Untitled Sermon

King James Version Chapter 18

And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 31 And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

A friend of mine once observed how fickle and impatient mankind is. Even us believers share this trait. We even hoist these traits upon the God of the Universe expecting God to respect our beliefs. How often hear, “Well, I believe that God would not do such and such”, or “I’m sure God is fine with such and such”. Or even better, “I think God is like such and such”. As fallen human creations we want a God of our own making. Not too judgmental except for Nazi’s. Nazis bad. And He is cool with sin as long as we mean well. He’s a loving grandfather who thinks everything we do is great and rewards us with a butterscotch candy from his pocket. Yet notice we the same people also see the shortcomings of definition with acclamations like, “Why did God allow for this person to die”, or this disaster. Suddenly the God you built for yourself at the Build a God workshop isn’t so adequate. That god cannot sustain the universe, cannot guarantee justice or reward you with eternal life. Because that god is not God at all. That god is our reflection looking back at us from the mirror.

Thankfully for us our God does not confirm to these these stereotypes. I suppose that it is understandable for non- believers to have such notions of God but it is another thing altogether when Christians make these assertions. Although we know better our fallen nature often gets the better of us in moments of weakness or when our guard is down. We see this illustrated for us in our OT lesson from the book of Judges.