I've been really wanting to share all of what the Lord showed me this morning and taught me from 2 Samuel 12. It's really amazing!
The year before this chapter begins, David
had sinned against the Lord. He's seen Bathsheba naked and did not take
his thoughts or imagination captive. Instead he dwelled on the
thoughts of lust and let his imagination run wild with them. Next, he
used his position of authority to get Bathsheba into his house and have
sex with her. When she became pregnant and his scheme began to fall
apart, he then used his authority (which the Lord had given him) to have
her husband killed. During all this time he was also sinning by not
taking his sinful thoughts captive and replacing them with God's truth.
Plus he was continually trying to hide his sin instead of confessing it
and repenting because he didn't want to stop. He now had a false god
and idol. He had placed fulfilling his lust above God, showing that he
loved himself, more then he loved God.
David must have been happy during that past
year though right? I mean after all he got to play with Bathsheba
during that time and that's what he'd wanted, right? Wrong! Psalm 32 and 51 tell us a little of how he felt during that year: Psalm 32:3–4
—When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day
long. *For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was
sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah * He
was being disciplined by the Lord during that year as the Lord wanted
to bring him to repentance and that discipline began as soon as he
refused to take that first thought captive! He eventually became sick
and weak, unable to do the things he normally did due to his illness.
He was sick at heart as well as his body for he knew he was living in
sin. Yet, he still wouldn't give it up or confess it, and he still
continued to sin, to hide it and then to sin more by having her husband
killed. He lost his joy, he was no longer a good witness for the Lord,
and his power. The Lord wasn't going to answer his prayers when he was
doing this, that's for sure! He probably became short with people,
snapping at the least little thing, as well as grumpy until he became
downright depressed.
Strange isn't it. He got what he wanted, even though he knew it was a
sin, and yet instead of being happy, he winds up depressed! We see that
the Lord gave David more then enough time to confess and repent of his
sin on his own...over a year, but still he refused, so the Lord sent the
prophet Nathan to him with a message.
Nathan pretended he was telling David about a case that needed to be
judged, though he never said that. He just let David think so, and told
him about a rich man who had badly used a poor man by taking the poor
man's one and only ewe. David got very angry when he heard what the man
had done and said that the man should be put to death for it, and
should have to pay back what he'd taken 4 times over. Although angry, he
was still being fair because that's what God's law calls for in such a
situation. Isn't it funny how easy it is to see other people's sins and
judge them, but how hard it is to see our own at times?
It was then that Nathan revealed to David that he was the man he had
been talking about. Nathan then told him what God said about it: that
He'd given David all he had, made him King, given him power and
authority and all the women and servants he had, made him victorious
over all his enemies, etc. and still David took another man's only wife
and then had him killed. He then told David what his sin would cost
him. I'm sure David was totally stunned, but to his credit, he finally
stopped hiding, didn't try to make any excuses, and immediately
confessed, agreeing that he had indeed sinned against the Lord.
At that point, Nathan assured David that the Lord would allow him to
live even though the death sentence was what the law called for for what
he'd done. However, there were severe consequences for his sin which
would still come to pass. Those consequences, all of which the Lord had
told him, began as soon as Nathan left that day. One of my commentaries
explains this better then I can so I'll simply quote what it says:
God was ready to forgive David’s sins, but He could not prevent those sins from “bringing forth death” (James 1:15). God’s grace forgives, but God’s government must allow sinners to reap what they sow. Psalm 99:8: "you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds." “He shall restore fourfold!”
