4th Quarter: Present Truth in Deuteronomy.
Lesson 8: Choose Life
Thursday: A Question of Worship
Text: [[Deu 8:19]] BSB
If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.
Message
Some have described God as an autocratic leader who imposes rules and threatens his followers to bow to him. But this is far from the truth, considering how He dealt with the Israelites and how He deals with us today. Think about this, Israel had accepted God’s leading right from Egypt. At Sinai, they entered a covenant with him surrendering wholly to Him. At this point, they were entirely God’s. But even after that, God didn’t force them to do anything, He only gave them the path to take, and when Israel will go astray, He’ll graciously welcome them back and renew His covenant with them. As part of their covenant obligations was to worship Him.
One of the things that made them stand out as a nation was their worship of the true God, and this standard was never to be compromised. God over and over again warned the nation to be careful not to worship the idols of the other nations. He’s a jealous God and will not share his glory with anyone. It was either Israel choose to remain in the covenant with him and worship him, or they follow the other gods. Here again, There was no middle ground. Worshipping God (leading to life) or following other gods (leading to death).
God wasn’t threatening the nation, nor was he instilling fear in them. He only gave them the truth. There’s only one source of life, and if one doesn’t follow that path, then it’s destruction that awaits them. The new testament, particularly the book of revelation gives the same call – worship the creator and have eternal life (Rev 14:7), or worship the beast and his image and perish (vrs 10,11). At the end of the day, the choice is yours. It’s no more a nation, you have to make a personal choice between life and death, this time, presented as worshipping the true God or a counterfeit.
Reflection
How can we make sure that, even subtly, we are not slowly leaving our allegiance to Jesus for some other god?