August 5, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"Christian Nation…"
2 Kings 17:33-41
New International Version
33 They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.
Previous examples of fickle faith have focused on Israel herself. For Israel, having mixed religious loyalties was a perennial problem. But our featured passage today is talking instead about foreigners brought into the land of promise to fill the vacuum created when the people of Israel were carted off if you understood Assyrian captivity. Responding to lion attacks on the new settlers, it was the king of Assyria himself who ordered that these new immigrants be taught how to worship the God of Israel. But because mere appeasement rather than genuine a conversion was the object of the exercise, there was never an exclusive exchange of spiritual loyalties. The immigrants were more than happy to mix and match Israel's God with their own national gods. Never having known the true God, it is understandable that they would think all "gods" were pretty much the same. Even now new converts coming to Christ from diverse religious backgrounds often exhibit residual thought patterns and habits from their of thinking and acting. Their past requires patience on our part to mentor them, helping them develop a more mature faith. In that regard, of course our own values demand closer scrutiny. What we teach most is not how we believe, but how we behave. In most religious circles today, there is no explicit inter-mingling of Christian and pagan gods. However, idolatry abounds even in "Christian nations" - from the obsessive cult of self, to the insatiable gods of materialism, to the unabashed gods of sexual erotica. Submerged as we are in such a godless culture, it is we who might most need the lessons we for others.
The probing question is: Am I myself serving this world's idols even while worshipping the Lord?
