Psalm 101, 109; 2 Kings 18:9-25; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; Matt. 7:13-21
Hezekiah has sought an alliance for protection with the king of Egypt against the king of Assyria with whom he already has an alliance. Sennacharib came against and destroyed the fortified cities of Judah and only Jerusalem remained. The king demanded payment from Hezekiah who went beyond the terms of payment and gave lavishly of the temple treasury in hopes of averting destruction. This gesture, however, overreached and only whetted the Assyrian king’s appetite for more, in the belief that if Hezekiah could afford this measure there was surely more. He sent emissaries to show the Judean king how weak was his position, that the Egyptians could do nothing to protect him and he had torn down the altars and high places so he had even weakened himself religiously by focusing his attention on this one God who was worshipped in Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s trust was in too little is the basic line of reasoning. The Assyrians had already proven their power and might, surely nothing in which Hezekiah trusted could avail much.
It is popular today to believe that there are many ways to heaven or that there will be universal salvation because God so loved the world that He sent His Son, Jesus, and so, love wins. Jesus, however, speaks of a narrow gate where not many will enter and a broad gate through which many will pass to their destruction. Could He be any clearer? We need to be careful about the people we listen to, we need to be immersed in the Word of God for ourselves, not dependent on the words of men. I have a friend who constantly tells me what he hears from television preachers and never does he tell me what the Lord is saying to him apart from through these preachers. We have been given two great gifts, the Word of God written and the Holy Spirit to teach us truth, we need to rely on these rather than words spoken by powerful men and women lest we be led astray to our destruction.
There is but one God, all else is idolatry. Paul speaks to a culture which acknowledged and believed in many gods and where there were temples of worship for these gods. Food was offered by vendors and people alike to gods and Paul says that since these are not gods they should not deeply concern themselves over the eating of food with the one exception of if it causes another Christian to stumble in misunderstanding. There should never be the appearance that someone believes in multiple gods. Syncretism is a real danger and we must take care not to allow ourselves to be misunderstood in our devotion to the Lord. We cannot truly participate in joint prayer and worship services with others who do not recognize Yahweh as the only true God and it troubles me when Christians do this very thing. We must be willing to stand on truth always, never compromising on this conviction.
Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!
No comments:
Post a Comment