God + idols

Worship plus...

Context:

Because of how disobedient Israel had been to God (2 Kings 17:16-17, 20-23), God allowed the people to be taken from their homeland (they were in Samaria) into exile in Assyria.

Israelites are now not in Samaria, so the king of Assyria decides to place people from Babylon and several other places to settle there instead, replacing people of Israel.

When they first got there, nobody worshipped God, so He sent lions in among them to kill some, which was reported correctly to the Assyrian king as a result of the fact that the people there don’t know what God requires.

Then the king sends a priest that had been exiled with the Israelites to live in Bethel and teach the newcomers how to rightly worship the Lord.

The people continued in their sin anyways.

This was what happened next:

2 Kings 17:32–41 ESV

They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner. So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

what is your “but they also...”?

replace it with your name. “Taylor worshipped the Lord, but she also...” What comes to mind? Make a list of things that fill your heart where God requires space.

a major cause of their ability to worship God and other idols was a lack of holy fear towards God.

let’s dive into what holy fear is:

Fearing the Lord

“God is merciful and gloriously our Father. But what fear of the Lord acknowledges is that He is not only that. He is also ‘in heaven,’ with a name that is hallowed above all others. He is both a God who is near to us and a God who transcends. The fear of the Lord comprehends the fact that the Father we are taught to call ‘ours’ is also the Lord of the universe, enthroned between the cherubim, doing as he pleases among the nations.”

Psalm 111:10

Our God is both a Father AND in heaven!

Hebrews distinguishes between fear of God’s wrath and fear of His holiness. Both cause us to tremble (Psalm 4:4), but only the second causes worship + repentance. Because of JESUS (!), we don’t “come cowering to fearsome, thundering Mount Sinai; instead we come expectantly to glorious, approachable Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24)”

our response? “Acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (12:28-29) right fear of God = worshipful reverence + awe, recognizing Him as a God of no limits (I AM the I AM), unlike anything we could possibly understand. We approach His throne with confidence (Hebrews 10:19) (thanks to our Savior), not trembling as the demons who fear His wrath, we tremble as we understand His wrath was satisfied for us at the cross.

“Consider the majesty of a limitless God. Meditate on His perfection so that they become to us the most rational object of our reverence and awe. Stare down our tendency to ask others and even ourselves to be what only God is.”

Is He the most rational object of your reverence & awe yet? Is He who you go to first in your anxiousness, sadness, frustration, hurt, happiness, worry, EVERYTHING? if there is something or someone else you turn to first consistently, then they are that rational object for you. And if it’s not God, that is idolatry.

learn HOLY FEAR and COMPLETE OBEDIENCE.

Complete Obedience

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

complete obedience says God. no plus, no but, no and. Partial obedience in God’s mind is equal to disobedience.

A sacrifice of obedience, giving God your YES to the fullness of all that He is asking you to do or commands of you in His Word, is more pleasing to Him than a sacrifice of praise. Obeying His Word by loving others is BETTER than singing praises to Him.

both. are. good. both are pleasing. both are called a “sacrifice” in Scripture, but in giving God our whole hearts, we should be willing to give up anything else for Him (even our time, possessions, and desires) because He is what our affections are set upon, nothing of this world.

Application:

Invite God to search your heart. He is faithful to answer this prayer when asked with genuine willingness, He will reveal your sin. Warning: it’s not usually fun:( but it’s sooooo worth it as we begin to look more like Jesus and love Him more and more.

As we go into break: what do you do that is idolatry or sin that you justify by worshipping God? God is not pleased by you worshipping Him and other things, He is a jealous God who is pleased when you worship Him alone.

Just-think about how much He deserves that. Think about how few people obey Him in this. How easy it is for us to have idols that creep in and take places in our hearts meant for Jesus.

We are just as bad as the Israelites. When I first read the passage in 2 Kings I was so angry that my heart started beating faster and I felt my frustration. But then, I started talking to God and I realized—I do the exact same thing. I’m just like the sinful Israelites and the people living in Samaria.

Focus your whole entire being on God! Matthew 22:37-38

ALL your heart.

ALL your soul.

ALL your mind.

Obedience is a reflection of how much you love God. Are you loving God most in any particular moment? When you sin, you are not loving God most. You are loving yourself or the idol more than God by refusing to do what He requires.

This was a hard devo. It was honest, brutal, and full of truth. God is not one to sugarcoat things if you haven’t noticed. He calls it like it is and tells us what to do. He is gracious and He loves and He is patient with us—that perfect God we serve is the one we rebel against by adding to our worship of Him. Worship God alone in everything you do-and remember this going into break.

Complete obedience born out of holy fear and loving Him wayyy more than anything else. Worship God.