WITH HEART & SOUL

Deuteronomy 26: 16-19

The Reformer's Fire
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Exposition by Max A Forsythe

Question 46:
What is required in the first commandment?

Answer 46:
The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly.

Doctor Douma in his commentary on the practical uses of the ten commandments footnotes a very important observation on the explicit nature of the first commandment. In the ancient world, the supreme male deities always had a paramour along side of them. Baal & Ashtoreth, Zeus & Hera to name only two. In addition, their children and deified humans created a whole panoply of gods and goddesses demanding sacrifices for every whim and fancy invented by the priestly and ruling cast. Israel was unique in respect to the awesome revealed spiritual personality who will not tolerate any other gods before or beside Him! The wording that I just used, "beside" Him was understood even by thick headed and stiff necked Hebrews who never ever insulted the one and only Yahweh with a paramour! Doctor Douma also tells us that "in the Bible, Yahweh is clearly a 'He', something no feminist theology can change."

In the last few years I have made several misassumptions about a new person that I had just met. In an age where traditional means of identifying male and female are being blurred, the distinctive characteristics are not always what they appear to be. One young man with an androgynous name was most put out when I assumed his long hair and ear ring indicated that he was a young lady. I have also equally insulted a young lady or two as well when their appearance seemed other than what it was. If mere worldly humans are upset when such a mistaken assumption is made, how much more can the holy wrath of the Almighty Creator be when the feminist harpies demand that He be recognized at least as an "it" or a better yet, a "she"? He must also be profoundly disappointed when we attempt to raise mother nature, mother church or Mariolatry to a level higher than we are commanded.

A second area where we are more tempted is in placing too much interest, confidence or trust in worldly things. Sadly the most worshipped thing in the world is the American $100 bill. I recently read that over half of our printed money finds its way overseas where it is the currency of choice. By contrast, during World War Two, it was the Swiss Franc backed by gold that enabled the Nazi warlords to purchase Swedish iron ore and Portuguese tungsten for their war machine We know today that those valuable Franc notes were exchanged for the looted and confiscated wealth of countless thousands whose gold jewelry and teeth were melted down to be turned into Swiss credit accounts. The American currency does not even have any valuable metal behind it to maintain the facade of value. But how widely is such wealth of one nation worshipped? The idolatry here is so thorough that the world's bankers must believe in the almighty dollar to maintain the facade of prosperity and order. Other people believe in the value of land, precious metals, works of art, some worship family, friends, food, fast cars, horses and even the lusty media images of Venus.

Dr Watson tells us that there is an idolatry in too much confidence put in power. Five years ago, who could have conceived the Tobacco lobby whimpering in court? Even the power of the court is limited. In one case I heard about, a plaintiff won a cash award for damages, but was unable to ever collect a cent.

Military power too is often illusionary. Ten years ago one historically writer estimated that of the world's armies, only five could fight their way out of a wet paper bag. All the rest were an odd collection pretty strutting peacocks who were more dangerous to their own countries than to any possible armed enemies. Since that estimation, the third ranked power in that order has disintegrated into successor states. Even its mighty rocket forces have been revealed as an odd assortment of generally harmless engines that might have taken days instead of hours to even get off the ground. Even the American vaunted antimissile missiles were helpless when the mad man from Baghdad loosened the bolts on his weapons to make their crazy tumblings totally unpredictable!

There are other gods than these, and I should have to spend several weeks detailing how entertainment, beauty, work and every obsession imaginable can take the place of our Father God. I once announced to a class that some people, by lusting after chocolate could have an erotic encounter with a chocolate Sunday! I even know someone who, when it comes to a bag of oreos cannot eat just one, but the whole bag at a sitting! One cartoonist even portrayed the perfect television for the couch potatoes. The picture tube was drawn vertical instead of horizontal! Never mind that after a few minutes, your eyes and brain adjust reality so that even a tilted picture appears normal!

Why is it that every human ever born so easily loose their focus on the God of heaven and turn their attention to worldly things? One Army Noncom that I met collected beer cans from around the world. He wanted to have a six pack of every brew ever canned. In his quarters, whole walls were devoted to display one can from each pack. The other five were shipped home and stored in a large garage. Someone once asked him what he was going to do when he retired. "Why empty the cans, of course!"

Another collector so valued his 57 Chevy that he spent Saturday's washing, waxing, fixing and rebuilding the love of his life. He would even sit in the driveway listening to the antique eight track recorder he had installed years ago. Sadly, there was only one part of the car that was missing. Under the hood, there was no engine. So he had to push the car in and out of his garage.

So it is with every false god and goddess, when you open the hood and look inside, there is no spirit, no life and absolutely no earthly or heavenly value.

This is why it is so absolutely important to know the One true God, who has revealed Himself by His word and in His Son. This is the God of heaven who by His Spirit has come into your heart and whispered to your soul, "you belong to me". Some people remember the day and the hour, others grew into the relationship so slowly that they cannot remember when they became His. But with the conversion of their hearts, every soul blessed by God's visitation must go on to worship and honor and glorify Him before every thing else in heaven or on earth.

And how do we do that? How do we show the earnestness of our love to Him who gave His life that we might have life through Him? The answer is very simple, yet extremely difficult. We must give our heart and souls to gladly observe His just decrees, commands and laws as we daily endeavor to obey Him. By so doing, we show the world where our hearts are focused and to whom our soul does indeed belong.

Certainly, many worldly people can maintain and outward facade of honoring the commandments. The ten are not that difficult for civilized people to prove attainable. The real kicker is in the heart and the soul of men, women and children. The temptation is to depend upon their keeping of the commandments rather than their love of the great and awesome God who gave the commandments in the first place. I believe that in this day and age of Christ's Church, this is the greatest challenge and danger: to maintain a right balance between grace and law. To live by the law because of God's grace so easily becomes and end to itself that grace is believed to be the outcome of living by the law! That such could happen is one of the great ironies and tragedies of all time. The very law that would warn us against displacing God, that law can become a little god that might prevent us from knowing the real God!

What is the spiritual state of your heart and soul today? Who is your god?

If it is not the revealed God of heaven, you have a problem and you ought not to pass on to the next life before you get your focus on the revealed God of heaven right. One of the great blessings of the Law of God is that a good and thorough study of it will show us our flaws, our deficiencies and as the old song goes: measures how far and wide we stray. The the great triune God, who has revealed Himself, His Son to us through His word and His law give us the wisdom of the Spirit so that we might worship and glorify Him day by day, both now and for all eternity.

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