DAY 187- BIG PICTURE IN A YEAR - THE WILDERNESS

You shall have no other gods before me.

Deuteronomy 5:7

Reading: Deuteronomy 5:1-6, 1 Corinthians 10:14, 1 John 5:21.

In yesterday’s devotional study, we saw that there were four sins that God could not allow His people to carry into the promised land. The first sin was: idolatry.

Why would the people of God be in bondage to idols? Let’s not forget that they had been living in a country, for 400 years, that had over 2000 different gods. They could not fail to have been deeply impacted by this. Not only that. The Lord was sending them to conquer a country that also had many gods – the Baals. The Baal cults that were found in these regions constantly challenged Israel’s worship of Yahweh. The word “Baal” means “master” or “husband” and because Yahweh was master and husband of Israel this led to great confusion about the identity of God. Furthermore, many evil things were done in worship to these gods in order to bring wealth, including child sacrifice.

As a child of God you are not immune to idolatry. Even if you were not an idol worshipper – for example, a Hindu – before becoming a follower of Jesus, idolatry remains a constant threat to you. In fact, it is such a threat to the health of your faith that we are going to spend another day looking at it in more detail.

See you tomorrow, same place, for a personal idol inventory.

Faithfulness to the first commandment remains our #1 priority. True, in Western culture we are unlikely to bring an offering to a golden statue, however this does not mean that we are not looking to other things to take care of us. False gods are not only idols made of wood or stone; they are anything we trust in to comfort and provide for us.

Prayer

Lord I declare that I love You with all my heart, soul and strength. Help me to put no other thing or person before You.

For the family

Over the next few days, watch parts of this brilliant video together about the Wilderness region in Israel where the people wandered.