David had declared punishment concerning the man in Nathan’s story, so
God accepted his sentence. The sword never did depart from David’s
household: the baby died; Absalomkilled Amnon, who had ruined Tamar (both men are David's sons and Tamar is his daughter); then Joab killed Absalom (2 Sam 18:9–17); and Adonijah (David's son) was slain by Benaiah (1 Kings 2:24–25). Fourfold! Add to these trials the awful ruin of Tamar, the shameful treatment of David’s wives by his son Absalom (2 Sam 12:11; 2 Sam 16:20–23),
plus the rebellion of Absalom, and you can see that David paid dearly
for a few moments of lustful pleasure. He sowed lust and reaped the
same; he sowed murder and reaped murders, for “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines
We often console ourselves thinking, "Well, David's sins were awful so
that's probably why there were such terrible consequences". The problem
with that kind of thinking is that God considers all sin the same. It
doesn't matter if it's telling a little white lie, not studying His
Word, cheating, or killing someone. The consequences of all sin is
death. I'm not saying that if we tell a little white lie that someone
in our family is going to die-not at all! God is always just. What I'm
saying though is that we tend to make our own sins seem very little,
especially in comparison to what David did. Yet David's first sin was
that he simply didn't take his thoughts captive and replace them with
God's Truth. How often do we do that??? And we usually think we get
away with it too, don't we? But we never do. Never. Not because God
is mean - far from it! But because God is righteous and just and fair
and mostly because He loves us and wants what is best for us. It's
always easy for us to say the way we've been treated isn't fair, but if
someone were to do the same thing to us, we certainly wouldn't want them
to get off the hook.
The consequences of David's sins lasted the for the rest of his life and
the lives of his children. Again, not because God's mean, but simply
because that's what sin does. It's done that since the very first sin.
Look at how long the consequences of Adam's sin has lasted... it's
still going on! I have looked back on my own life and can honestly say
that I can see how my own sins, even "little sins" have affected my
children and are still affecting them. It's another aspect of sin that
we often choose to ignore and not think about. Especially if the sin is
something we want to do like David did. But our sins affect our
children and other people as well. It is not just us that is affected
by them. Everyone pays when someone sins. That's why God hates sin so
much. He hates to see us hurt. He loves us. Think how we as parents
feel when we know someone or something is hurting our child - we'll do
anything to stop it! We hate it! Well, that's a small taste of how God
feels toward all sin because He knows far better then we do, just how
horribly sin hurts us, His children whom He loves.
He knows we are enslaved to and by sin and because He loves us and hates
how it hurts us, He was even willing to come and die so we could
finally be free from it. And so we are, just as David was freed when
God forgave his sins. Yet the consequences of those sin continued just
as ours do. God will not stop the law of gravity because someone was
stupid enough to think they could fly off their roof. Nor will he stop
the consequences of our sins because if He did, there would be nothing
to stop us from continuing to sin. God's grace forgives us, but His
government must allow us to reap what we have sown, even though it hurts
Him as much as us.
The Lord shows us something else that's very important in this story
that we often overlook. Often when we sin, especially if we think it's a
"terrible sin" like I'm sure David did, we then decide that He can no
longer use us, that we're no good to Him anymore. We'll spend hours,
days, months, sometimes years, thinking about what a horrible thing we
did and how bad we were and "now God can't use us". But that too is a
lie that needs to be taken captive and replaced with the truth God shows
us here. Because after David confessed and repented, God did indeed
use him and bless him. He even sent Nathan back to him to assure him
that he was being blessed.
After the child that had been conceived in sin had died, God caused
Bathsheba to become pregnant again, with another son. This time she
gave birth to a boy they named Solomon. The Lord sent Nathan to tell
David that He loved this child and of course David knew that the child
had been given him by the Lord as all children are. Next the Lord gave
David yet another victory over his enemies and another crown.
We see that as soon as David had confessed and repented of his sin,
although there would be consequences from the sin, his relationship with
the Lord was completely restored. This is shown in more detail in
psalms 32
and 51. It's very true of all of us as well. When we're forgiven, God
promises to never bring our sin up to us or anyone else, not even
Himself, ever again, and to never use it against us. What an awesome
God we serve! When we're forgiven, God restores us to our previous
place of service and our relationship with Him is repaired. We once
again have the joy of our salvation. So we must never allow Satan to
trick us into thinking that we've gone too far or that we can't be used
by the Lord anymore etc. Where sin abounds, grace abounds more!
