(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more. Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it,” says Yahweh”
(Jeremiah 7:3-11)
“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you,
Israel, if you would listen to me!
There shall be no strange god in you,
neither shall you worship any foreign god.
I am Yahweh, your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
But my people didn’t listen to my voice.
Israel desired none of me.
So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts,
that they might walk in their own counsels.
Oh that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their adversaries.
The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever.
But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat.
I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”
(Psalm 81:8-16)
“Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God, that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:1-8)
Change. That was the message to His people that God gave. They had it within them to change. To choose to go a different way. No one was forcing them into idolatry. No one was forcing them to choose practices that were so abominable that God never imagined they would embrace them (like child sacrifice). They COULD choose to return to their covenant with God. They COULD choose to purify themselves and their worship of Yahweh. They COULD choose to rely on Him and Him alone. If they did, He WOULD rescue them. He WOULD turn the tide of judgment. He WOULD restore them completely. It was their choice. They did not choose wisely.
God isn’t eager to punish us. God is eager to correct us. He is eager for us to stop rebelling, align ourselves with His point of view, turn around, and return to Him by forsaking our rebellion. He wants this in every area of our lives. Every thought. Every word. Every action. It’s a process of choice. If we will do this, He will help us. If we will listen to His correction and submit to His will, He will help us. He will walk through it with us. He will guide us. He will restore us. He will protect us.
We don’t have invading armies coming against us (in most places of the world). We are not about to be taken into slavery. But no matter where we are, we are being attacked. The world wants us to accept their morality as our morality – and we have spent a lifetime being programmed into it. We have a choice. God gave us self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). We CAN choose God’s moral character. We CAN choose to align ourselves with Him. We CAN choose to control our impulses and lean into what God says is good and right and just. We CAN do it. And if we WILL, God will help us. God will be right there to protect us. God will put His hand in ours and we will walk through it all together.
Summary
The world loves talking about needs. We have needs. We have to give into the impulses that come out of those needs. The need for sex. The need for alcohol. The need for retirement. The need for relaxation on the weekend. The need for this and that and everything that is advertised to us and sold to us as a lifestyle. It even goes deeper into identity and citizenship and politics. Basically every aspect of human thinking that we have discovered. There are ‘needs’ attached to all of them and we are encouraged to give into those needs because they are NEEDS. But if we really investigate them, they are wants. We have very few needs as human beings and those are NOT what the world leans into (clean water, healthy food, shelter, and rest). We need to take the time to investigate the Word and see what our needs really are. We need to take the time to investigate the Word and see what God’s opinion is about all the rest of it – and align ourselves with Him. It is a CHOICE and we have it in us to CHOOSE. Choose wisely.
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