We shake our heads at all the people who still use Ouija boards, stone pendants, crystals, etc. to predict outcomes of current situations. Just last night a singer on The Voice chose her coach based on her swinging pendant she held in her hand.  Wow. We cannot believe that people will fall for leaders who are full of themselves, seeking glory over serving people, and who only want what is good for them. Then we become leaders who fall for the glory seeking habit, too.  We tremble when evil overtakes a person who comes unexpectedly into a place meant for good, where kindness is taught with other lessons are learned to shoot anyone who stands in their way.  The shooter frequently seeks only the glory of notoriety because evil has taken over their entire being and convinced they are not worthy of the love of anyone. 

We wonder why our own finances take a turn for the worse when an unexpected large expense occurs and we don’t have enough to cover it.  We fall for trap to borrow more to pay more with interest!  We have no margin in our lives because we have conformed to the world around us who says we deserve all that we can acquire to satisfy our longings for more. We worship the idols of stuff and sacrifice our time, talents, and offerings for things of this earth that have little to no value that eventually make us feel worthless inside.

Israel had a problem.  We have a problem. We are the same in this problem. The problem is rebellion against the God, the One who created all and owns all. It began with Adam and Eve and continues throughout the ages. This rebellion is called sin. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—of God’s best for us! (Romans 3:23)

Sin is anything that stands between the us and our worship of God alone. Sin leads us to worship whatever the current object of our affection in our mind and that we desire to own. These objects of affection include people, things, time, and/or anything else we worship instead of God.  Yes, we have a problem.

God warned Israel about the problem; but they did not listen.  Instead, they saw how other nations who didn’t know God sinned and decided to adopt their practices and conform to their way of sinning which included the sacrifice of their own children to their idol gods!  Ah, but we don’t do that, so we not as sinful as they were, right?  Are you on your phone right now reading this as your child is trying to get your attention?  Yikes.

Mm, I am reminded of Jesus’ parable of the Publican (Tax Collector) and the Pharisee.  “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”—Jesus, Luke 18:9-14

God knows all hearts and knows all our sins, from the subtle to sensational.  He grieves when we worship anything other than Him.  But it seems most of us would rather worship what we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch rather than the One Who knew us before we were born, knows our name, and holds our future in His hands. Sigh.

2 Kings 17

Hoshea Last King of Israel

In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. ² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.

³ Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. ⁴ But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore, Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. ⁵ The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.

Israel Exiled Because of Sin

⁷ All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods ⁸ and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹ The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. ¹⁰ They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. ¹¹ At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. ¹² They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.” ¹³ The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”

¹⁴ But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

¹⁶ They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. ¹⁷ They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

¹⁸ So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, ¹⁹ and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. ²⁰ Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.

²¹ When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. ²² The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them ²³ until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.

Samaria Resettled

²⁴ The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. ²⁵ When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. ²⁶ It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.”

²⁷ Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” ²⁸ So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.

²⁹ Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. ³⁰ The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; ³¹ the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³² They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. ³³ They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.

³⁴ To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. ³⁵ When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: “Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. ³⁶ But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. ³⁷ You must always be careful to keep the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. ³⁸ Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. ³⁹ Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

⁴⁰ They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. ⁴¹ Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Sin is sin. There is no ranking of sin.  Sin divides our attention from God to someone or something else.  Sin disobeys God’s best for us. Sin distracts and deceives us to be someone other than God created us to be with purpose in this life.  But sin is not the final answer.

God created a plan, The Plan, to redeem us of all sin once and for all. Here is the Truth and the Answer to our sin problem: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Let’s go back to Romans 3.  Paul further explains our sin problem that separates us from God to being made right with God.  Being “made right with God” is called “righteousness,” not perfection, but in right standing with God upon humbly repenting of our sins to Jesus who we believe as God’s Son. Jesus did what we cannot do for ourselves—remove our sins. In our imperfection we are made right because Jesus took all sin and sacrificed himself taking our place for the punishment we deserve.  We cannot earn it; only Jesus, perfect and without sin, could be that sacrifice for our sin.  Only Jesus reconciles (reconnects) us back to God.

“So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

“There’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn; they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one’s living right; I can’t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison. They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don’t know the first thing about living with others. They never give God the time of day.

This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. –Paul to the church; Romans 3:9-20, MSG

Paul goes on to explain;

“But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:21-24

Hallelujah! To God be the glory, honor, and praise!

Jesus asks us today;

Do you really believe what I have done for you?

Do you believe that God’s Holy Spirit lives within all who believe with power over sin? 

Do you really believe all that God says to be really real?

Do you mean what you pray? Do you get caught up in just saying words and miss their meaning? Continue to pray often—but do so out of a humble, honest heart. If the fancy prayers and big words aren’t you—use your own. God wants to hear what you honestly pray.  God loves like no other and wants to hear from his beloved.

Lord,

You have my undivided attention. Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, make me new with your fresh mercies filling my soul. Restore the joy of you in me and me in you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m yours and I’m listening.

In Jesus Name, Amen