Of course there's much much more in this chapter then what I've shown here, but this will have to do for now. Please read 2 Samuel 12
and then read psalm 32 and psalm 51. When reading the psalms see if
you can see what David lost and how he felt during his year of sin and
what he gained and how he felt when he finally confessed and repented of
his sin. The reason being that his experience is one we all share when
we sin, regardless of what our sin is. If there's any portion of the
psalms or of 2 Samuel 12 that you'd like to discuss, I'll be happy to do so. I hope you also see how this all relates to our false gods and idols as well.
There are several points in this discussion about idols and false gods that are important to understand
and reflect on. The first being just how much we personally, really
believe in God and how much we believe He can, will and does interact
with us and our lives.
Like I said in the beginning, if we really believe in God and that He
does and will interact in our lives, then our words and actions will
show that.
Secondly, we need to know that God commands us to be in control of our
thoughts and emotions all the time. That's one reason He tells us to
take our thoughts captive and replace those that are lies with His
Truth. There's so much written in His Word about how we're to control
our thoughts and feelings, that it's rare to find a single page that
doesn't say something about it in one way or another. When Adam sinned,
his mind was corrupted by that sin and that was passed on to his
children, and ultimately to us. That's why no unbeliever can understand
God or His word unless He's being enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Once
we're saved, that doesn't mean that our minds are suddenly
supernaturally healed of that corruption though. Instead, God gives us
His Holy Spirit to dwell within us and teach us what His Word says. The
"trick" is that we have to ask Him to teach us and listen to Him when
He does. This is why even someone who is saved and has the Holy Spirit
within them, can read the Bible and still not understand it. Without
God's teaching and guiding, we will simply apply man's corrupted
philosophy to God's Word.
However, with the Lord's guidance and teaching, and if we are applying
His Word to our lives - living it, doing what it says, and not just
reading it, the longer we're in His Word, the more and more our minds
will be transformed to be more like His. They'll still have the
corruption of sin, but because we've filled our minds with His Word and
reflect on His Word so much, that will in a sense overcome the
corruption to a large degree. At least to the point where we're able to
have stored so much of the Lord's Word in our minds and hearts that our
thoughts, feelings and our life itself, reflect Him more then the
corruption of sin. Still, even then we can never rely on our own
knowledge, but instead must continuously rely on His Word. Our minds
won't be without corruption though until that great day when we finally
receive the completion of our salvation and receive our new bodies, with
our new minds and hearts that don't have the taint of sin.
As I've heard so often said, and it's true, the battle is for our hearts & minds. God wants us to love Him with all
our hearts and minds and strength. So that's why Satan does his best
to keep our minds as corrupted as possible so we can't escape him.
Why do you think that Satan has set forth the worldview that we have to
"love ourselves"? This isn't anything new. It was one of the big
things that brought down the Roman Empire eventually. We're following
the very same path they went down, and they followed Satan's idea that
we should make ourselves "number one" and "love ourselves" first and
foremost. This is what Satan's worldview has taught from the time Satan
fell from his heavenly position. This is so ingrained in us all now,
along with the self esteem garbage the worlds mixed in with it, that
most people never even question whether or not it's scriptural. They're
so used to it that it's like the law of gravity to them - it just "is".
And I include most Christians in this too.
This is how Satan set us up to have ourselves as a false god, and for
some people, to have our community or nation as a false god as well.
One red flag to look for to see if you've made yourself a false god, is
if there's a lot of what I call the self sins going on in your life. One
of the big self sins is "pride" and it's also one of the few that don't
have the word "self" attached to it. Often
people think that we must be proud of ourselves to make ourselves into a
false god or idol, but while that certainly happens, it's not always
true. A person who's
depressed is often actually taking pride in their self pity in a
perverted sort of way, although they don't usually realize it.
They're often so consumed by themselves that they can't see the forest
for all the trees. It often takes someone else to get them to step back
from themselves long enough so they can actually see what they're doing.
In a strange way though, that's very much like what Satan did when he
fell. He was totally and completely consumed with himself -though not
due to depression. He was more like the joke we've seen where the
person is so taken by themselves that you see them primping as they
stare into a mirror, admiring themselves.
