#DailyDevotion What False Gods Are You Worshiping?
Amos 5 25Did you bring me sacrifices and food offerings in the wilderness for 40 years, you people of Israel? 26So you carry Siccuth as your king and Kiyyun, your idols, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. 27And so I will have you taken into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, Who is called the God of armies.
In the previous verses, the LORD told them He hated their sacrifices and their worship because their hearts were not in it and they lived lives contrary to the revealed will of the One they pretended to worship. Now the LORD recalls they did not bring Him sacrifices and food offerings in the wilderness during their 40 year trip. Some commentators say they were worshiping other gods during this time. This doesn’t make sense to me. It was reported once and the LORD dealt with it swiftly. More likely, since the people had not settled the land yet and were not farming and raising herds (they probably had some), they had not at that time begun observing that part of the Law. I think the point here then the LORD lived among them without the sacrifices and offerings but their heart was with Him then.
Contrast that to the present time in Amos. Not only was their worship of the LORD hypocritical, they worshiped idols as God. How translate verse 26 has plenty of commentary about it. Most of it, about the translation, isn’t particularly helpful to me. Your mileage may vary. The big thing here is they were wholehearted worshiping these false gods while hypocritically worshiping the LORD. Whether Siccuth here is actually succoth (a tabernacle) which housed an idol or whether the god’s name was Moloch or Kiyyun only matters historically. That they worshiped the heavenly bodies i.e. the planets, in particular Saturn (which some think is Moloch in the Mid-Easter pantheon) is really not up to dispute. The idiocy the LORD points out to them is they made their gods whereas the LORD made everything. He did not want to be worshiped with any image, as we see with the golden calves incident in Exodus).
Because of their false worship of Him and their genuine worship of idols along with their wicked lives, the LORD is taking them into exile beyond Damascus. Indeed, they are going to be going to what we would call Northeast Iraq. He is practically taking back to the land He brought Abraham from when He settled him in the Levant. The LORD took Abraham out of the land of idolatry and now, since they want to continuously follow idols, He is returning them back to the land of idols.
Does He treat us any differently? If having brought us out of the hand of demons through the waters of baptism and giving us His body and blood to eat and to drink to have us persevere in the faith and we willingly return back to our former sins, will He not give us back into them? When we find ourselves trapped by a sin over and over again, we need drastic measures. We need to confess them, those sins to our pastor, as often as we commit them. If you have a god-parent, make use of them and confess to them regularly. Hold yourself accountable. Judge yourselves so the LORD Jesus Christ won’t have to. Your habitual sins are your false gods. They are what you are turning to when life gets rough. They are what you turn to when life is good also. They are what sabotage your life and your relationship with Jesus and with others. Expose them to the light and they will flee from you. Turn to Jesus continuously. Ask the Holy Spirit’s intervention in your life continuously. Give thanks to God your Father continuously for every good thing from your heart. God will deliver you from your former false gods, your habitual sins.
Heavenly Father, grant that we be rescued from our false gods so we may worship You from our heart and live lives pleasing to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.