The Consequences of Following False gods
“You must not make for yourselves an idol that looks like anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land. You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. If you hate me, I will punish your children, and even your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But I show kindness to thousands who love Me and obey my commands”. - Exodus 20:4-6
God’s first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3).” When we follow false gods, it makes God angry. He does not like it because false gods do not have the same power as He does. As sinful humans, we also have the tendency to turn against God when we serve other things than Him. The Bible says that “no one can serve two masters. The person will hate one master and love the other or will follow one master and refuse to follow the other (Matthew 6:24).”
We see what happened to King Belshazzar in the book of Daniel when he turned to false gods instead of turning to God of heaven (Daniel 5:4, Daniel 5:7). He worshipped and turned to false gods for help and because of that God took his kingdom away and he died (Daniel 5 22-24, 30). We do not want to suffer the same fate. If we do, we will be miserable because we will be separated from God and will experience punishment for not obeying His commands (Romans 6:23).
We can easily get hooked into serving other gods like famous people, social media, or politicians. God is bigger than our sinful desires. He promises to help us through theses temptations. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “the only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has. But you can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, He will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand it.”
Prayer of the day:
Dear heavenly Father,
You are not happy with us when we turn to false gods. The Bible shows us what will happen to us if we turn to other gods. We need You to help us not to put other gods before You. You are very powerful and worthy to be praised and You created us to follow You and only You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