Thirdly, we need to also recognize that while
we most likely do make ourselves into a false god at times, we have
also set up other false gods to run to as needed. We need to take a look
at those thoughts and emotions that we take captive and see if any of
them lead to a false god or two. If we suspect they do, then we need to
hold them up to our view of God and see how they stand up to it. Is
our view, our belief in God stronger then our false god? Or is our
belief in the real God so low that we have no trouble hanging on to our
false gods? If so, then we obviously need to work on making God more
real to ourselves. (actually, that's not a bad idea even if we don't
find any false gods) We do that through continued daily study of His
Word with Him and just plain talking to Him about it and asking Him to
help us make Him more real to ourselves. The more we do that, and the
longer we've done it, the more our faith and trust in Him will grow.
The more real He will be to us, and our lives will show that.
Lastly we have to remove the false gods from our lives and give that space back to the real God.
Other posts about this subject:
I was asked to give examples of things we might be worshiping today without knowing it. Let me first share something that will help
you identify things in your own life that either were false gods in the
past or are false gods to you now. Whenever something, or someone
becomes very important to you, there's a danger of it being or becoming a
false god. Normally when something or someone is real important to us,
we attach very strong feelings to it. Those strong feelings then can
be a "warning sign" for us to look and see what is causing the feeling.
We've already learned to take our thoughts captive, so this will simply
be one more step to take whenever we are feeling a strong negative
emotion like anger or bitterness, or fear, etc. When we feel those
things, the first thing we need to do still is to take it captive and
replace it with God's Truth. Once we've done that though, we should
then ask ourselves some questions to determine if that anger or fear or
whatever we felt is pointing to a false god. Please know that just
because we get really angry, fearful, jealous, sad, or something does
NOT mean that there is definitely a false god involved, but it is
possible. What is does mean for sure is that if nothing else we need to
talk to the Lord about it and find our what is causing it so we can
overcome it with His help.
Any thing or person that is a false god in
our lives is going to cause us to have strong emotions about it, so
that's why they can be used as warning signs. What are some questions
you could ask yourself to find out if there is a false god behind those
feelings? I ask myself things like: “Why do
I feel threatened?” “What am I afraid I am going to lose?” “What goal,
desire, or belief is being blocked or threatened?” “What’s so
important that it's causing me to explode or lose control?” "Where is this coming from?" "What's adding fuel to this emotion?" If we want to discover our false gods, it's important to trace overwhelming feelings and reactions back to their source. Most
important, we need to ask the Lord to help us look behind these
feelings to discover if we may have turned something or someone into a
false god - into the "ultimate thing of importance" in our lives.
As for examples, the easiest way for me to do
that is to share what the Lord has shown me in my own life. I have to
admit though, this one really shocked me! Many here know that I've had
some difficulties with my adult children over the years. Something
happened recently that caused me to feel deeply hurt and disappointed
with some of them again. (notice the strong emotions I felt) I did take
the thoughts and emotions captive and began to dwell on God's truth
instead of the incident in order to replace those thoughts and feelings
with Him and His Truth. Once I was sure that I was under control, I then
began talking to the Lord about it.
That was when He pointed out to me that my children had become a false
god in my life. To say I was shocked would be an understatement! I
wanted to deny it; I didn't want to believe it, but I knew the Lord was
right. My children and my relationship with them as a whole, had indeed
become a false god. They were the thing in my life that was "most
important". They had taken God's place in my heart. I was looking to
them for love, acceptance and approval, instead of looking to God for
those things. In fact, I wanted those things from them, more then I
wanted them from God.
I would sometimes allow thoughts and feelings about my children, or
about something they'd done or not done, to determine how I acted or
felt instead of being obedient to God.
The Lord showed me all that and more and of
course I repented of it. Since then, I've felt a great deal of peace
about that whole situation that had been missing for a long time.
Since then, I've been studying about it and have discovered that our
loved ones can often become our false gods if we're not careful.
Other people that often become a false god are those people that we think do not love us, but who we want to have love us. In fact, I'd say that was one of the biggest dangers of all.
