By David ReayThursday 14 Aug 2014LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Deuteronomy 5:6-8
6 “I am the LORD your God,who brought you out of Egypt,out of the land of slavery.
7 “You shall have no other gods before me.
8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (NIV)
There is an old legend from Nepal about a wax god that was located in the cool mountains of that country. Village people would make the journey to worship this god. But over time they decided the journey was too arduous so they carried the statue into the village itself.
In the warmer climate,the wax god began to soften. The villagers realised they could change the way he looked to suit themselves. In time,the wax god began to lose his shape altogether and so the villagers began to take bits of the wax to light their homes. Soon,the wax god was no more.
No doubt this is a mere folk legend,but it illustrates our text nonetheless. We have this need to worship a god and so we tend to make our god in our own image. We end up with a domesticated god who does our bidding,who serves our needs. And,as in the legend,that deity will have no true objective existence.
True worship of the true God is not about twisting such a deity around our little finger and having him conform to our ideas. It is about coming to an utterly ‘other’ deity who yet loves us and wants our friendship. It is about our conforming to him,not his conforming to us.
Blessings
David Reay