MATERIALISM IS IDOLATRY
The prosperity that flooded the US economy following World War II continues to this day and impacts everyone. Our standard of living, our expectation to have what we want when we want it, to enjoy better jobs with good pay and regular promotions, larger homes, new and more conveniences, cars and electronics have become part of our way of thinking and life.
While God says, "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world," the world has had a profound impact on the Church, nonetheless. Sixty years ago Christian preaching and music alike set the high road of striving to become more like Jesus. That meant being conscious of the voice of the Holy Spirit, of taking time regularly to read the Bible and pray, to meditate on what we had read, and to tell others the good news of the Gospel and bring them to Christ.
Christians were conscious of the call of God to put off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man, which is created in good works of righteousness. It was a spiritual call, a spiritual tone that is strangely absent today in much of what is aired in the name of evangelicalism or the Gospel. Rather, we are urged to ask God for whatever we want and then expect God to give it to us. And, as our prosperity increases, there's the temptation to let the spiritual blessings of God seep out of us as we devote more and more attention to what He has given to us. We justify enjoyment as being part of God's answer and blessing.
Speaking of blessing, in the 'old' days BLESSING referred to that special touch from God on our hearts and spirits that drew us even closer to Him. Blessing was a manifestation of God in and on our lives spiritually. Yes, it included being healed of disease or sickness, of gaining a different home or a needed automobile, perhaps. But always it was linked to the blessing of God's divine favor toward us and His presence within us! The receivers acknowledged that God was the giver of those blessings and worshipped Him for it.
In today's vernacular, blessing is more often equated with physical, tangible THINGS or POSITIONS that God gives us to make our lives easier and more luxurious. And, as stated above, frequently God is forgotten, as those who are 'blessed' are engrossed with their possessions and the time and attention they require to be enjoyed. The very kindness of God when He bestows many good things on us lures us away from Him because we do not properly handle and manage what He gives us. The blessings take precedence over the Blesser!
Ezekiel 16 takes Israel to task for how she as a people had taken God's goodness to her and flaunted it in His face! God had lifted the Hebrew nation out of a pagan culture and given her His loving care when she was nothing. He called Abraham, the father of the Hebrews, from Ur of the Chaldees to follow God to an unknown destination later called the Promised Land. The history of the Israelites from Abraham forward led them from slavery in Egypt to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness to entry into the Promised Land. There God increased Israel's wealth as a world power until under King Solomon she was the richest country in the known world.
But she was the richest not just in material wealth. Israel was also entrusted with the Presence of God and His truths given through Moses and later by the prophets. Yet, at the peak of her prosperity during Solomon's reign, the people began to worship idols like their king and pagan nations did. When Solomon died and his kingdom was split, the northern tribes began worshipping two golden calves in Samaria rather than making the trek to Jerusalem located in the southern kingdom. The North's idolatry finally caused her to go into captivity and dispersion into the known world.
Judah, the southern kingdom, continued with a monarchy that became more and more corrupt. Her idolatry increased in spite of the warnings given by prophets sent to her by God. Finally, Judah's refusal to listen to God brought down His judgment on her as described by Ezekiel in his prophecy, specifically in chapter 16, as cited.
In verses 3-14 God details how He raised up Israel progressively from newborn infancy to her becoming a young and beautiful woman adorned in fine jewels and fabrics with the best of delicacies on her table. Very specifically, God says in vs. 14: "...your beauty was perfect because of MY SPLENDOR which I bestowed on you."
All that Israel possessed in material wealth and power as a nation was because of God. Israel needed to remember that--but she didn't! Instead, Judah prostituted herself by taking what God had given her to use and enjoy and made idols from the gold and silver, worshipping them instead of God!
Yes, Judah continued to give God lip service! She still came to the Temple and went through the motions of worship, but her heart was not in it. She looked at the pagan nations around her and adopted their gods to be hers. Judah took what God had given her as His blessing and offered it to idols, prostituting herself before them.
Judah's 'final straw' was when she took her own sons and daughters "whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols by causing them to pass through the fire" (vs. 20-21). She had adopted Molech as a god. She offered her own children as sacrifices to pacify a demon! The fire in Molech's belly consumed children who belonged to God! What a travesty!
God says that, worst of all, "you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood (newborn)". Judah forgot that her origins were in God Himself. He alone was the One who originated and raised her up as a nation and His people. Yet, even with that reminder, she refused to be beholden to Him in any way at all! Judah rejected the God who was her entire history!
The rest of chapter 16 exposes the judgments God would bring against Judah for her sins. These included an invasion by Judah's supposed friends who would oppose her and destroy all the shrines and idols to which she had clung. All she treasured, in fact, would be destroyed by the pagan nations she had copied and emulated.
Judah was condemned because she did not remember her roots and the fact that she was utterly dependent on God for all her accumulated wealth and prominence, not she herself! Her pride blinded Judah to her need for abject humility before God. Most serious of all, God says in verses 59-60 that Judah had broken the covenant she made with God hundreds of years before.
A covenant was a binding agreement between two parties. It was not to be broken under any circumstance. God's part of the covenant was His blessings on Judah to the utmost degree. He had kept His oath! Her part was to keep God's commandments, precepts and standards. She had broken all of them!
Sadly, the condemnation lowered by God on Judah is the same condemnation being waged against America right now. She was born in poverty and great need, but she sought for religious freedom to worship God freely. He raised her up to be a strong nation rich in resources and achievements, that by her influence and beneficence, she could bless the world for Jesus' sake!
Instead, America has shown the enemy her treasures and adopted the practices of the pagans around her! She has forsaken the God of her youth and does not remember the times when she was totally dependent on Him for her needs. She has renounced her ties to God and does all she can to extrude Him from society and the culture.
It is as though America tries to outdo herself in devising wickedness to market to the world. She approved of abortion, but now sanctions it even to the day of birth when she allows the surviving infant to die without trying to preserve its life! She sows confusion in the minds and hearts of her children by promulgating transgenderism and sexploitation of children in public schools, so that gullible, lonely kids subject their bodies to physical or chemical actions and mutilation to satisfy their longing to belong.
Judgment is coming, and coming fast! The remnant of those who truly believe in and worship God must prepare for hard times that are coming, days of persecution and, in some instances, even death, for being true to God. Those who begin a race may be in it for the long haul, but only those who persevere to the end and cross the finish line win! Are we prepared to go the whole distance with God? Jesus said, "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32). Will we be bold in our confession or will we compromise the truth to save our necks? That is the question we must face with God now, so we are not caught unaware and unprepared!
America has broken covenant with God. She has not kept her part of the bargain. As individuals, we must determine to keep covenant with Him! We cannot, we must not, betray God!