Saturday, February 18, 2012

Not bowing down to other gods (Exodus 23:26)

This is something I learned from Exodus 23 where it talks about God's blessing. This is a simple understanding of an ordinary mom who don't have a specific degree.

Exodus23:26 says God will bless my bread and water, and will take sickness away from the midst of us. The beginning of the verse in my note says, "And so." I don't remember which translation it came from, but I thought there must be something I need to do before God blesses my food and water. Of course I know God is merciful, and I don't understand deep and difficult theology but I thought there might be something I might want to pay attention to. So I went back a few verses. Then I saw that God wants us to get rid of other gods utterly. I saw how important it is to God.

We are not to 
  • bow down to other gods
  • serve them
  • do after their (other gods' people) works or follow their example.
We are to
  • utterly pull down/break
  • destroy 
                                                              their standing images.


In this verse, I saw something fascinating. Two words are repeated twice in Hebrew Bible just like in the proverbs (diligently, diligently). The words repeated here both mean to break down.  The first word is to break down/beat down. The second word is to break down in pieces, crush, etc. So we are to utterly pull down and down, and crush and crush their standing images. Then...

And so you shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and water, and will take sickness away from the midst of you. (Exodus 23:26)

Glory to God. He is the One who healed us all! I am waiting for the day when the LORD will act and I will hold a proof in my hand (One time I decided not to wait for that, but then I noticed it was still my desire to have an "NED" (no evidence of disease) in my hand, so I am waiting for it again) . Until then, I keep hiding in the shadow of His wings, speaking to the mountain to be removed and be thrown into the sea!


In Christ,