Monday, October 8, 2007

Idol Worship

Jim:

2 Kings 21:1-18
This chapter tells of the evil done by King Manasseh of Judah, who, among other things, seems to have even practiced child sacrifice (verse 6 says, “He made his son pass through fire”). God’s response by way of the prophets includes this from verse 12b: “I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.” When I hear something that disturbs me or disgusts me I shudder, but I think “ear tingling” is basically the same thing. In other words, Jerusalem was to suffer such destruction that it would startle any who heard of it. Considering the sorts of things that happened to cities in that time, the sieges and sackings that took place, the way civilian populations were treated, God’s words convey a significant amount of horror. But the apostasy of Manasseh was so great, and the disregard for God was so profound that God was almost compelled to respond in this way. Clearly the people of Judah, beginning with the king, made bad choices and turned their backs on God. God’s response was to warn them of coming judgment which would arrive with the capture of Jerusalem and the exile. God would get the people’s attention eventually.

1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1
As is so often the case, we find a connection between the Old Testament reading and the one from the epistles. In verses 21 and 22 Paul writes, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” The situation in Corinth had to do with eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Paul says that if a Christian is offered food by a non-Christian, the Christian should not ask about where it came from. But if the Christian finds that the meat has been offered to an idol, he or she should not eat it out of consideration for the host and concern for those of a weaker conscience. But whatever the case, it would be impossible to willingly participate in the act of sacrifice to idols and to participate in the worship of God. Idol worship was one of the things that got Judah in trouble at the time of Manasseh. Paul was warning against it in his day. I wonder how we’re doing on this score today? Are we “provoking the Lord to jealousy” with our actions? Or are we focused only on God and God’s work in our world? This should be a question that we consider every day of our lives, and every time we make a decision.

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