Skip to main content

Have No Other Gods Before Him


Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.(Deuteronomy 4:23-24)
 
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)

CONSUMING FIRE
        I'm listening to Isaiah during solitary car rides right now, and one of the things God keeps saying is that He will share His glory with no one. Today's passages remind me of the first commandment: "Have no gods before me." Not only are we to have no gods that we prefer to God, we're not even to have gods to "paraklete" (come alongside) Him.        
         The reason for this is simple. God is God and there is no other. (Deut 4:35, Deut 4:39, I Kings 8:59-60, Isaiah 44:8, Isaiah 45:5-6, 18, 22; Isaiah 46:9, Joel 2:27, Acts 4:10-12. Get the idea that God wants us to get this?) To put another before Him, instead of Him, beside Him or even below Him is to lie to ourselves and to others. 
          So, now it's time to step on some toes. Domestic goddesses? Humble yourselves. You are not goddesses. Praying to angels or saints? Consistently in Scripture, they have commanded you not to. There are some people who claim that praying to saints is like asking a living friend to intercede, but if your prayer is to ask that angel or saint to do anything other than take your request to God: if, for example, you ask the angel or saint to help you find something, or keep you safe while driving, or if you are praying to a saint or angel because "God is busy," beware. You're either elevating other things into God's place or pulling Him down to ours. He won't share His glory with you, with the saints, with the angels, with the stars or with anything that is not God. He is God and there is no other.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more