Dumping the Promise Keeper’s Love (7/16/26)

As a family, we’ve been studying 1 and 2 Kings, and it is shocking how quickly the kings became wicked right after Solomon. One of the repeated themes that stuck out to me this time is how the foreign wives of the Israelite kings negatively influenced their husbands and sons to follow foreign gods rather than the One True God. This was the very reason God commanded the Israelites not to intermarry. He knew the idolatry of foreign spouses would lead them into a wicked, downward spiral. Eventually, God sent Israel and Judah into exile.

However, once they returned from exile and rebuilt the temple, they fell right back into old sins of unfaithfulness, dumping God’s love, as the prophet Malachi confronts in this next section.

Malachi 2:10-12 ¹⁰ Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?

¹¹ Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. ¹² As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.

God created us, loves us, made a covenant with us, and is always faithful to us. However, like the Israelites, we aren’t always loving and faithful to Him. We can dump God in favor of someone or something far inferior.

What pulls you and me away from recognizing and experiencing God’s perfect Fatherly love as our Creator? How will you and I faithfully love Him in return today?  

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God versus Idolatrous Jeroboam 11/3/22

Remember how Jeroboam set up golden calves? He even participated in making sacrifices on the altars to these fake gods. I don’t know why he thought that would work and be a good idea.

God tried to get his attention and gave him a warning and an opportunity to turn back to Him.

I Kings 13:1-5 By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. ² By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” ³ That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. ⁵ Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.

Did Jeroboam really think he could silence the Word of God? Wow, he tried to seize the prophet, but got seized instead!

What about you and me? What “idols” are we worshiping instead of the real God? Pleasure, sports, education, or position? When we’re convicted or confronted about it, how do we respond?

Alice