Untitled Sermon (8)

Autopsy of a Dead Dead Faith

What is God looking for? Remember: You did not return to me.

(NLT)

2 So I will send down fire on the land of Moab,

22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.

and all the fortresses in Kerioth will be destroyed.

I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.

23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!

The people will fall in the noise of battle,

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

as the warriors shout and the ram’s horn sounds.

WE are talking about Israel, not Syria, or Moab, or Edom

What did God want?

4 This is what the Lord says to Israel, “Seek Me that you may live.

They had centers or places for religious practices / cultic shrines

(NIV)

28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.

Bethel

See

The place where God was supposed to be.

God’s presence

Gilgal

See

Place of God’s provision

Paused to erect a monument/reconsecrate themselves

Beersheba

Root of the nation

Abraham

see vs 22

Isaac

Jacob

God’s promise

Look at these places without God

5:1-5

Death - 2a

Abandonment - 2b

Dispossession - 2c

What was the problem?

Co-existence with moral corruption

Injustice

Hatred of truth

Disregard for the poor

Oppression

No sense of sin

No true seeking after God