Do we truly trust God? Or do we throw up prayers of hope and then get angry when he doesn’t deliver? Do we worry and have anxiety and weep about things that we know will surely happen but have not yet come? Yep, yes and yes again.
For Israel they took their trust to the idols. It says the more that Israel grew, the more idols and altars they set up. This false trust creates all sorts of problems.
“They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field” (10:4).
But the gods they served would as nothing.
- Their idols would be carried away into captivity to the conquering king (v. 5-6)
- The city and the king “will float away like a twig on the surface of the waters” (v. 7)
- The high places of false worship would be destroyed
So much for the gods that were supposed to save them.
They plated wickedness. They harvested evil. And they have eaten the fruit of deception (v. 13). Why?
“because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors ” (v. 13).
But the LORD calls them to something different.
”Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you” (v. 12).
But first they would bear the fruit of their actions. The roar of battle would come to them. And just as in previous war where mothers and children were dashed to the ground, so it would happen again.
“When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed” (v. 15).
So we read this. It happened. The northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria and it was because of their persistence in idolatry, rejection of God, and longevity in grotesque immorality.
But how does that translate?
It’s not so easy to see our lack of trust when we don’t have wooden idols that we worship. Instead we have ideologies we cling to. We look to political parties or right candidates to deliver us from those “other” people, that other party. And then we also have our crazy obsessed self-reliance mentality that forgets oftentimes to trust God. To see what He is saying to us. And to act upon it when we don’t understand.
Israel was and is a covenant nation with God. He deals differently with them than other nations. No matter what happens, they will always persists. That’s not a guarantee of the Gentile nations.
And then I think of who are the covenant people of God today? They are those who have made a covenant with him. He will never abandon us nor forsake us. But let’s we forget ,if Israel strayed so far that God had to bring discipline to them, will he not do the same for us? Grace and covenant are not a license to sin. They are the responsibility to love.
And then there’s that thing about trusting ourselves in an unhealthy way. That’s disturbing. Because that is too much in my life than I want to admit. It’s not the issue of judgment and discipline that’s the problem. It’s that more so we can shipwreck our lives because we do not look to, depend on, and trust God in the now and what is yet to come.
Lord, have mercy.
