The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Chronicles 13:8-9,
"And now you [Jeroboam and northern Israel] plan to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. But didn't you drive out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods."
"And now you [Jeroboam and northern Israel] plan to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. But didn't you drive out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods."
Oh, the compulsion of mankind to invent religion! A persistent impulse of mankind to abandon his Creator to fabricate a god to replace the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! This is the first spontaneous inclination that seems to be pursued when sinful mankind goes his own way!
In this passage Judah's King Abijah calls out the secessionist northern kingdom of Israel, the northern ten tribes, for abandoning the Lord, the priesthood the Lord had established in Israel, and replacing it all with their "roll-your-own" religion.
This kind of thing is all about us today. Outside the church, our culture is in a mad rush to enforce its recently-minted social justice religion. Inside the church, we find it divided up in to all kinds of isms and schisms that reflect this compulsion toward "roll-your-own" religion.
How about we drop all the fake religion and turn back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? He is the only God, there is no other. And, were we to do so, might we find he is a stranger to all the trappings prevalent in so many churches of our day?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment