Any Idols

DEVOTION

PSALMS

ANY IDOLS

Ps 106:24-31

24 Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. 25 They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD. 26 So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, 27 make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; 29 they provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. 31 This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

NIV

It seems it does not make any sense how those people could engage in such worship of idols after seeing how many great things the Lord did for them and was still doing for them. He brings them right to the Land of Promise and they despised it. We know the story about the twelve spies they sent into the land to check it out before they would dare cross the Jordan River. Come on now, after God dried up the Red Sea, after they saw Moses meet with God at Horeb and they heard the thundering voice of God they still needed to send spies. They did not believe God would go before them and crush anything or anyone who would keep them from occupying the land. What it comes down to is they simply did not believe him, or his promises. The story about the plague and this priest Phinehas is found in Numbers 25. We will not recount it, but the result of all there grumbling was twenty-five thousand of them died from the plague. It did not stop until this Phinehas drove a spike or spear through two people in their tent. A Israelite who brought a Midianite woman into his tent. In other words he was taking her as his wife, a strict violation of the Law. This was all about accepting the gods of other people. There is a danger in allowing women to woe men into false gods. Throughout the Old Testament we can see the temptations brought by women. This is not to be negative about women, it is just a fact of history during those times. We think of Samson and how Delilah brought him down. There are so many times this happened. Even David and Bathsheba. It even started back with Adam and Eve. She was the one deceived and then Adam followed after her. God did not intend this to be. But the children of Israel would not believe him, they wanted what they wanted and it caused many of them to die. Have we learned anything from those people? Do we believe all his promises? Or are we about getting our own way? Have we brought foreign idols into our life? Have we accepted the influence of the ways of the world, the idols of the world, which basically boils down to fame and fortune, success, and the accumulation of money? What makes us happy? What gives us a sense of security? What brings us comfort and a sense of peace and serenity? Is it God or money? We better make sure it is God or we might well be in trouble somehow. Have we taken him for granted? Do we think this is how he blesses us, by making us wealthy, or able to store up enough to live in comfort in our old age? Are we trusting him to lead us across the Jordon, we will travel the path he has put before us, or do we grumble in our tents? If it is not money, they maybe we have made some other idol, such as beauty, or health. How much time do we obsess over beauty, thinness, good health, or fashion? All those are billion dollar businesses designed to trap us in their clutches. Every year another fad diet comes down the pike. Every year another something which was good for us in now bad for us and that which was bad is now good. How many times are we going to be tricked by their deceptions? How many idols will we fall prey to rather than living for God, trusting God, looking to God for every aspect of our life? Let us stand up and drive a spike or a spear through all those idols and it will be credited to us as righteousness. Thrusting in Jesus for he is our righteousness is the only thing we need to do. He took three spikes for us, let us use those spikes for any idols we have allowed to sneak into our lives. We will believe his promises.