The True Story of the Whole World by Michael W. Goheen

Author:Michael W. Goheen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bible;Bible—­History of Biblical events;REL006000;REL012000
ISBN: 9781493427529
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2020-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

Reflections for Today

In act 3, scene 1 of the biblical drama, we see Israel called to embody God’s purposes for humankind and to enjoy the blessings that flow from following God’s perfect rule. In scene 2, Israel is given the homeland in which this new life of blessing is meant to unfold. It’s as if in scene 1 God selects the cast (Israel) and gives them their lines (the law). Now, in scene 2, they’re on the world stage. The script couldn’t be better, and the Director is there to help at every turn of the action. All the same, their performance is a disaster. Why?

Let’s look back briefly at what we have seen in this chapter, beginning with the book of Joshua. God is faithful to his people, giving them the land he had promised and going before them to drive out the enemy. But Israel’s loyalty is divided: they tolerate the worship of idols. By the end of the book of Judges, God’s chosen people have fallen so far that it is hard to tell them apart from the pagan nations that surround them. In the books of Samuel, God again acts in mercy, giving the people a king to rekindle their devotion to God and allowing the nation of Israel to shine like a beacon in the darkness. But Israel’s kings too often succumb to their own sinfulness, leading their people not in devotion to God but in rebellion by permitting—and often actively encouraging—the worship of false gods. This continues until Israel’s witness to the Creator’s presence has been virtually extinguished. In judgment, God removes the people from their home, sending them into exile and prematurely bringing down the curtain on their performance.

Though there are many lessons for us in this part of the biblical drama, perhaps the most compelling lesson—the one that we most need to understand in our own day—is that the worship of idols brings ruin. We were created to worship God alone. Looking back at Israel’s fascination with the idols of the pagan cultures surrounding them, we wonder how they could have been so foolish. The living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, had miraculously led them out of slavery across a sea and a desert and a river. God broke down fortresses in front of their eyes and gave them a wonderful home. But they preferred to worship bits of stone, wood, and bronze—the gods that had been worshiped in that part of the world long before Israel arrived.

Those particular idols are not seductive to us today, yet many idols continue to shape human life in Western culture. When a cultural community centers its life on some part of creation and trusts it to bring life, therein lies idolatry. For the people of Israel, who lived in an agrarian economy, the idol was agricultural fruitfulness and abundance. Today we have different idols. We have trusted in human ability to shape our own fate and deal with the problems of the world.

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