Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“When Solomon had finished the building of Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do, Yahweh appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. Yahweh said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised to David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house?’ and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.’””
(1 Kings 9:1-9)

“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Let’s not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall. No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”
(1 Corinthians 10:6-14)

God’s promises are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ (2 Corinthians 1:20). But they require us to be in cooperation with Him for them to stand and stay active in our lives (Matthew 19:26). The promises don’t shift, lift, or move. It is WE who leave them behind. God had made promises to David and to Solomon. This is another clear warning to Solomon about what he was supposed to do to continue to walk in those promises. He needed to keep God first. He needed to align himself with God’s will. He needed to keep himself from choosing to walk away from God. If he did – something that WAS possible – he would have the blessings. God wasn’t asking for perfection. He was asking for Solomon to maintain a heart that sought God in order to have fellowship with God. To love God for the sake of loving God. To obey God out of that love. And to always seek God and His will, forgiveness, and to receive His grace. To walk in His ways and repent when Solomon missed it. It was an achievable warning.

Paul gave the same kind of warning to the Corinthians. Warning them to put God in His proper place in their lives. To not have fellowship with things that stood against God. It wasn’t about rules and regulations. It wasn’t about dietary restrictions. It was about the heart intent of everything they consumed – be it food, drink, literature, or entertainment. It was about staying away from things dedicated to evil works because evil works are NOT godly. It was about a choice to love God with everything they had – not just what they felt was convenient. This is why following Jesus is a sacrifice. We are putting Him and His moral character above anything and everything that we feel, think, and want. God will never keep them from good things. Like Paul says, we should be focused on what is profitable to our whole selves and what builds up ourselves and those around us.

Summary

It’s easy to look at verses like this as passed away in significance. After all, hardly anyone is sacrificing food to an idol and selling it in grocery stores today. And there are few people who worship actual carved or shaped images. There are those who do these things (worship actual idols and dedicate food to actual demonic powers), but it isn’t a part of our general culture – not out in the open anyway. The problem is that ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that takes the place of God is AUTOMATICALLY idolatry. God is to be first place and first concern. Period. Full stop. Take advertising. In the west it promotes a culture of avarice. We desire these things that we didn’t know existed. We crave them. We covet them. That is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). The entertainment moguls have created an environment of celebrity worship that amounts to idolatry. It is all around us in MANY ways. We need to guard our hearts and make sure that we are placing God front and centre in it. That we are evaluating our lives according to His moral character and are aligning ourselves with Him. We need to keep ourselves from worshipping things other than Him. He is a GOOD God. He is a BLESSING to us. It is a JOY to love Him, serve Him, and rest in Him – letting Him be the source of everything we need, want, and have. There is FREEDOM in depending on Him that cannot be found ANYWHERE else. In God we have ALL satisfaction. We need to be holding onto that with all our heart.