Throughout
Israel’s history opponents have come against them, enemies out to destroy them
and to take over their lands. Some of their enemies have been the Egyptians,
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Philistines, and the list just goes on.
Throughout the Old Testament we read of Israel’s battles with these foes. Some
were great battles with great victories; some were small battles with great
loss. These stories, these written words of Israel’s history are a reminder to
us of God’s faithful deliverance for His people. Year after year, battle after
battle, God delivered them, took care of them, protected them, and loved them
through it all.
Another
constant theme in Israel’s history is their tendency to worship foreign gods. God
does a mighty work and delivers them from the hands of the Egyptians, and a few
days, maybe weeks later they are melting down gold and bowing down to the image
of a golden calf. (Exodus 32:4) God does a mighty work to deliver them and turn
them back to Him, but a few weeks, months, years down the road they have
slipped back into their old ways and have set up altars, worshipping foreign
gods. They put up an altar to Ba’al or Ashtoreth, or some other god made with
their hands. They would then be faced with an enemy, a giant who was seeking to
destroy them. They would cry out to God. So God would raise up a Judge or a
Prophet to turn them back to Him. They would tell the children of Israel to
turn back to God, to put away the foreign gods from among them and serve God
only.
Year
after year, generation after generation the cycle of idolatry, rebellion, and
captivity would come upon them and they would cry out to God for deliverance. I
can so relate to the children of Israel, because I am just like them. Year
after year I find myself slipping into old habits, old behaviors I no longer
want to walk in. I find myself facing the same enemy that I faced last year. I
have been battling this enemy daily for years. I go through spurts where I do
okay. But then there it is again, facing me from the other side of the valley,
staring me down, reminding me that I have fallen once again.
In 1
Samuel we read about the Philistines coming against the children of Israel. In
chapter 4 the Philistines defeat Israel and the Ark of the Covenant is taken
captive. In Chapter 5 and 6 we read of how God punishes the Philistines and how
they want it gone from them and sent back to Israel. The Philistines hook it up
to a cart and send it off to Israel, as far away from them as they can get it.
In Chapter 7, twenty years have passed since the Philistines have had the Ark.
Another generation has come and gone, and once again Israel has fallen into
idolatry. Will the cycle ever end?
You
see, as I was reading through 1 Samuel 4-7 I realized that I have a choice to
make, just as the children of Israel had a choice to make. This cycle that I am
stuck in will never end until I make that choice and I make a commitment to
stick with that choice. We can either continue to live with the idols and false
gods we have placed in our temples, or we can choose to tear them down, put
them away and live for God and God alone.
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Every
single one of us has a false god living in our hearts somewhere. False gods to
me are those things that drain away your time and focus. They are worthless and
have no point or value. They do not give you growth, or encourage you in
anyway. All they do is waste your time, resources and life. For me this is
television. I find myself over and over again falling into the endless cycle of
watching and wasting away in front of a TV. Instead of serving the Lord, I am
in all reality, serving myself. There is so much more I could be doing with the
time that He has given me, but I find myself sitting down in front of a TV
wasting three to four hours of my day. (During football season, whole days are
wasted!) I have a choice to make. Like
the children of Israel, I have to make the choice to put away the god that is
draining my time, my focus and my life, or be defeated by it once again.
Samuel
tells the children of Israel that “if” they return to the Lord with all their
hearts, then they will put away the foreign gods from among them. We cannot
fully commit to the Lord for change in our lives until we fully commit to
putting away those things we know He has asked us to. Let me give you an
example. I used to be a smoker. It was something that I battled with for years
after becoming a Christian. Year after year I would make a vow to myself that
this was the year that I was going to quit. I would do well for a few weeks and
then I would find a reason to pick it back up again. Over and over again I
would do battle with the urge to smoke. I would use the excuse that my husband
still smoked, and it was too hard to quit if he wouldn’t. I found every excuse in
the book to justify my lack of commitment. There is no other way to say it then
to admit that I didn’t really want to give it up. No excuses, no justification
could be given because in the end, the choice to quit was mine and mine alone.
The Lord laid before me His desires for my life and health. But the decision to
serve Him or my own self desire was in my hands and my hands alone. God does
not force us to change, He only asks that we trust Him and obey.
Finally, the time came when I was
ready to do what it was the Lord was asking of me and I quit smoking. I haven’t
had one in a while, and the desire to smoke is gone. In fact the very smell of
it causes me to become sick to my stomach. Occasionally, though, the enemy will
try to wiggle back in, but I know that my God has delivered me from the power
of its hold over me and I refuse to go back. This battle has been won. I won’t
return to the battlefield because my God has given me the victory.
This
same principle must now hold true to the battle that I am facing today. If I
want to do what it is that I know the Lord has asked of me, then I must put
away this idol that is wasting my life and commit. No more excuses, no more
trying to justify my actions, I must commit to serving Him and Him only. I must be honest and forthright in my words
before you and before my God. The reasons that the Israelites kept on the
endless Ferris wheel of false gods is because in their hearts they were not
fully committed to following the Lord God. The same holds true to us. If we are
truly committed to Jesus Christ and following Him then we must also put away
from us those things, those gods that we have set up in our hearts and will not
let go of. Whatever it is that the Lord has told you to let go of, you must let
go. Otherwise we are going to find ourselves upon the battlefield year after
year, generation after generation fighting the same enemy again.
God
gives us the way of escape from all our temptations and sins. (1 Corinthians
10:13) But we have to be the ones willing to take the escape route He has given
us. It is hard to run a race when we are weighed down with golden calves and
wooden images. God has told each and every one of us how to win this battle we
are facing today; we must choose to follow His battle plan and to put away
those things that are wasting our lives. Is it really that important to us? Is
what you are clinging to so much more important than the God who is waiting to
deliver you? Is your desire for self so much more important than your desire
for God? No more excuses, my friends, my fellow Israelites, no more excuses. We
must put away our foreign gods, our Ba’al’s, and our Ashtoreth’s, and we must
prepare our hearts for the Lord, seeking and striving to serve Him and Him
alone. Even Jesus tells us this same truth when He tells us to “take up {our}
cross” and follow Him. (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Mark 10:21)
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When we
come to realize that the battles we face are of our own making, then maybe we
will see and understand that we have gods living in our hearts, and we must
choose to put them away. God will not force His will or His ways upon us, we
must choose this day whom we will serve. (Joshua 24:15) We choose to face these enemies over and over
again because we choose to go our own way. God has shown us what we are to do,
how we are to live, and given us His Holy Spirit to walk it with us. The choice
is ours. We can either continue on this endless cycle of sin and rebellion, or
we can choose to put away our gods, take up our crosses and follow Him. How you
choose to live today is your choice to make. Who do you choose to serve today?
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