[To listen to a audio version of this post done for Moody Radio, click play above]
Wanting to be closer to God is something that all of us should long. Like a person who has not eaten in a while groans for a good meal, we too should deeply desire to feast on the presence of God. We must desire the divine. But what does that mean? What brings on this type of hunger? What causes us to desire God?
In Exodus 20, God commands the people to love Him. You’d think Israel would’ve felt as if God was forcing Himself upon them as He threatened their lives (and their kids lives and their grand kids lives and their great grand kids lives) if they loved anyone but Him.
But after all He had done for them, why would he have to ask them to love Him? Wouldn’t it be natural that they would love Him enough that nothing could sway their love? Obviously not, because only 12 chapters later they couldn’t wait 40 days for the Lord before their love grew fickle and they were off making a golden calf to worship.
Also in Mark 12 we see Jesus reinforce the idea that we are not to love anyone beside the Lord. He cannot be compared to anyone or anything. He is the only one that can redeem us, forgive us, remove our guilt, bring us true joy… and the list goes on. And we are to love this God with all our heart, mind and strength.
God demands all of our love, but why would we give more love to anyone or anything else but Him?
Yes, He is a jealous lover, but rightfully so. Anything we start to adore more than Him is an idol in our lives and must be removed. Exodus 20 verse 5 says we are not to worship “Anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Sure, we may not go make literal statues of things and worship them, but we metaphorically take things we like and make them into a grand object of our affection. Even though Israel knew the consequences for doing this, they did it anyway. Even though we know the consequences for worshiping the other “gods” in our life, we do it anyway.
How could we be so foolish and selfish? Let’s pray now that God will remove the idols in our life and give us true devotion to Him.
Dear Lord,
Give us the strength, understanding, and love, to respond to your jealousy with total devotion. Give us the furry of Moses to destroy to dust the idols in our life. Help us mimic your love. May our understanding of commitment to you grow enough that you may be able to respond to us in the way Christ did to the scribe in Mark 12:34 – “You are not Far from the Kingdom of God.”
In the name of the one true God, Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.
