The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Zephaniah 1:4-6,
"I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests- those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech, those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him."
I am reminded that idolatry is a severe sin in the sight of God. Idolatry has been a sin that has brought great judgment from the Lord in the past and will so in the future. I am reminded of Revelation 21:8, "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Right in the midst of this list of those who will find themselves cast into a lake of fire are idolaters- along with unbelievers, murderers, the sexually immoral, etc.
The first two commandments, in Exodus 20:3-4, read, "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God..."
God is a jealous and wrathful God. We read about the coming of Jesus Christ to visit God's judgment on the world in Revelation 19:15b, "He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty." The writer of Hebrews says, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31. And, "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'" Hebrews 12:28-29.
God is not to be trifled with. I am reminded of the severity of his judgment of those who would replace him with anything else they might exchange him for. Where I might not carve out a figure, place it on my mantle and bow down to it, I could replace God as he has revealed himself in the pages of Scripture with a god, in my mind, that I think he should be. That is, one fashioned from my own idea of what I think God ought to be like. People do this all the time. For instance, a god who would never cast people into a lake of fire, because he is too loving, too forgiving. This is an idol that has replaced our true Creator God in many people's minds. Other idols people have invented that, according to the Scriptures, will bring his certain swift judgment are: a god who will accept people from all "faiths", a god who will not condemn homosexuals, a god who is not intolerant of sin, a god who is not judgmental, a god who only loves certain people and not others, etc.
Woe to me if I don't worship the one true God, just as he has revealed himself to me! Where I have had many so-called idols in the past, how thankful I am that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for those sins of mine and made a way for me to his table!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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