O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced. They will be buried in the dust of the earth, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water. O LORD, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone! [Jeremiah 17.13-14]
God wants His people to look to Him. He wants them to look only to Him. Jeremiah says here that all who turn away from Him will be disgraced.
Think about it. If we say we are looking to God but have our eyes on the advancements and technologies of man, can we truly be "looking to God"?
Let me put it another way. How can we look at anything or anyone else without taking our eyes off God? It simply cannot be done. And all who turn away from [Him] will be disgraced.
Disgraced. Shall we consider what that word means? A quick Google search yields the following definition:
1. having fallen from favor or a position of power or honor; discredited:
Falling from God's favor (grace) is serious business. It happens in only a moment of looking away from God and to anything or anyone else.
Most of Jeremiah's words in today's OYCB reading are all about the condition of God's people who turned away from God by turning to idols - the works of men's hands.
For all who claim, "God knows my heart" in defense of their faithless excuses of dependence upon (looking to) man's advancements and technologies (idols), not a truer statement could be made!
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” [Jeremiah 17.9-10]
Truth: It is not possible to look to man and still be looking to God. Not happening! Idolatry says it can, but God says it can't.
For the record: idolatry did not pass away with the New Testament. If anything, it has progressively grown more advanced and undetectable. The same "idolatry" that took Israel's eyes off God in the Old Testament, is the same "idolatry" that takes men's eyes off Jesus today. The devastation of doing so remains the same.
Anything or anyone who promises a benefit otherwise promised by God has made itself an idol. Those who look to anything or anyone who promises a benefit otherwise promised by God have succumbed to idolatry. Remember, our eyes tell the whole story in what or who we are looking to.
No doubt God had this in mind when He gave the powerful command:
You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.3]
Idolatry is arguably a more serious a matter today than it was in ancient times. We simply must ask ourselves, "To what or to whom are we looking to?" and be prepared for what we discover.
Father, may we be found looking to You and You alone!
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