Sometimes we kick against God's laws and requirements because we suspect He is out to spoil our fun... Jeremiah gives us another perspective:
The Queen of Heaven was Ishtar, a Babylonian idol. As the Hebrews worshipped her, they descended into immorality and decadence. It was an affront to the holiness and glory of the one true God.
But is just that God is dishonoured by idolatry - it is us who are harmed! High on God's agenda is His loving desire to protect us from the consequences of giving in to our sinful nature.
When we
- worship false gods, we take on their values (fear, excess, greed)
- commit adultery, we damage trust, loyalty and self-image and risk health
- abuse substances, we damage our bodies
- refuse to rest, we risk break-down
- don't honour our parents, we become unhealthy members of society
- desire other people's stuff, we become unsatisfy-able.
and so on.
God wants us to grow into all that He created us to be.
Sin deforms and destroys us - it drives God crazy because He loves us.
The last point here is the very sad picture of the whole family being dragged into this: children, fathers and mothers. How many families will go Christmas shopping on a Sunday morning instead of being in church? It breaks God's heart when this happens and He wants to protect us and our families from ourselves.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