Some other things that can become false gods are our pets or animals that we love deeply. It all boils down to a desire to be loved, accepted and appreciated by someone/something. The
Lord tells us that He is the one who loves us though and we're to lay
our expectations of other people at His cross because other people are
always going to let us down. If we leave our expectations at His cross
and go to Him for our love and acceptance and approval, then, God can
heal the broken places inside us so that eventually we can have a
healthy loving relationship with other people too.
Other false Gods might be the false god of
materialism, or money, or success, security, false gods of image,
outward beauty, youth, etc. Or as John pointed out things like cars or
motorcycles or other inanimate objects can even be our false gods if we
make them that important in our lives.
Whenever we see a quality about ourselves, such as beauty or youth, etc.
as something that we must have or maintain or as something we strongly
desire, it may be a false god. It may be that we think that if we have
that quality that it means we will be loved and accepted and approved by
either: the world, men, the one we want to love us, or by our boss, or
the public, etc. We have made that quality about ourselves into the
thing that makes us worthwhile, but that's a lie. (which is why it's a
false god) God is the one who makes us worthwhile. He is the one who
loves us and accepts us, and we do not need that quality in order for
Him to love and accept us.
One of the things I discovered a long time
ago was my false god was my job. I thought I was the best at my job and
did it well. It wasn't until I got hurt and couldn't work anymore that I
discovered it had become an idol, a false god, to me. I defined myself
by my job. Really, I defined myself by two things: my job and my
children -being a mother. So in reality, my children were a false god
even back then.
As before, the Lord showed me that what I did, did not make me worthwhile and loved.
What I had did not make me worthwhile and loved.
What I could contribute did not make me worthwhile and loved.
Whether I was good looking, had money, worked, or anything else, did not make me worthwhile and loved.
God made me worthwhile and He loved me and it wasn't due to any of those things.
So really anything that we think causes us to be worthwhile or loved, can be a false god in our lives. I have a feeling that we all have a bunch of them that we didn't even
realize were there. But our Lord will help us discover them and get rid
of them so we can have the peace and joy He wants us to have now.
Positive feelings could also indicate indicate a false god or idol. I'm trying to think of times in my life and the things that I
now know were false gods in order to give an example.....
For instance, when I was seeking love and acceptance from men instead of
God - always looking to my husband instead of God, my feelings were
mixed, but at times - when my husband happened to be giving me the love I
thought I wanted, I'd be very happy. It was only when he wasn't doing
that, that I'd be unhappy.
Another false God I had was first my school
work and then later, when I was older, my job. I worked hard and made
mostly A's in school, and when I'd make an A, I'd be happy, and that was
most of the time. But when I'd get even one question wrong, even
though I'd still get an "A", because it wasn't perfect, I'd be very
unhappy. I know that sounds ridiculous to most people, but that's how I
was. I strove for perfection because deep inside I thought I had to be
perfect to be loved and accepted by God. My school work, and then
later my job, became false gods because I was looking to them to prove
my love and acceptance, or to prove that I was lovable and acceptable,
however you want to look at it. I
remember how I would get very stressed out when it was time for our
boss to do our job reviews. Again, I was striving for perfection and
worried that I wouldn't measure up. All my reviews were very good, but
the problem was, the last question on each review was "What can your
employee do to improve?" To me, that was the same thing as saying that I
wasn't good enough. My mind knew better, but my heart didn't. So I
always got very upset when it would come to that last answer no matter
how gently my boss tried to word his answer. It
wasn't until I knew the Lord and gave up my false gods and accepted His
love and acceptance, that those things no longer bothered me. Because
then I finally understood that by myself, I could do nothing good - and
that was ok because everyone is that way; but that the Lord loved and
accepted me anyway, even at my very worst, and because He did, His love
made me worthwhile. I no longer
needed to strive to make Him love me, or strive to prove I was lovable.
Instead, I could just love Him back and rejoice in His love for me.
