The Ancient Idols Have New Names

Last week, we began our walk through Judges chapter 6, and we saw a nation under judgment.

We saw that the Lord delivered Israel into the hand of Midian because of their national

sin.

We saw how devastating it was for the Gideon generation, the young men who were vastly

impoverished compared to their fathers.

We saw the destruction of agriculture, the locus-like swarms consuming everything that

people produced, and the total insecurity that drove them into caves.

And we saw that the turning point came when the people finally cried out to the Lord.

Today we are picking up in verse 7, because what happens next is not what you would expect.

And then we are going to ask a question that will cut very close to the bone.

Who are the false gods of our day, and are we worshipping them without even realizing

it?

Welcome, I'm Nathan F. Conkey with God's World, God's Way, sponsored by cr101ridio.com,

an association with Grace Community School, and Nicene Covenant Church.

Please visit cr101ridio.com where you'll find free Christian audiobooks, e-books, and

podcasts for the Christian who won't accept the easy answers.

That's read verses 7 through 10, verse 7.

And the kind to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the

mini-units, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which sent unto

them, thus sent the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth

out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and

out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drove them like before you, and gave

you their land.

And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, for you're not the gods of the Amorites,

in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice.

Now, stop and think about what just happened.

The people are impoverished, they are desperate, they're hiding in caves and dens, they have

finally done the right thing and cried out to God.

And what does God do?

Does he send a deliverer?

Does he send an army?

Does he immediately rush in to fix a problem?

He sends a prophet instead.

In other words, he sends his word, and that's so important.

We want the fix, we want the solution.

We want somebody else to come in and sort the mess out.

What God says, before I sort the mess out, I'm going to sort out your thinking.

Before I deal with your enemies, I'm going to deal with you, my people.

Before I send a deliverer, I'm going to send the diagnosis, and the diagnosis is his

word and covenant.

And his pattern is repeated throughout scripture.

And Josiah found the book of the law on the temple, what happened?

The word came first, then their affirmation.

Second Kings 22 verse 11, and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the

book of the law that he rent his clothes.

The word convicted, and then the action followed.

When Ezra returned from exile, what did he do?

He read the law to the people, near my it hit.

So they read in the book of the law, distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand

the reading.

The word preceded the rebuilding.

When John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness before Christ began his public ministry, what

was his message?

Repent for the kingdom of God as a tanned, Matthew 32.

The word of repentance came before the kingdom broke through.

God always works this way, it's a pattern.

He brings his people back to his word before he brings them out of their trouble.

And if you're impatient for deliverance, if you're frustrated that things are not changing

fast enough, consider that God may be sending you his word right now.

So listen, look at what the prophet says.

He does not start with a problem.

He starts with God's character and God's track record.

I brought you up from Egypt.

I brought you forth out of the house of bondage.

I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians.

I drove them out before you and gave you their land.

God saying, do you remember who I am?

Do you remember what I've done?

Am I a weak God?

Am I a God who can't save?

I have a track record of deliverance that stretches back through your entire history.

And as a covalent people, as members of Christ, this history isn't just Rand mentioned

history, it's our history too.

This is the God who parted the Red Sea, who joined the chariots of Pharaoh.

This is the God who fell in nation with manner, who brought down the mighty walls of Jericho

just like that.

It's God the same God today, as he changed.

Malachi 3, verse 6, for I am the Lord, I change not.

Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

God doesn't change, so we can reach back into the Old Testament at all these deliverances

and take them into our hearts and hope, have that sure biblical hope of deliverance for

us.

Now, so shut up the mouths of those who say England is finished, Scotland is finished.

Remind yourself in your heart of how big our God is, what is track record is for those

who are called by his name.

After reminding them of who he is and what he has done, the prophet says, and they said

unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell.

Fear not the gods of the Amorites, God had specifically commanded them not to worship

the gods of the surrounding nations, not a suggestion.

It is, in fact, the first commandment, Exodus 20, 2 and 3, I am the Lord your God, which

have bought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have

no other gods before me.

And this is the foundation of the entire law, what's then and no.

It's the foundation of the entire covenant.

Everything flows from here, so this is a master's sin.

If you get the first commandment wrong, everything else collapses.

When the prophet drops the hammer, but ye have not obeyed my voice, this is the whole

problem in one sentence, ye have not obeyed my voice.

It's not, you haven't felt warm enough feelings, you have not had a long enough quiet time

or attended all the worship services, no, it's obedience, that's the issue, it's always

the issue.

Our Samuel 15, 22, we hold to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken than the fat

of rams.

Religious activity is that what God wants, no, he wants obedience.

Church attendance is good as that is, no, he wants obedience.

Theological knowledge, no, obedience, that's what he wants.

