Watch What Comes Up

“They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.” (De 32:17 AV)

 

Moses is rehearsing in the ears of Israel their propensity to follow after false gods.  The devils and gods whom they knew not are the ones they learned of while captive in Egypt.  The ten plagues of Egypt were ten plagues designed to attack the false gods which Egypt and Israel followed.  Once God proved Himself the only one and true God, Israel abandoned the gods of Egypt.  At least for a while.  While in the wilderness, Israel once again took up a false god.  While Moses was forty days and nights on the mountain with God, Aaron and the people fashioned a golden calf to which they offered sacrifice.  The golden calf was not a new one.  This calf was a carryover from Egypt.  God dealt with them harshly over this.  One would think if a nation saw the hand of God in Egypt and then paid the price for idolatry, they would abandon any future worship of idols.  But they did not.  The book of Judges shows us just how habitually the children of Israel went after gods.  Many of them were new.

One of the frustrations of life I had to get over is the idea of perfect circumstances after problem-solving.  For instance, when I worked at the factory, one would think one could get to a level where basics didn’t have to be re-taught.  We could fill our shift with trained workers and we would never again have to hire new ones and start all over.  Or, working with equipment, you would think that once all the problems were solved, you could run a full eight hours without any stoppage.  If we fixed a temperature problem, then it was solved.  If we fixed a trimming problem, done.  If we addressed a waste disposal issue, that was over.  We would hope that if we had problems, we would have them early and over with.  But working at the factory is like life.  When you whack a mole, another will pop up in its place.  This is life.  At the factory, the worst was having a change over from running one product to another with enough time to get the line back up running just before your shift ending.  If there was a changeover, your hope was either earlier in the day, or about an hour before the end of your shift.  Otherwise, it is a lot of work when quitting time is rolling around.  But new problems arise.  They have to be solved.  They have to be conquered.  Then production resumes.

Israel is a picture of the saint as they come to salvation and grow within.  We have this misunderstanding when we come to salvation, all the monsters will be slain.  We think overcoming very obvious and dramatic sin will mean complete victory to our home-going.  Not so.  The old man is still with us.  He is still vibrant.  He is still there.  We have to contend with it.  We often think that at salvation, we have overcome the worst of the worst.  Again, not so.  My mentor told our early discipleship class the real battle over sin had just begun.  We may have gotten rid of the cursing, bad music, and evil choices, but he warned those were the easy ones.  And he was right.  We didn’t realize then what I know now.  When we gain victory over one god, another is waiting in the wings to take its place.  We cannot rest on our laurels.  We need to be ever diligent to overcome whatever gods may pop up.  Like whack-a-mole, there will be new ones which we need to take the hammer of the word of God to and knock them back in the ground where they belong.  Not until our home-going will we be totally free of all temptations.  Until then, watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.