Changing Gods! Part 1

Jeremiah 2:10-13, “For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus and see, send to Kedar and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be very desolate,’ says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Yes, we are still in Jeremiah, and yes, this is yet another difficult message to commit to paper. During the past few weeks God has been dealing with me more not with the fact that judgment is coming, but rather that the judgment which is coming is justified and long overdue. Every passage that I read in Scripture, every teaching outline that I begin to prepare, inevitably leads me to this singular conclusion, that the judgment of God is justified.

We live in a nation that has managed to do what was done once before in history and that is change gods. When it happened the first time, God’s reaction was self-evident, in that He told Jeremiah to investigate, send messengers far and wide to see if such a thing had ever been done before. ‘Consider diligently’ God said, investigate and see if ever another nation has changed its gods as Israel had. Not only had Israel changed its gods, they changed their Glory, for what does not profit. The gods they now served were dead, and impotent and worthless, and it was for these dead things, for these idols, for these pleasures, for the self that they betrayed and forsook the one true God.

If we were to believe the newfangled heresies pouring out of the mouths of the emergent elite, God’s reaction should have been very different.

‘Well, you changed, gods, you forsook Me, but that’s ok, as long as you worship a god, because you know all gods lead to the same destination, all paths lead to the same mountaintop, so it’s all right, I understand, proceed!’

That was not God’s reaction! ‘Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid’, God said, ‘be very desolate, for my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and fashioned, or hewn for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.’

We treat God like that used car we have out front, that served us well for a time, but now it just takes too much work. New models have been released, models that use less energy, models that require less work on our part, models that have integrated smart phones, leather interiors, and heated seats, and that promise a more comfortable ride. Yep, it’s time to trade it in, it’s time to go on to newer, and better, and shinier. The only problem is that old model saved your live on more than one occasion, you even survived a head on collision because it was built to last, and it was strong and it was durable, and no matter how much you abused it, it never let you down, never left you in a rut, never abandoned you when you needed it most.

‘But the guy selling me the new car is offering a warranty’, you say, ‘and I’ll be more careful with my new car than I was with my old one, and I’ll keep myself safe, and watch out for accidents.’

Of course he does, of course you will, until you realize the warranty he offered, the guarantee he gave you that you would make it to heaven, even if you changed gods wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on, and the notion of keeping yourself safe from harm, and protecting yourself on your own was as ludicrous and childish as your actions.

Men are trying to sell the church on new gods at discounted prices, as long as we’re willing to trade the old one in, and more people than we would like to admit have taken the bait, they’ve signed on the dotted line, and have walked away from the one true God.

We know this is happening, we see it every day, but the big question, as far as I am concerned, is why? Why is it that men change the living God, for worthless things, why is it that men forsake the fountain of living water for broken cisterns that can hold no water?

The first reason people change the living God for worthless idols, is because they see nothing more than a mere man in the Son of God.

We all know the story of the woman at the well, we know that Jesus was in Sychar, sitting by Jacob’s well, when a woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink.

John 4:9-10, “Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

At this point all this woman saw was a Jew. She saw a man, who’d asked her for a drink who happened to be a Jew, and herself being a Samaritan quickly pointed out the fact that Jews and Samaritans have no dealings with each other.

Somewhat further into the retelling of the event, after Jesus reveals her sins to her, and tells her she’s had no less than five husbands, the woman climbs the ladder of understanding by one rung and says to Jesus, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet,’ but that was not good enough either.

There were other prophets in Scripture, and seeing Christ as merely a prophet is not sufficient, it is not enough.

They continued their conversation awhile longer, Jesus revealing the secrets of her heart to her, until the Samaritan woman began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

John 4:25-26, “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ) ‘When He comes He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”

John 4:28-29, ‘The woman left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘come see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’”

We see too little in the Son of God, we minimize who He is, we consider Him a good teacher, a prophet, but not the Son of God who died and rose again, not The Word who was from the beginning with God, not the only truth, or the only life, or the only way, no, just a nice guy with a grizzled beard who said nice things. This is why we change gods, because we do not see the King standing before us, we do not know that the Glory of God is before us, for if we acknowledged this, we would fall to our knees and ask that He give us living water to drink to our fill.

We are not dealing with a man, we are not dealing with a prophet, we are not changing one guru for another, we are dealing with God, and we are changing the Glory of God, for worthless idols that give us momentary pleasure and nothing more.

We have ample reason to be astonished, we have ample reason to be horribly afraid and desolate, for we have forsaken the One who divides the soul from the spirit, and the joints from the marrow, who is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and given ourselves over to vanity and futility.

Hebrews 4:12-13, “For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him whom we must give account to.”

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.