The Choice Is Yours

Deuteronomy 11 begins with an emphasis on the importance of loving God. It continues with an emphasis on showing love for God by obeying God. Then Moses said to this second generation of Israel, "You saw what I did. Do not let what lives in your memory die with your generation! Teach what you saw and learned to your sons so that your memories of My acts will continue to live in their lives!

Moses emphasisized the fact that the land was good. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the land Israel was to receive! The problem lay in the people who lived on the land, not the land. The key to having a good people possess a good land was this: "Remember I am God, love Me, and obey Me. Do not be deceived by their worship! Do not turn to their gods! If you allow that deceit to govern you, you will be wicked like them and abhorred by Me!"

People are incurably religious! We will worship something! Without doubt, we could generate long discussions of why peoples throughout history [including today] feel a deep need to worship. I make two observations: (1) we commonly acknowledge the need to worship something greater than ourselves when we are reminded that we are temporary and inadequate. (2) The more selfish we become, the more distracted we are from our temporary, inadequate status and the less worshipful we become. The greatest deceit that blinds us is seen in the human arrogance arising from our sense of self importance!

One of the curious realities in the human desire to worship is found in the fact that we rather worship something or someone we create [or can explain] than worship He Who created us. Even in acknowledging the existence of something or someone superior to us, we seek to be in control and to manipulate. Thus, if we are not careful, even in worshipping the God Who created, we seek to control or manipulate. Rather than praise Someone superior to self, we often seek to deceive Someone superior to self [and by our attempt to deceive that Someone declare we are either equal to or superior to that which we worship]. So, we seek to "bind" the Creator to "arrangements" we make with a "take it or leave it" attitude as though we were in the position of making deals with God. The irony is that God allows us to declare such arrogance!

Deuteronomy 11 ends by declaring, "It is your choice. God through me gives you a choice. Before you are blessings and curses. What you worship is your choice. Just be aware that there are consequences to your choice. You can worship Him Who you know. You can worship gods you do not know. If you worship Him, it will be from an obedient love that appreciates Him for what He has done for you."

What do you worship? Why do you worship?