And the specific area of disobedience was worship of other gods.

It turned to the gods of the Amorites, Baal and Ashera.

Might seem irrelevant, but far from it.

Who are the false gods of our age?

No, I do not mean that people in the West are literally bound down to statues in their

living room, some do.

What I mean is this, who or what do we trust for the things that only God can provide,

because God is a capital G God, the capital G God.

So to help us, think about this, let's look at what Baal worship actually was.

The word Baal simply means Lord or ruler.

He was a storm god, the one who supposedly controlled the reign and the fertility of

the lands.

So if you wanted your complex crops to grow, went to Baal, slash Ashera for fertility, security

and stability, defending the nation, you went to Baal.

And you know what, the local Baal shrine was hygienic, convenient, practical, and you

could touch it, you could see it, and you know, the rituals were for the straight forward,

whereas the God of Israel, it was pretty far away.

The worship was demanding, and more than anything, his law, well, it's a bit comprehensive

and it's a bit much really, but Baal, easy, the Lord God, that was hard.

Now ask yourself a more pointed question, where do we turn for our daily bread and our

day?

The word is a farmer turn for the stability of his income, sadly to the state, agricultural

subsidies, payments, grants, schemes, and more than farmers, hard working, good farmers,

good people.

Where does the massive percentage of the population turn for stable employment to the state, public

sector jobs, government contracts, consul positions, NHS employment, subsidies for

disabilities, just living off the dole, and very significantly health care, the great

majority of the people turn to the state, what about education?

These are the great pillars of life, where do they turn the state, retirement, the state

for many people housing even the state.

So from the cradle to the grave, from the women to the tomb, the state is a provider,

really, religiously speaking.

When we understand religion properly, the state is the Lord or God, the state is the Baal

of our age.

And just like the ancient Baal's, the state demands sacrifice, it demands your money through

taxation, it demands your children through compulsory state education, your time through regulatory

compliance and taxation, it demands your conscience through speech codes and hit speech laws,

and your loyalty through the apparatus of licensing, permissions and bureaucratic control.

You can't start a business without its permission, you can't own land without its permission,

you can't educate your own children without its oversight.

And this really is another government in a biblical sense, under God.

This is a God demanding worship, and I would say that we quite happily, almost sometimes

we grow in a little bit, quite happily, we give that through our trust in education,

in health, in other areas.

Now, I'm not saying that any ant interaction with government is idolatry, I'm saying that

when an entire nation looks to the state as its primary provider, primary security and

primary hope, that it functions as a bill worship.

Psalm 118 verse, it says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in

man, Psalm 146 verse 3, but not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of man, in whom there

is no help. So we've been told that the state will look after us, and we believe it, but

I suspect you, if you're in your 20s or 30s, your belief is waning if it's there at all.

And we've been told to trust the institutions, and look where that's gotten us.

Are we more or less impoverished than we were 10 years ago, 20 years ago,

30 years ago, we are almost, we're approaching, where is your walls and Gideon's times,

because you know what, we've trusted generations of trusted, but have the bowels delivered on

their promises they never do. They take your offerings, they consume your substance, but what do we

have in the end? Jeremiah 2 verse 13, for my people have committed two evils.

They forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hew them out systems, broken systems that

can hold no water. That's what the state as savior is. It's a broken system, can't hold water,

and its promises don't hold water. Do you believe with politicians say these days?

But bowel wasn't the only false god there was also ashrah, and it gets more disturbing and

perhaps more relevant. Ashrah was the consort of bowel. Her worship was connected to fertility,

sexuality, and was an inversion of the natural order. We find something very specific when we

look at the ashrah cult. The pagan mind always believes that power and energy and cultural

renewal comes not from God, not from the application of his word to every area of life, but from chaos,

ritualized chaos, deliberate overturning of norms, boundaries, and categories.

Male and female were blurred, sacred, and profane was mixed.

The natural order was inverted as a religious act.

Because at the bottom of all paganism, it was just chaos, lots of chaos.

And so order is artificial and must periodically be broken down so that fresh creative energy can

surge up. So for your crops to grow and for you to prosper. Now, does that sign familiar?

The inversion of sexuality, the breaking of norms, the deliberate breaking dine of every norm.

What is this gender ideology, but the deliberate destruction of the category, the most basic

category of male and female? Queer theory, just look it up. It's not a slur.

Is the commitment to permanent sexual revolution?

It's not tolerance or acceptance. It's perpetual revolution. So almost sexuality, you might think

that's for them that they'll be okay with that, but no queer theory says yesterday's news.

That's part of the problem. Revolt, revolt, revolt, turn things over.

They've moved on. The engine, the cultural engine runs on chaos.

Transgenderism is the same. Transgender and transgender today.