One way to tell is to ask yourself who is being glorified by your thoughts and feelings. Is it you? Is it another person, place or thing? Or, is it God
I suspect that everything
in this life, and every person we know or wished we knew, as well as we
ourselves, could be a false god and idol for us. I guess I need
to just state that instead of giving examples like I did. No, not
really...I think the examples help some too because hopefully they show
how perfectly ordinary things can be a false god. Because a false god is simply something or someone that we think is super important to us in some way, shape or form. In fact, here's another one that really surprised me because it's not something anyone would "want" to have...
I also discovered that the pain I'm in can be
a false god or idol to me at times. For example, that time I wrote
about in the pain forum, when I trusted in the pain more then I trusted
God, remember? At that moment, it became an idol; a false god for me. I
guess I should explain that in case anyone who's not a pain forum
member reads this:
I'd been in a great deal of pain, especially at night and one
evening got very upset and didn't want to go to bed because I "knew"
what would happen when I did -the pain would get worse. So I wound up
staying up all night.
The Lord pointed
out to me that the reason I had the problem and got so upset that
night, was because I'd turned away from Him and allowed myself to dwell
on the possibility or likelihood of the pain instead. I'd
basically put my faith in the pain happening and me not being able to
handle it instead of taking the thoughts and fear captive and replacing
them with God's Word which says that His strength is made perfect in
our weakness and that He is our strength and is always, always with me
and loves me and will sustain me and give me peace. So, really, I
traded my peace for fear and self pity.
The Lord pointed that out to me the next day and I was quite ashamed of
myself then, especially when I realized that I'd literally put the pain
ahead of Him. See by focusing on the pain, it promised me that I
wouldn't get hurt if I just stayed up, but it lied, as false gods always
do. If I had taken those strong emotions of fear, anger, and self pity
as a warning sign, I would have realized something wasn't as it seemed.
But during that time I was determined to be disobedient to the Lord.
I knew I should take the thoughts and feelings captive, but I refused
to. I even lied to myself and told myself that they were there to
"warn" me - meaning that they were warning me not to go to bed. Well I
was half right. They were warning me, but it wasn't about that. They
were giving me the same warning they always do and telling me to take my
thoughts captive because they were lies. But I chose to believe the
lies and to dwell on them instead of on God and His strength and His
help.
So you see, even something as unpleasant and disagreeable as severe pain can become a false god and idol if we allow it to.
Another big one that most of us have had at one time or another is our
past. We often give our past much power over us instead of taking those
thoughts captive like we're told to and replacing them with God's Truth
about us. .
Still another one that we've all probably had at
one time or another is ourselves. Yes, we even make ourselves into a
false god at times, like in the example I gave Eva.
It just goes to show that anything can be a false god.
More posts about idols:
The civilized world has taught us that we're independent and don't need anyone but ourselves. We are taught to think of ourselves first, to love ourselves, to be ourselves, to do for ourselves. We're taught that no one can make us do anything and we can do and be anything we want to. We're told anything and everything is ok as long as it makes us feel good and that we should feel good. We're taught how great and wonderful we are. We're taught that the stars are our limit -in other words there is no limit to what we can do. (sounds an awful lot like the tower of Babel to me) It's funny, but the more I study God's Word, the more I find that the world has lied to me about many, many things and has corrupted the meaning of many things as well. As I was studying Deut 5 I came across something surprising that I'd like to share with you. It's something else that our civilized world has made it hard for us to understand and relate to. Deuteronomy 5:6 —“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
Let's look closely at this first sentence. "I am the Lord your God". Before we can really be saved or have the fear of God or love Him or anything else, we first have to know that He is. As Hebrews 11:6 says: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Now that may seem strange to us, because we rarely question His existence, but then again, if we really believe He exists and is aware of us and all of that, wouldn't we tend toward being obedient to Him a whole lot more? No, I'm not suggesting we don't really believe in Him, but I am suggesting that we might benefit a lot from focusing on His existence and reflecting on it until we really, really knew it. At least, that's what I determined for myself.
