complete destruction:

                  ⁴⁹“The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. ⁵¹Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death. ⁵²They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you.

⁵³“The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you. ⁵⁴The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. ⁵⁵He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. ⁵⁶The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. ⁵⁷She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.”  Dt. 28:49-57.

All of these curses happened to the disobedient Nation of Israel.

So how does this affect us?  They serve as signs and warning to us as a nation.

Although popular American culture assures us otherwise, America was founded on a firm belief in God and His Commandments.

America’s official birthday is not 1776 as we have all been told, but was actually in 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as our first President, establishing fully the new government of the United States of America.

It was during Washington’s inaugural address that he publicly recognized the hand that God had in the founding of our nation:

“…in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.”

Shortly thereafter, Washington and a large delegation walked the short distance to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New York City and engaged in 2 hours of prayer for the new country.

That our country was founded on a strong belief in God is beyond doubt, even though it is popular today to call this into question.

John Adams stated, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Modern America has substituted a belief in God with a prideful belief in self.  I am sure you have heard the old refrain “man is the measure of all things.”  We have become our own idol as a people.

America worships at the altar of self and wealth.  Wealth is our god, which bestows upon us all the trappings and vices of materialism, taking care of our every need and pushing out any need for God.  We have violated the first commandment.

Are we experiencing God’s judgment?  Is everything our government currently attempting to do the repair the economic mess working?  Or does it appear to be frustrated at every turn?

As a nation do we look to our own reason and intelligence to solve our most vexing problems or to God?

Are we a debtor nation?  Do those in power in our government marginalize and demean believers?  Yes to all.  I believe we are under God’s judgment.  God has given many warnings, and we as a nation have largely ignored them.  

We as believers are not off the hook from this either.  We have not been the salt and light to our nation.  Church populations pretty much mirror the culture in actual morality – the divorce rate is the same for professed believers as non-believers.  Read the studies and surveys and they will terrify you.

                 

So what do we do?  “….¹⁴if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  2 Ch. 7:14.

We as individuals got ourselves into this mess collectively, but it will take us individually turning to God to get us out of it.

Orwellian doublespeak.....

According to LifeSiteNews.com, "The White House announced today that, instead of forcing religious employers to pay for birth control, it will force insurance companies to offer drugs free of charge to all women, no matter where they work."

So that is Obama's idea of a compromise on the current firestorm that he created?  Let me see if I get his thinking straight on this one; since Catholics and other Christian's are justifiably upset over Obama's mandate that religious institution must pay for birth control and related drugs, instead of making these organizations pay for them, he will simply require their insurance companies to provide them for free?

First off,  nothing is free.  The insurance companies will offset this cost by charging a larger premium - the religious organizations are still paying for contraceptives!!

Secondly, does the President think that we the believers are that gullible?  Apparently he does.

I've decided to use a little double speak of my own, something I am sure that given the above the President can understand:

I am no longer voting against Obama.  I am simply going to vote for the other guy.  Completely different huh?

A Bachelor of Art in Serfdom.

I am amazed at some of the things that people do.  Take for instance borrowing money to get an education. Under the current system this guarantees that you will be a debt serf.  In addition, when the government got into student loans business, the cost of a college education skyrocketed.

These increasing costs were addressed by the President when he told colleges that they would need to keep their costs down.  Which is ironic.  Once student loans were guaranteed by the government, allowing anyone to get a loan, including very poor credit risks that private industry would never have loaned to, the number prospective students increased.

As this easy money flowed into colleges and universities, they were able to easily increase their prices - although they would tell you that they are adding value to the service they provide.  Gag.  Which is why the $850 per year tuition I paid 20 years ago is now $5566 per year (in-state tuition). Not to mention the current price of books.

At $425 per semester, I was easily able to pay my own way to attend college.  I also bought used books on the cheap and sold them at the end of the semester - this prior to universities figuring out that they could slightly change something in a textbook or course and require brand new books each year.  My used biology book was $35.00, and was good for several years.  My daughters current anatomy and physiology textbook was $400+, and a new book is required each time the course is taught.  The situation has gotten so bad that even Vice President Blowhard has admitted government culpability in the rising costs of tuition.

If this isn't bad enough, the truly terrifying issue to me is that once you take on debt to finance your college education, this debt follows you for the rest of your life.  Many people have been given loans that traditional private lenders would never have made - simply because these loans are a poor credit risk and the lender would have lost  money.  Under the current system, poor credit risks are given a loan for their education, knowing full well that many of these people will be unable to pay it back.  But pay it back they will - these loans will follow them to the grave.

If they should decide to stop servicing the debt, many states are now tying employment to the service of the debt.  So, if they don't pay, they don't work.  Many of these same student WILL NEVER work in a job that has anything to do with their major.  Making that expensive college education not only impractical, but downright foolish.

Now I'm not knocking a good college education.  If you're going to go DON'T go into debt to do it - you will become a slave for the rest of your life.  Also, get an education that is actually worthwhile, like engineering or a business degree that is has universal application.  I think a lot of people would be saved a lifetime worth of grief by doing a cost / benefit analysis before taking out loans to get a degree in woman's studies or some other such useless degree.  If you are independently wealthy, then knock yourself out.  Otherwise, why would you consciously want to become a slave?