By Guest Writer
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 17:1-14, Isaiah 18:1-7, Leviticus 26:1-2, Leviticus 26:14-17, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22
The night of my going away party will forever be one that stands out in my mind because it was one of the first times I sensed God’s judgment clearly. I was preparing to start my first full-time job across the country, and my friends were taking me out. However, it took a turn halfway through the night. After we’d left the club, I stood on the corner arguing with my friend. That corner was in front of a church, and the pastor just so happened to be circling the property (in what I’m now convinced was prayer) at two a.m. On his second lap around, he gave me a stern but compassionate look, a look that only the Holy Spirit could have planted there. It was a look that seemed to travel to the depths of my soul and say, “You’re not supposed to be here.” Some might have called it judgmental, but I saw it as a kindness because it helped me recall who I am in Christ.
We do not experience God’s judgment apart from His compassion, love, and mercy. In fact, it is because of His compassion, love, and mercy that God calls our attention to His judgment. Although it’s easy to read Isaiah and judge the Israelites for their idolatrous behavior, I’m not all that different from them. Whenever I inch closer to what I want in my sin instead of what God’s Word says is good, I have to be honest and realize, as Paul said, that it is my idolatry making me become a participant with demons (1Corinthians 10:20). Harsh as it sounds, it’s true.
When the Israelites turned away from God’s guidance in Isaiah 17 and 18, they turned to His judgment. And it should have come as no surprise. We see in Leviticus that they had been warned of the consequences, and they were not naive nor ignorant. Furthermore, Isaiah reminded them of that. He prophesied that God would judge Israel for forgetting the God of their salvation and abandoning Him. Nonetheless, that prophecy of judgment also included compassion and mercy. Isaiah declared that God would ultimately bring those near and far back to Himself.
Through Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10, I learn that culture continued to yield to idolatry and enticed believers to do the same. And while we may not erect altars and shrines to pagan gods, we still fall prey to the cultural idols of our day. Regardless of if it’s attention that we crave or astrology that we check, social media followings or psychic readings, wealth or witchcraft, we turn away from trusting in God’s Word too. Thankfully, in God’s goodness He chooses to expose our wayward action instead of allowing us to escape further into it without His good and compassionate warning.
We have a higher calling that invites us to participate in the blood and body of Christ. It requires us to deny our sin and our idols, and it also details that when we do we get to participate in the Lord’s table. When there, we never have to fear the consequences of idolatry again.
Written by Liv Dooley
Post Comments (0)