They wanted to worship… this? I mean, it’s just clay! Like Gumby…
My daily Bible reading has brought me around to Jeremiah 44, one of the most exasperating chapters in the Bible.
After all that’s happened–destruction of their city, thousands carted off as captives, king deposed and blinded, whole placed burnt down–just as God, through the prophet Jeremiah, told the people it would happen unless they changed their ways…
After all this, the ones who are left tell Jeremiah (and God!) to go jump in a lake, they’ll do as they please and just shut up already!
Sometimes I do think the most mysterious thing about God is His love for us. Really, why does He bother?
In Night Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, the antiphon for Psalm 86 is: “O Lord, our God, unwearied is Your love for us.” I often repeat that to Him in gratitude. Myself, I would have grown weary of us long ago. But then again, I’m not God (as He keeps reminding me).
As a history buff, I read a lot of biographical information and I am often stunned when I read about people who consider themselves devout Christians, yet routinely live immoral lives.
I’m currently reading a book about some of the earliest roots of Rock n’ Roll, and many of the people involved were considered Christians, but apparently they had no moral inhibition against cheating on their wives, because that seemed to be accepted as just part of life.
Idols don’t make moral demands of their worshippers. You can do whatever you want, then go make a sacrifice to Baal, Astarte or Moloch, and there are no consequences flowing out from these lifeless idols. Humans have a spiritual side, and seek to satisfy this in some way or another, but many people want this on their own terms.
In the case of ancient Israel, their very existence was because their Creator had delivered them from bondage, so while they couldn’t exactly forget Him, they could serve other gods, and somehow mollify their spiritual need, while, in reality, not worship God at all.
Homer grappled–unsuccessfully–with the problem of how we are to relate to God.
I find that easy to answer: we relate on the Creator’s terms. What is important to Him? Well, the first thing He wrote was that we should have no other gods. He expects exclusive worship.
Christ later reduced the Law and the prophets to love of God and love of neighbor. If we love God, we appreciate the sanctity of life and don’t abuse His gift of procreation. If we love our neighbor, we don’t try to seduce his wife or offspring. That seems simple enough in principle, but unfortunately, many people rationalize these moral laws away.
Certainly, this applies to much more than sexual morality, and the Bible gives us sound moral guidance, but many people prefer a god that doesn’t limit the impulses of the flesh. A friend of mine met an attractive and very pleasant woman who was a worship leader in her church. Their relationship grew quickly, and marriage was discussed. However, she stipulated that if they married, she would retain the right to be sexually involved with anyone she pleased, including trips that she and a friend took, solely for the purpose of seducing young men. He ended the relationship, then and there, but it leaves the question of how someone with knowledge of the Bible could reconcile such behavior with the principles of Christianity. In my opinion, it is simply another form of idolatry, and placing worship of the Creator behind worship of one’s own fleshly desires.
That’s some story! I’m guessing the man dodged a bullet there.
He did, but apparently he has observed these sorts of things being tolerated in several churches.
God is our refuge and strength–a refuge even from bent churches.
Sadly, there are a lot of those out there, these days.
This is the only place that would let me reply?? It is said Jeremiah then took the ark to somewhere in Africa – and now on the news is the story of a bunch of Africans migrating to Israel to live as Jews.
The Ethiopians have for centuries claimed to be in possession of the Ark.
Here is fraudulent president biden’s latest Executive Order, as if he really thought it up and wrote it: For biotechnology and biomanufacturing to help us achieve our societal goals, the United States needs to invest in foundational scientific capabilities,” the order reads. “We need to develop genetic engineering technologies and techniques to be able to write circuitry for cells and predictably program biology the same way in which we write software and program computers; unlock the power of biological data, including through computing tools and artificial intelligence; and advance the science of scale-up production while reducing the obstacles for commercialization so that innovative technologies and products can reach markets faster.”
I don’t like government setting “societal goals.” Too much Heinrich Himmler.