Saturday, August 20, 2011

The gods of convenience

2 Kings 17 describes why Israel, as a nation, was finally dissolved by God. In the aftermath of the exile a group of people were brought into the land to live there. It was an ancient custom of conquest. The new residents soon discover that "the god of the land is upset" and so they ask for a priest from Israel to teach them how to worship "the god of the land," but the whole time they continued to worship their own gods as well.

For them worshipping the real God was simply a necessary part of living in this new country. It was a necessary part of their life, but they continued to worship the gods they had brought with them. It made me wonder about my own life...how many "gods" do I worship? Am I a closet polytheist without realizing it....simply to make my life easier?

These are only the seeds of thought for me right now, but the story has me wondering about my own choices. I'm still working on this. I will let you know what I find in my walk that I need to correct.

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