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Judges 5:8
When they chose new gods, war came to the city
gates, and not a shield or spear was seen among
forty thousand in Israel.
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January 5
New Gods
Among the many new things that are good, new
gods is the worst. It is a problem that
constantly plagued the Israelites and it
occurred cyclically in the book of Judges.
To choose a new god is to forget about the
goodness of the one and only God. Most
people do not consciously choose new gods as the
Israelites did when they constructed idols
however.
Many people create new gods when they place
something above God in the priorities however.
As discussed in "Enjoying New Things" God wants
us to enjoy life. But this does not mean
that things should come ahead of God.
Some people enjoy camping and do so many
weekends over the summer. They do so at
the expense of coming to church. Other
people work themselves hard around the house so
that they do not have time to read the Bible or
pray. Still others get wrapped up in
watching tv or sleeping.
None of these things are bad, until they become
a new god to us. Once we create an idol
that takes us away from God we create a lot of
trouble for ourselves and hurt our relationship
with God. |
