Happily Ever After

By Gail Peo

That’s what we all want, isn’t it? To live happily ever after? To have everything we desire? But is that what is best for us?

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, God told them, “You shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you…” Otherwise (they) might say in their heart, “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.” [Deut. 8:10] When our lives lack nothing, we forget the Lord. We even take credit for our wealth.

We saw that in the Chaldeans, the wicked nation God was raising up to discipline His beloved nation of Judah. The Chaldeans worshipped their fishing nets, because they gave them credit for their life of luxury and rich food. Their nets didn’t bring them luxury; God did. [Habakkuk 1:16] They should have been blessing Yahweh, but they didn’t believe Yahweh was responsible.

We looked at several passages teaching us about idolatry this week. We learned that idolatry begins by leaving the Rock of our salvation, “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.”[Deut. 31:4] Why would we ever  leave that?

We learned that our idols have human characteristics of man, but they are not alive; they have no power. “Those who make them will become like them…” [Psalm 115:8] When we rely on the power of anything other than God, we exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship the creature rather than the Creator. [Romans 1:20-23]

Identifying the characteristics of idols allows us to see what may tempt us to leave the Rock of our salvation. It is different for each one of us, but we need to recognize the false idols that appeal to us. Why? So we can wallow in grief and self-accusations? NO! So we can return to the Rock of your salvation. So we will never again say, “Our god, to the work of our hands.” [Hosea 14:3-7] So we can be healed of our apostasy and receive God’s love freely.