“Listen, you remnant of Judah. The LORD has told you: ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Don’t forget this warning I have given you today. For you were not being honest when you sent me to pray to the LORD your God for you. You said, ‘Just tell us what the LORD our God says, and we will do it!’ And today I have told you exactly what he said, but you will not obey the LORD your God any better now than you have in the past. So you can be sure that you will die from war, famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going.” [Jeremiah 42.19-22]
Three years ago today, I wrote the article Really Want To Know? I very much recommend reading that article with the understanding that Jeremiah 42-44 from today's One Year Chronological Bible reading is so absolutely relevant and applicable to us today that it is scary (at least, it should be).
God's people today are just as blind and deaf as God's ancient people. They read the Bible and do not see their own repetitious idolatry problem.
“Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’ But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. [Jeremiah 44.4-5]
Not ironically, the same prophets that God sent again and again to decry idolatry are the same prophets who foretold the coming of Messiah, Jesus. Then, when He came, Jesus demanded no less unadulterated faith and trust in God ALONE than did the prophets who foretold his coming!
For far too long God's people have seen Jesus' hard words as abstract. Perhaps the most glaring example of this is found in people's interpretation of Matthew 16.24:
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24]
And, just as they misinterpret Jesus' words in Matthew 16.24, they also misinterpret Matthew 6.33:
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. [Matthew 6.33]
With both of these demands of Jesus, religious people assume god-like authority to explain how and why these demands do not mean what Jesus actually said. As a result, idolatry is a greater problem today than at any other time in history. Trusting anything and everything other than, or in addition to, God has become the norm and not the exception among those who claim to be God's people. They have fallen into the same "reason trap" with which Satan appealed to Adam and Eve, concluding that what they "think" somehow supersedes what God said.
As idolatry had started to become industrialized in the Apostle Paul's day (Acts 19.23-27), it has now become so advanced that is it just the way of life in our day. If we will just "see it," man's industries of finance, insurance, medicine and technology are the most glaring examples of modern-day industrialized idolatry. They exist as the object of man's trust as much or more among God's people than they do among the world.
At some point, someone has to say something! Idolaters have no place in God's heaven!
This is no "new revelation" but rather the realization of what the Bible (God) has been saying all along. Jesus' demand in Matthew 16.24 runs consistently true with God's demand on Mount Sinai:
“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. [Exodus 20.2-6]
Father, help us to see and to hear and to obey. May we give up our own way of idolatry, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. So be it.
