8 March 2013 - dews and dont's

8 March 2013 - dews and dont's

We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;

We do this too, but not explicitly.  We look to worldly things for a satisfaction that can only come from God.  These are often good things whether hobbies, relationships, health or whatever else.  Still, they can't provide the changeless peace and the complete joy for which we long on their own.  We think that if we just tweak one more variable we will finally be able to escape suffering.  There is nothing particularly wrong with carved stone until we start to worship it and thereby treat it as something of more worth than it truly is.

How do we escape?  It is such an easy mistake to make when God seems distant.  We are quick to bring out the golden cafe in such times.  Surely fulfillment must be somewhere.  Simply disposing of the gold won't help.  We'll find another material out of which to make an idol. Instead, we must learn and come to see that the LORD is the source of all we have.  

I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;

He is the source of our life and vitality.  All the things we worship instead of him come originally from him, the author of life.

“I am like a verdant cypress tree”– 
Because of me you bear fruit!

On our own apparent goods and pleasures will just wear us down.  If we insist that we can grow as a cypress tree without the dew that comes from the LORD we will wither.

Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;
you have collapsed through your guilt.

But even so, even though we look to idols and God is distant, there is no distance too great for him to call out to us and rescue us.

An unfamiliar speech I hear:
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you.”

Jesus tells us that to put God first is indeed the most important commandment.

Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.

Our eyes are pulled down to earthly things.  Our hearts are distant from God.  Let us just open our ears to his word so that he can begin to show us the true state of our hearts and the true idolatry that exists there.  On our own we move from idol to idol, ever tweaking details which can't set us free.  Let us hear his words so that he may transform us.  

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;

Let us hear his words so that he may give us the blessings which he longs to pour out upon us.

“If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”