1 Kings 14:22
Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done.
In our Ladies lifegroup last Wednesday, I was asked to read a portion from Bill Hybel’s ‘Essential Christianity’ BS material. It was about the author’s conversation with a beautiful woman on a plane. Leaning she was dating an NBA player and another one back home, he asked if she feels a little bit guilty about that. (She also bragged about her party lifestyle, doing grass and all). Let me copy-paste her reply. ‘I am not an Edi Amin, Adolph Hitler type. I am a decent woman. I am well-educated, well-adjusted.. I consider myself as medium as anybody else out there’. To this, Hybels replied, ‘I am interested why you compared yourself to Edi Amin and Hitler. Why not Mother Teresa, St.Francis of Assisi, or Jesus of Nazareth?’ That ended their talk.
We last saw Rehoboam, Solomon’s heir, being stopped by God in his pursuit of uniting the twelve tribes. Now we read him sinning more than his fathers had done. Having the devoted David as your grandfather and the wisest Solomon as father is a big shoe to fill. But if we remember them as David the adulterer-slash-murderer and Solomon the womanizer-slash-idolater, and exceeding that, no wonder we next read of God’s stirred jealous anger. He was no different from the ruler up north. (I wouldn’t push comparing them for one might appear ‘better’). Same Asherah poles, same shrine prostitution. What is worse though is that God chose His Name to reside in Jerusalem. They have the advantage of having His golden temple and His appointed priests there. Unbelievable that they would exchange their beautiful worship set up to stones and poles on hills and under every spreading tree. It’s like preferring to dine in scums when you have a mansion in Forbes. They exchanged a living God for lifeless, man-made idols. It is a child preferring his toy rather than his parents multiplied a million times over. How insulting it is to equate the highest Being with not even His creation, but His creation’s crafted work! That’s two levels down. A wife may be reasonably jealous of the other woman prettier than her, but how nerve-wracking it is to be disregarded for an aged whore? God as a holy God means He was set apart from the rest. Peerless! And they represent Him with calves? And we depict Him as man? Oh we should not! The second commandment forbids it – not just the bowing, but the making. He considers them God-haters.
We may not directly and consciously dethrone God in our lives, but by elevating another to our highest gaze is but the same idolatrous, insulting act. God will not share His occupied space - - that’s the heart of this matter. Anything that robs Him of centrality and our foremost attention is an idol that provokes His jealous anger. Let’s check our schedules, our finances, our goals, our relationships. Who’s on rank one? Who got the bulk pie percentage? Christ or You? Who or what are those items compared to God? Anyone on the list all-powerful, ever-present, and who knows all things? Anything sure and able to help us out in times of want and troubles, sickness and death? And yet we make them gods? A foolish exchange. A million times fall far short. Definitely not worth comparing.
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