Nothing Even Beside Me!
By Rev. William Dohle
One of the best experiences of my life was the 4 months I spent in India. There I had the chance to truly experience another culture, to walk into the homes of another people, and to learn things that no book could truly teach.
It was there that I learned about other gods.
Hinduism has a whole pantheon of different gods. From Vishnu to Brahman to Siva and all their many wives and children. There is literally a god for everything. Ganesh, the elephant headed god, is the remover of obsticles while Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu, is the goddess of wealth. Each god has their own realm of influence, their own temple. And because you pray to each god for their individual blessing, you are likely to see the images of many gods all standing side by side from each other. Often even the same temple will have different shrines to different gods.
This is the context to which God speaks. After the opening commandments, God starts to separate his people out from the rest of their neighbors with one opening difference. No gold gods for them. Their God, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, has spoken to them out of heaven. He cannot be found in an idol on earth. No gold image can contain him.
And no image can come beside him either. God is not one God of many. He is the only God, King of the Universe, creator of all that exists. God alone gives life and love and meaning. God alone does all these things and nothing should come beside him.
God's words here are law. Nothing shall be set beside God.
It would have been great to say that that actually happened, but Scripture itself is full of people who set something beside God, Old Testament and New. Even the Kings of Israel were known to place a host of idols alongside God "just in case" they needed something specific they couldn't get from God.
In a way, you could say, we too set up images beside God as if they mattered more than the King of the Universe. How so? Well consider these questions...
Is the flag an idol? Or can it be? We stand for it and salute it. We rush to its aid and treat it with honor and respect. If it is defiled we burn it. And often it is set it up front of our own houses of worship, along side the cross. Could we have made it an image we set alongside God?
Or our sports teams. Sometimes I think the commercial is right. The sporting arena IS our modern-day church. It is our religion. We sacrifice our time and money to its altar. We drag our kids so they can play one more game. We sacrifice time to worship for time to play. We even dress in the color of our faith. Have we set up a ball alongside God?
Or social media? Or our i-phones? Or our families? Or...the list goes on and on.
We may as well admit that, at some level, we all break this command. We set up shiny things beside God. We make them just as important(if not more important) than God is. We claim to worship one God...while serving a host of others ones.
We are slaves of many masters!
But there is hope. For the God who sent Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us. The God who saved us while we were still sinners and idolaters. The God who loved us no matter what.
Is also the God who gives the command that immediately follows this one.
"Make an altar of earth for me...Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones, do not build it with dressed stones...And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed."(Exodus 20:24-26)
Our God is a humble God, not demanding an altar of polished stones. Not demanding gold or silver. But a God who invites us forward in humility. Our God is a God concerned for us, even when we're at our worst. A God whose altar isn't up on some high place, but down below where no one will be shamed and all may come.
That's not something any of the other gods can deliver. Unconditional acceptance. It's only promised...and delivered...by the Lord God Almighty whose altar has come to earth and who has come to live along side us now and forever.
Clear away the altar of my heart, Lord, and make it your throne so that only you will be praised and honored and worshiped now and forever. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment