TheOnlyGod

      The various nations, cultures and individuals around the world today have different forms of worship. Some worship God, meaning the God of Israel, the God of Scripture. Some worship a form of "God" according to their own definitions and desires regarding Him. Some worship their ancestors. Some still worship a pantheon of gods, many gods. Some worship a philosophy or a state system. Some worship a political leader as if he is a god. Some worship nature and the gods that they believe rule over each object in nature. Some worship certain animals as holy. Some worship the idea of atheism. Some worship what is called science, and others worship man's "reason". Then there are the more subtle objects of worship based upon what people view as being the most important thing/person to them such as money, possessions, career, success, power, influence over others, self, fashion, music, sports, and many more such things, ideas, and people who have been elevated into idols.     

     One of the reading portions from this Sabbath is Psalm 96. This Psalm is credited to King David because it is also recorded in 1 Chron. 16:23-33, when the Ark of the Covenant was brought up to Jerusalem by David. The psalm makes clear that the knowledge of the Hebrew God and His salvation is expected to be known by all people, by all nations: "...Sing to the LORD all the earth...Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day...Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all (kol/kalal - all, the whole, any, each, every, anything, totality/make complete, make perfect, to put a crown upon) peoples...He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens...Give to the LORD, O families of the peoples, give to the LORD glory and strength. Give to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations/heathen, 'The LORD reigns....He shall judge the peoples righteously.'...For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth." Jesus also commanded His disciples to proclaim the good news of His salvation to all nations and people (Mt. 28:19, Mk. 16:15, Lk. 24:46-47). When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) in Jerusalem fifty days after the crucifixion of Christ on Passover, the multitude who were gathered nearby heard the disciples speaking in every language of every nation (Acts 2:5-12) to their amazement. When the only God offered His gift of salvation, His Son Jesus, it was to the whole world, which He loved (Jn. 3:16-17). When scripture describes those who have become part of the Kingdom of the only God, they are from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9, Rev. 7:9-10). When the prophet described God's house, he described it as a house of prayer for all nations (Isa. 56:7).

     Whether the nations or cultures accept the LORD as the only God or not, it is the LORD who created all, and it is He who will judge all of His creation according to the psalm above. None will be exempt from His expectation that they will have this knowledge. The apostle Paul also wrote that the knowledge of the only God, the LORD who is God as identified in the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament, is expected of all mankind without exception or excuse: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." (Rom. 1:18-21). People may purposefully reject the knowledge of God, or try to substitute something else for God, but God knows that they know who He is, has always been, and will always be. He is the One who created us, and everything that we see, and scripture says that we all know it, regardless of what man says or chooses to believe instead.

     God has always been God of all of the nations. He has caused even the most powerful kings of various nations throughout history to proclaim Him as God: Pharaoh of Egypt was not a big fan of the LORD, commenting, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go." (Ex. 5:2). During one of the plagues of Egypt (lice), Pharaoh's magicians said to him: "This is the finger of God.' But Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said." (Ex. 8:19).  After the plague of thunder and hail, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to him, and said: "I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the LORD, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." (Ex. 9:27). Although Pharaoh went back on his word here, after the tenth plague of death to the first born, Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and told them to leave Egypt, with the children of Israel and all of their animals, saying: "...go serve the LORD as you have said...be gone; and bless me also." (Ex. 12:31-32). Pharaoh would again go back on his word, but not because he didn't know who the LORD was. He knew.

     King Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of the Babylonian Empire, asked the prophet of the LORD, Daniel, to include in the prophet's book Nebuchadnezzar's letter to all which begins: "Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation." (Dan. 4:1-3). The king then continued to write his personal testimony of what he had witnessed and experienced with God.

     Isaiah the prophet spoke of a future king, Cyrus, who would be established by God as a great conqueror of nations, and prophesied to this future king: "That you may know that I, the LORD, who called you by your name, am the God of Israel...I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me." (Isa. 45:1-5). Centuries before Cyrus of Persia was born, the LORD was calling him forth prophetically. Cyrus' existence and success would be for Israel's, the LORD's elect's sake (v. 4), and we will see that. Later in time, Cyrus did become a conquering king of Persia (Iran/Iraq).

     In the first year of Cyrus' rule, he was moved by the Spirit of the LORD to issue a decree in order that the prophetic word of Jeremiah the prophet might be fulfilled ending the captivity of God's people (Ezra 1:1). This was the king's proclamation: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And he has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem..." (v. 2-3). Cyrus also brought all of the captured holy furnishings and vessels of God's temple out of his treasury, had them accounted for, and gave them to Sheshbazzar (Zerubbabel), the prince of Judah, to take back to Jerusalem with the now former Israelite captives (v. 7-11).

     In this week's Sabbath portion there is a mention of Hiram, King of Tyre (Lebanon), and the help and materials that he agreed to send to King Solomon in Jerusalem for the building of the Temple for the LORD's name in 2 Chron. 2. When King Hiram responded to King Solomon's request, Hiram also wrote: "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for He has given King David a wise son...who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal house for himself." (v. 12). There were also over one hundred thirty thousand foreigners who were living in Judah who were recruited by Solomon to provide labor and to act as overseers for the building of the Temple (v. 17-18). 

     This week's Sabbath reading portion is titled Ki Tissa, meaning "when you take" (nasa - lift up, bear up, bear continuously, take, forgive, carry, support, be lifted up, exalted, rise up, marry, magnify). The title comes from a principle in Exodus 30:11-16.  Moses was to take a (aleph-tav in written Hebrew letters, or Alpha and Omega in Greek letters which refer to the identity of Jesus Christ: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13) sum or census of the Israelites, everyone twenty years old and above. Look at how the LORD has magnified His aleph-tav people according to the Hebrew meaning of the word "take", above! However, as much as this Sabbath portion reveals that the LORD is God over all of the earth and its inhabitants, over all of the nations and their peoples, this portion also sadly reveals how God's own people chose to worship the gods of foreign nations and make idols of them.

     In one Sabbath portion from Ex. 34, while Moses was on the mountain receiving the commandments of God written by God's own finger (Ex. 31:18), the Israelites in the camp were demanding that Aaron make them a god to worship. Of these commandments of God that had already been told to the Israelites were: "I am the LORD your God...You shall have no other gods before Me...You shall not make for yourself a carved image...of anything...You shall not bow down to them nor serve them..." (Ex. 20:2-4). The Israelites had witnessed the great wonders of God, but they chose to worship a god that they could see with their eyes, saying to Aaron: "Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses...we do not know what has become of him." (Ex. 32:1). Aaron made a golden calf from the gold (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) earrings (nezem - earring, nose ring) that Aaron had told the people to "break off" (paraq - cast away, tear apart, break away, broken in pieces, rent). When Aaron presented the completed golden calf to the people, they said: "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!" (v. 2-4). We saw in Genesis that gold nose rings and jewelry are betrothal and marriage gifts among the Hebrews (Gen. 24:22). The LORD considered Himself betrothed and married to (and jealous of) the aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega sum of His people, and they were "breaking off" this betrothal in favor of an idol of an Egyptian god, Apis/Hapi/Hep, the most popular of the three great bull cults of ancient Egypt, connected to their city of Memphis. The world is expected to know the LORD God of Israel according to scripture, but His own people rejected the knowledge of Him.

     In another portion from this Sabbath, God's people again chose a foreign (Canaanite) fertility god also in the form of a bull called Ba'al, over the LORD God. In 1 Kings 18, the prophet Elijah, in front of the king and all of the people, had a confrontation with the prophets who served Ba'al and demonstrated the omnipotent power of the LORD God. The LORD answered by fire from heaven: "Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, 'The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!" (v. 38-39).

     If you have been told that because of your nationality, race, heritage or culture, that the LORD God cannot be your God as the only God, this is not what the LORD Himself has said. History also has borne out this truth, as we have seen above. The LORD God has said that He wants to bring you to His holy mountain, and into His house and into His Kingdom with joy (see Isa. 56:7 above). His salvation, His Son Jesus, is also offered freely to all the world, to any and all who will accept and believe Him.

     If we consider ourselves to be part of the aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega sum of the LORD's betrothed people, we cannot allow the worship of false gods and idols into our relationship with Him for He is a jealous God - and anything or anyone can become an idol in our lives.

     If you would like to learn more about the only true God and the people who belong to Him, you can pray with me: "Father and LORD of All, how wonderful and welcoming You are to all of us. The world may be racist, but You are not. The world may exclude persons based upon nationality or culture, but You do not. You hold Your hand out to all of the families of the nations to become Your family. All of us, through Your Son, Jesus, and by Your Spirit, can cry out to you saying, 'Abba, Father'. Cleanse my heart of all idols, Lord, and of any desires and "self" that I have made more important than You, and all false understandings that are not founded in You. You alone are God in my life, the only God. I ask these things in the name of Your Son, Jesus. AMEN."