I've thought for many years that because we're so "blessed" to live in such a "civilized" country, that we really don't understand concepts such as "God", or "slavery" or things like that. We know the definitions of them, but we don't have any real personally emotional attachment to them. Most of us have had jobs and bosses we may not have liked at all, but we could always quit. When I dwelled on the concepts of Lord's and slaves, and tried to imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning, knowing that another person owned me and that they could literally kill me at their whim, it was hard to do that and make it "real" to myself. Sure, I can imagine it, but it's more like a fantasy then anything possible, even though I know that there were and are slaves all around the world. When I imagine it, I think I'd "run away" or find some way out of it - I can't make it last in my mind for a lifetime.
Yet, it IS real. God is real. God created us and He sustains our very lives every moment of every day. He can wipe us out en mass, or one at a time or any way He chooses, whenever and however He chooses. The fact that He doesn't do so, doesn't mean that He can't. He can bless us or curse us, give or take away. Yet for the most part, we ignore Him and go on with our lives as though He wasn't there. If we were slaves in this world with a physical Lord over us, we couldn't do that. He'd be in our face constantly and be a constant reminder that if we don't obey Him instantly, He could and just might, have us killed. See what I mean about why I felt I needed to dwell on that and make God more "real" to me?
So first, we need to know that God IS. He is God, He is the Lord. But, there's another word in that sentence that makes a HUGE difference in it's meaning. It doesn't say, "I am the Lord God", it says, "I am the Lord your God". Out of all the other people on this earth, He is MY God and I am His. He's personal. He knows and acknowledges me and wants me to know and acknowledge Him. It's more then that though. Because He's not "my God" and no one else's. He says that to everyone. It's up to each individual to accept Him as their God or reject Him. And that means something very important for each of us and this is what kind of blew me away when I realized it.
Everyone has a "god", it's just not always the One True God. In fact, everyone generally has quite a few gods. We all serve someone/something. That may change according to what happens during the day and how we're feeling, but regardless, we all serve something. It's just that in our civilized world, we don't think of them as gods. The problem with that is that The One True God does think of them as gods and He doesn't want us to serve any one or anything but Him. See, God designed us to be in relationship with Him -with God and so we seek that constantly whether we realize it or not. That's what I've always thought of as the empty "hole" we're always seeking to fill, that will make us "happy" and "complete". It's the something missing that we all search for even when we don't know we're looking for it.
Whenever we're not in an intimate relationship with God, we will be in an intimate relationship with something/someone else, because that's who our hearts have been designed. We have to be in an intimate relationship with something/someone. Many women look for it in a man. Many men look for it in a woman. Others look for it in work or school, money, children, booze or drugs, or books, movies, porn, sex, parties, friends, food, the internet, computer or video games, our homes, gardens, etc. or for instance when we endlessly strive for the approval of others, or the love of others. The things we look for it in aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves, although they can be at times, but they become bad no matter what they are because whether we know it or not, we become slaves to them. (Rom 6:16)
So we're all slaves, all the time. We're simply slaves to different things or people or "gods". Remember too, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve 2 masters. We have to choose. Besides which, God also tells us that He will not "share" us with others. It's Him or them. That's why Jesus pleads with us and says in Matthew 11:29–30 —Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. *For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” * A yoke is what's used to join 2 cows or horses together so they can pull a plow. Jesus used that word because whoever or whatever we're slaves to, we're joined together with. We're "yoked" to them. That's again why we're told not to be "unequally yoked". If you yoke a little cow with a large horse, it won't work. They can't pull the plow evenly. Back to the point though, when we serve someone or something besides God, we are slaves to that and we're yoked to it whether we realize it or not.
And that too is something I really needed to dwell on because generally, in our day and time, we don't realize that. We think we're just hanging out with people or just eating junk food or just drinking, or just running after a man to love us, or whatever. We'd be more inclined to think of them serving us rather then the other way around. The Truth though, is that we're serving them; we're slaves to them. That's why we run to them every time we're scared, or depressed or worried or lonely, or whatever our personal triggers are.
