Recently, I was reading
Exodus 20:3 while preparing for a sermon and it struck me that I had, perhaps,
previously been reading this passage in the wrong manner. Here, God says through His commandments, “You
shall have no other gods before Me.” It
seems that many people in the religious world, and even within the church of
Christ, subconsciously take this mean that we can have other gods, literal or metaphorical,
as long as God is “first.” Few make this
assumption consciously, but for many it seems that this subconscious reading is
the application that we make in our lives; meaning, we allow a great many
things to be “gods” before the true God, whether it is work, school,
entertainment, etc. However, it struck
me as I read that passage the other day that God meant that the Israelites were
not to bring any other gods into His presence, not that He had to be “first
among the gods.” Their devotion was to
be to the one and only true God, as our devotion is to be. This devotion is exemplified by many
righteous servants throughout Biblical history, a few of which are Shadrach,
Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, and Elijah.
Each of these men (and many others like them) faced idolatry under the
most dire of circumstances and yet refused to yield to the followers of these
false gods.
In Daniel 3, the people
of the Babylonian Empire are given the decree by Nebuchadnezzar that when the
instruments play, they are to bow down and worship a golden image set up by the
king. The consequences of disobedience
were well known to all, including Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: death. And yet, their devotion remains strong to the
Lord. Nebuchadnezzar, upon hearing of
their disobedience, grants them a second chance and threatens them again with
death, but to no avail. Rather, these
servants of God say, “…let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve our
gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (3:18). They fully accept whatever God’s will is in
the matter, whether He chose to save them or to allow them to die at the hands
of Nebuchadnezzar (3:16-18). Consider
what these men have just done: they have defied the ruler of Babylon and blatantly,
yet respectfully, informed him that they serve God over men. Further, Nebuchadnezzar, in his fury,
commands that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than it was normally
heated. It was so hot that it killed the
guards that were instructed to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the
fire before they could reach the furnace door.
Consider for a moment what this meant for the servants of God; their
guards are dead before they are actually thrown into the furnace, therefore
they had to continue into the furnace of their own accord. And yet they do. Their devotion to God is apparent through
their actions and not just their words. How
does our own devotion measure up to the devotion of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego?
Similarly, we have the
example of Daniel himself in Daniel 6.
Out of envy, Daniel’s fellow governors and satraps sought to find some
charge against Daniel because he had by the grace of God distinguished himself
before King Darius (Daniel 6:1-5). Their
plot was to convince Darius to decree that everyone in the kingdom was to pray
to or petition only the king for thirty days, and no other gods and definitely not
the true God. Daniel, knowing as
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew, that the consequence for disobedience was
death, did not quietly shut himself up in order to pray to God, but continued
in his tradition of opening his window and praying to the Lord. Daniel put his
whole faith in God and accepted whatever God’s will was in the matter. Like his friends, Daniel did not know whether
God would choose to spare his life at this point or to allow the hands of the
wicked to take his earthly life (although it is interesting that in Daniel 6:16
Darius states that Daniel’s God would save him). How does our devotion measure
up to the devotion of Daniel?
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah
defies Ahab and Jezebel, two of the vilest and wicked leaders that Israel ever
had. Here, Elijah stands with God by his
side, but with no other men, against the king, queen, the four hundred and
fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, and yet his
faith in God does not waver. Instead, as
the prophets of Baal and Asherah are dancing around and calling upon their gods
during the contest, Elijah actually mocks them and their gods by saying, “Cry
aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a
journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27). Imagine the faith in God that Elijah must
have had to not only to mock these 850 men, but to even suggest such a contest
to begin with. Then, Elijah shows even
more faith in the power of God by drenching his sacrifice in water before
praying to God. Imagine what would have
happened if God had not responded the way He did? If God had chosen NOT to
completely consume the sacrifice? And yet, Elijah prays but one time to the
true God and God answers; there was no dancing, screaming, and cutting, only a
prayer. The sacrifice, the alter, the
water, and even the dust surrounding Elijah’s sacrifice were all consumed in
the fire sent by God. How does our
devotion measure up to that of Elijah?
Today, our devotion often falters under much
less strenuous of circumstances. We are
devoted to God until our employer tells us we have to work Sundays, then we say
that we have to provide for ourselves rather than remembering the words of
Jesus in Matthew 6. Our devotion to God
is so strong that we pick and choose whether or not we will attend services and
Bible classes. Our devotion is so strong
to God that we disrespect both God and our fellow brethren by not showing up on
time or at all. Our devotion to God is
so strong that we constantly need someone to prod us in order to make us work
for God.
There is a line in a
hymn that many Christians often sing that we ought to consider closely and
often. The song is entitled “I Gave My
Life for Thee” (#340 in Hymns for Worship Revised) and the first line is as follows:
I gave My
life for thee, My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed
be,
And quickened from the dead;
And quickened from the dead;
I gave, I gave My life for
thee,
What hast thou giv’n for Me?
It is this last line
that ought to strike us, each and every one of us, hard as Christians. Christ came and gave His life on earth to
teaching and gave His physical life up on the cross for us. He left Heaven in order that He might do this
for us. What have we given for Him? What
are we telling God when we allow this world to be gods before Him? What are we
telling God when we choose our jobs or our entertainment over Him? Does that
measure up to the examples we have in the Bible? And we must remember that the
examples we have in the Bible are not of super-humans, but of men and women
just like us (James 5:17-18).
If we are all honest
with ourselves, we each need to ask ourselves about our devotion to God. Being honest with ourselves is, perhaps,
harder than many other things we’ll have to do as servants of God. And yet, it is necessary. Considering these examples and asking
ourselves whether or not we measure up to that level of devotion is a humbling
and difficult question to ask; it can be a painful question to ask. It does not need to a discouraging question to
ask, however. Consider Hebrews 12:3-11
where we are told that those that the Lord loves, He chastens. In fact, the Hebrew writer instructs us to
look to the horrors faced by Christ in order not to become weary and
discouraged, because we have not yet resisted to bloodshed. While “no chastening seems to be joyful for
the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
Rather than being
discouraged by having to ask ourselves such painful questions, we should endure
the chastening of the Lord and allow it to make us stronger, more devout
servants of the most High God. As way of
conclusion, ask yourself the following question: Christ gave Himself for me, what
have I given for Christ?
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