God Punishes

It surprises most persons, including most Christians, to learn that the Bible never says that the Lord is the only god in the world. 

It says He is the only God in the world. 

A number of other gods and idols are mentioned, even by name, in the Christian book, and at no point does it ever say they are not gods. Rather, it says they are worthless gods. They are not good. They are not powerful. They are not loving. They are not really the kinds of gods that deserve our worship. Put these so-called gods and idols up against the Lord, and it doesn't take long to find out they are nothing at all. 

Then Jeremiah goes even further and tells us that God punishes other gods (46:25). He punishes them for not being good, for not being loving, for not being benevolent, for not being through-and-through the kind of gods that He is for His people. He punishes them for leading His people astray and giving them false ideas about what a god should be. 

The most famous example of this, of course, is what happened to the god of the Philistines when they took the Ark of the Covenant into his temple. He kept falling over in worship, then fell over so hard that he broke, and the people were like wow, this Lord of the Israelites is doing something powerful to our most powerful god....maybe we should take the Ark back. 

And it's really cool to read stories like this, but it's also a tremendous warning for us. 

Because who among us isn't prone to set ourselves up as a god? Particularly as our own god? 

We love to do this. We love to believe we are in control of our own lives, that we know how to build our future, that we know what's best for us and the best way to get it. We love to believe that if everyone in the world would just listen to us, this world would be a better place because we are, after all, so wise and so knowledgeable about how things should be working. 

Then God looks at us, looks at the ways that we have set up ourselves as gods over our lives, and He just says...wait a minute. 

You're not as good as you think you are. You're not as wise. You're not as loving. You're not as benevolent. You're not as powerful. 

And, in fact, you are leading My people - even My person (ahem...yourself) - astray. You're creating this false idea of what you think a god should be. 

Let Me fix that for you. 

And...He does. 

He reminds us that we're not really good gods after all. He reminds us that He's much better than we are. He reminds us that there's a reason that He alone is the Lord and that all other gods - including ourselves - are false. 

Ouch. 

But I'm so thankful He does this. 

Because I can't think of anyone in this world who has messed up my life more than I have. And I need to be reminded of that quite embarrassingly often so that I can return to the One who is truly, truly good to me. 

The Lord.