Here's the really bad news for us who are saved. When we do that, we're not just slaves to those things, we're slaves to false gods. They are our "idols". We have put them in God's place in our lives. We can know that because if we didn't have any false gods or idols, we'd be running to the One True God, "our God", when we felt that way. All the various things we each choose as our idols and false gods, generally look pretty good to us. If they didn't, we wouldn't run to them. But in reality, they're cruel masters. For example, those of us who choose food, then must constantly worry about our weight and/or our health because our idol has messed up our cholesterol and our weight. Our false gods have made us promises to make us feel good and they can't keep those promises; worse, they lead to death. But there is a True God who will help us, if we will just choose to take His yoke on ourselves instead. Yes, we will still be yoked to someone, but this God is loving and His yoke is easy and the burden is light.
That brings us to the last part of that first line -“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery". The One True God tells us that He is our personal God and He qualifies that, even though He certainly doesn't have to. He says that He is "our" God because He brought us out of the land of slavery. He doesn't want us yoked to those false idols that lie to us and use us and throw us away. He created us to be in an intimate relationship with Him, not with them. He wants 100% of us though and He wants us 100% of the time. All day, every day. He wants us to be yoked to Him and nothing else. Can you imagine yourself literally yoked to Jesus? That's what I try to do to remind myself that no matter where I go, what I do, what I look at or who I talk to, He is with me. He's not just a passive partner that I'm dragging around with them though. No. In fact, He's bearing most of the burden for me, making my burden lighter, just because He loves me and He's "my God."
Speaking of bring us out of slavery, some folks might say, that's not talking about me, that's talking about the Jew's when He brought them out of Egypt, and so it is. But it's also talking about you and me. Well, at least me for sure, because I know without any doubt at all that He's brought me out of my slavery. He rescued me from myself, from the occult, from the new age, from depression, from loneliness, from fear and worry, and from so many other things that I've been a slave to all my life that it would take too long to list them all. And He's still doing it. He brought me out of that slavery and shows me every time I start to slip back or sneak back into one of them. He says we all are enslaved to various different things, and if He hasn't freed you from those things yet, He wants to and He will, if you will let Him.
When we do finally agree with that first sentence and can say, "He is the Lord my God, who brought me out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery", then He adds a command to it. Then He tells us, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. *“You shall have no other gods before me. * (Deut 5:6–7) Most of us don't even think twice about that statement. I know I certainly didn't used to. Not until I understood what a false god really was. When I finally understood that it could be other people, other things, and put it together with who I ran to when I was hurting, instead of running to Him and His Word, only then did I understand what a false god and an idol was. It's not necessarily some statue in a church that we kneel before, light incense to, pray to or "worship". (although that certainly can be one too). That's often what it was during the time when the Lord brought the Jew's out of Egypt, but times have changed and we worship other things now. Even they often worshiped other things besides their stone idols. Whether the idol is stone, wood, a person or thing, doesn't matter. It's still a false god and an idol and we should run away from it as fast as we can.
Why? Because He IS God. Because He is OUR God. Because He loves us and paid an awful price to bring us out of slavery and set us free from slavery to sin so we could be slaves to righteousness instead. Now our slavery doesn't lead to death, instead His yoke is easy, our burden is light and it leads to eternal life with Him.
This is now something I try to dwell on daily and reflect on it as it's important to let it really soak in. He is God and I am not. (in spite of what I often seem to think) I imagine myself literally yoked together with Jesus and try to hold that picture in my mind several times every day. I'll pick out something I do regularly, like opening the fridge or something like that, and every time I do that, I imagine myself yoked to Jesus to remind myself that He is here and He is REAL and that He is God.
Somehow we have to get past this "civilized" world's training that I'm god and make ourselves realize that we're really not and He really is, and just what that means. How can I love God with all my heart, with all my mind and all my strength if I don't really get what God is, what a Lord or Master is, or what a slave is? How can I fear God if I don't understand those things?
I've chosen the idea of imagining myself yoked to Jesus and remembering Deut 5:6-7 as well as Romans 6:16–23 and reflecting on them regularly every day.
