| Yesterday's Bible Study |
In this verse from Deuteronomy, Moses is writing to the Israelites. They are about to travel into a land and fight armies who serve other gods, and he knows they will face the temptation of idolatry. Because of this, he reminds them that there is no God like the Lord, who knows everything because He is with them.
Every day, we face the same decision that the Israelites did. Will we serve other gods, or will we remember the truth that the Lord is the only God? Our Gods, however, are a little different. We are probably not facing the temptation to serve Ba'al or Dagon, two of the many Canaanite deities that the Israelites might have been confronted with. But we do face the temptation to devote ourselves to "gods" like money, success, popularity, lust, and praise. We have to make the decision to serve the Lord--our salvation is at stake, just as it was for ancient Israel.
I have heard it said that we are always worshipping something … and we can look at our free time and how we spend our money to figure out what that "something" is. When we devote ourselves to success, for instance, we're constantly thinking about our careers and how we can get ahead. We become obsessed with the pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder and cannot imagine life without our job title.
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This is no different from the Israelites offering sacrifices to the Canaanite gods. When we focus our primary attention on anything other than Jesus, we are serving another god, missing out on true life in Christ.
This is especially concerning because, as Moses warned the Israelite people, the Lord is everywhere. This means He would see their idolatry, and that He sees ours. We cannot hide anything from the Lord; He knows our hearts even better than we do. So when we struggle with the temptation to serve other gods, we should come to Him and ask for help to overcome it. He will meet us where we are, reminding us that we are fulfilled entirely in Him.
There is no God like He is--He fulfills us completely. While fame, money, power, and all of the other false idols leave us wanting, we find total, perfect satisfaction Christ alone. This is what the Lord offers us … and it is so much better than anything else that exists.
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