And what's next? That will be according to queer theory, old hat.

It never stops. It can't stop because it's not designed to stop because chaos is the source.

Inversion is the source. It's deeply religious.

All right. The worship of the creature leads to the inversion of the natural order.

And so what we're seeing around us today is asher a worship with a modern face.

Isaiah 5.25 says,

we see it in a culture, again, where criminals are celebrated and decent people are mocked.

That describes perhaps the legal system in the island in which I reside.

Deliberate. It's all deliberate. It's all very knowing. And you know, you might think it's new,

but it's not. It's as old as cannon. All right. Now let's focus in on the church because I'm talking

to Christian people. Here's where it gets uncomfortable. The paganism outside is maybe obvious and

clearly wrong. But what about the more respectable form of false worship that goes on in

evangelicalism? Are they sacred, sacred, secular divide? The idea that God owns Sunday

morning, but the state owns Monday through Friday. I went out Saturday. The idea that God owns

your heart, your religious emotions, but the government owns the economy. The Bible, God's word.

Well, it's very narrow thing. It speaks to personal morality. But there's nothing to say about

taxation. Don't ask about that. Education. Don't ask foreign policy. No, agriculture or law. No.

But what is that? But it's your lesson, which is a form of idolatry, which fits in very well with

the Bill Jehovah Ashera cult. So if you want something done in foreign policy, protection of the

state, you turn the bile, the storm god. You want a health and fertility. Well, you go to Ashera.

But if you want your religious emotions,

the satisfied if you want part of your cultural heritage, the box ticked, well, you go to church.

That's for the religious realm. And so that's part of the nature of paganism.

It's Bale Ashera Jehovah business. That's gods are really small. Each has their own particular

specialty. And they may be gods of the mountain or they could be gods of the valley. You could

bale Ekron, bale this, bale that. It's almost like the valleys in Ireland. So each area is ruled by

one god. And there's no absolute rule. So there's polytheism. That's really a part of

of paganism. And what we have today is not an absolute god. If we say you can't go to the Bible

for the word on economic prosperity, for how to function in your job, you can't go to the Bible

as the absolute standard of education. What are we doing by putting bonds and bands around

God's word and our capital G gods jurisdiction? Are we not trying to dress our Jehovah God,

capital J into the clothes of a mainly local pagan god when we do that?

You open your Bible and read that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, Psalm 241,

and then you vote for politicians who say the state is the ultimate authority in education,

health care, welfare and law. You pray for revival. But is not the state sovereign or Lord,

or really God, over 90% percent of your life? This is functional paganism.

And it might be difficult to hear this, but when God says, I am the Lord thy God,

he means it. It's an absolute claim of ownership. Not I am the Lord of your devotional time,

not I am the Lord of your Sunday, or I am the Lord of your prayer meeting, I am the Lord thy God,

full stop. He was right. There is not one square of inch, square inch in the whole domain of

human endeavor over which Christ is not sovereign overall or crime mine.

We need to get a grasp of this. It's not me saying this like it was a new theory,

just invented. It's something that's forgotten. And this kind of thinking, polytheistic thinking,

where our God is a small G God has led us exactly to where we are. Colossians 1, 16 and 17,

for by him, all were all things created that are in heaven and that are in the earth,

visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,

all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things

consist. This is a total total total total God. Throne's dominions, principalities, powers,

is that talking about the church or the state? No, these are political categories. Christ created

it then, sustains them, he owns them. But if we hand our economics to the state,

our education of our children to a godless state, our healthcare to the state, our law to the

state, the godless state, and keep only our quiet time for God, we've committed the exact sin

that the Prophet rebuked in Judges 6, verse 10. But ye have not obeyed my voice,

oh, but I have, I go to church and I listen to sermons all the time.

Well, really? Can we choose and say, well, I'll take, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,

I'll choose the fourth commandment, but you have to go to the fourth commandment by their first

commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. And we have to expand our mind,

what a huge thing a god is, capital G god. So as with this passage, the cure starts with a diagnosis,

was there for six. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because I has rejected knowledge.

I will also reject thee. So let's consider how great God is and how total His demands are in every

area of life. So let's think about this. Let's take time to meditate on what the first commandment

really means. I shall have no other gods before me. What is a god really? God is our provider,

our healer, our protector. Who do we turn to today for provision? For healing and for protection?

Next week we'll pick up in verse 11 with the calling of Gideon and we'll find out what really

means to be a mighty man of valor. So I'm Nathan F. Conkey with God's World, God's Way, sponsored

by cr101ridio.com, an association with Chris Community School and Niceing Covenant Church.

Please visit cr101 2 please visit cr101ridio.com where you'll find free Christian audiobooks,

ebooks and podcasts for the Christian who won't accept the easy answers.