Monday December 26, 2016
Worship God Not Images
-MICAH 1:1-10
Key Verse:
"And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot" (Micah 1:7).
The religious formation under the African setting is usually arrayed around unwritten codes of laughable beliefs and activities. Statutes, images and relics are set up. Although these images do not hear prayers in their states, yet, they are revered and worshipped rather mindlessly. It is paradoxical that while adherents know that these images are dead, they continue to place fresh sacrifices around them, even though the so- called gods had not "consumed" the ones earlier placed. Micah, in our text, did not go into any preambles. He introduced God as a Judge coming into His court to pronounce verdict. His coming made the earth to split and the mountains to melt with the rocks flowing like melted waterfall. As the judge comes to court, Israel and Judah were presented as the defendants. Without any need of witnesses, since their graven and molten images were everywhere in the high places, He declared a guilty verdict. The Northern kingdom had established its own religious system in competition with the Mosaic worship in the temple at Jerusalem. Jeroboam, fearing he may lose the loyalty of his people, led them into terrible idolatry. The people of Judah also secretly began to worship the false gods of Canaan; and their hearts were not true to their God anymore. Why should lifeless images have such an appeal? It is a huge dilemma that man should worship gold and silver and the work of his hands. Believers must steer clear of idolatry in any form, and must disdain and reject the worship of images whether inside or outside the church. Idols are not merely the lifeless statues that men bow before. Anything cherished more than God is idolatrous. Whatever one elevates beyond the true and undivided lure for God is idolatrous, with a grave risk of courting God's indignation.
Thought for the day: Idols are as dumb as those that worship them.
Bible Reading in one Year: REVELATION 7 - 8
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