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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 2, NUMBER 18, JUNE 2, 2002 “WHO WOULD NOT FEAR
THEE, O KING OF NATIONS?”
The title of this article is a quotation from the book of Jeremiah,
chapter 10:7. One of the primary
reasons for the destruction of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel
was idolatry. When that kingdom was
established, Jeroboam set up golden calves for the people to worship at Dan and
Time and again both the Northern and Southern kingdoms of the Jews placed
something on par with, or above, the God of heaven, Jehovah.
Time and again they gave their allegiance to the gods their neighbors
worshipped, and even though they were God’s chosen people, they sought to be
like everybody else. God viewed
their considering of anything or anybody equal to or above Him as adultery.
Time and again He sought to instruct His people in the foolishness of
such activity.
Back in Jeremiah 10, verses 3 – 5, we find, “For the customs of
the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the
hands of the workman, with the axe. They
deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers,
that it move not. They are upright
as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot
go. Be not afraid of them; for they
cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.”
This reminds me so much of what had been written to this same nation by
Isaiah approximately 120 years earlier. In
Isaiah 46:5 – 7, God said through Isaiah, “To whom will ye liken me, and
make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and
hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a
god: they fall down, yea, they worship. They
bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he
standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet
can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.”
The point of both passages is, “Why would anyone place anything above
God?” The idols that man
creates are powerless. They cannot
even move unless the very ones who worship them bear them about on their
shoulders. They have no power to do
either evil or good. It is a piece
of wood with silver or gold covering it, an inanimate object with no inherent
power.
What are some of the things that we can allow to become equal to, or
above, God in importance in our lives? What
can we commit spiritual adultery with, just as the children of
How about money, or perhaps more specifically, the things that it can
buy? Is there anything that money
can buy that has the power to create itself?
Is there anything that money can buy that possesses the ability to
consistently move from one place to another without the intervention of man?
Is there anything that money can buy that does not, from the moment it is
created, begin to deteriorate? Isn’t
it foolish to allow a job, or the things that we can purchase as a result of
that job, to take precedence over God? How
many cars will I be able to take with me to the judgment seat of God?
How much of my house, no matter how fine a house it is and no matter how
beautifully decorated it might be, will enter into heaven or hell with me?
I wonder if God will ask me the scores of any sporting events that I
allowed to interfere with my service to Him when I face Him in judgment, or how
many fish I caught on that Lord’s Day morning spent on the lake.
Idolatry does not just involve images before which man falls down and
worships. It includes any and all things that come between man and God; any and
all things that we allow to take the Lord’s rightful place of preeminence in
our lives.
Jeremiah put it so well back in Jeremiah 10:6 –7, 10.
He wrote, “Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou
art great, and thy name is great in might. Who
would not fear thee, O King of nations? For
to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee…But the Lord is the
true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth
shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.” We must allow nothing, absolutely nothing and no one, to come between God and ourselves. He is the true God, the living God, and there is none like unto Him.
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