Acts 7:41-43 (NIV)
That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.”
Israel did not just turn away from God to worship other gods a single time with the golden calf. It was a pattern that would be repeated over and over again throughout their history.
A serious consequence of persistent turning away from God to worship other things, whether spiritual things or physical things, is that He will ultimately turn away and give the people, even His own people, over to their worship. The end result, as Paul so clearly pointed out in Romans 1:18-32, is an accelerating slide into sin and corruption that ultimately leads to death and destruction.
A sad reality is that people who fall into this serious depravity usually believe that their relationship with God is fine, that, in their own way, they are worshiping God and serving God, and that He is pleased with them. Their hearts have grown so heavy and insensitive with sin, and their minds have become darkened with confusion and corruption that they can’t feel their separation from God and will protest vehemently against anyone who tries to show them their fault.
Many of the members of the Sanhedrin had already arrived at this point. They were trapped in a subtle idolatry, worshiping the things of God, the Law, the temple, and the worship rituals, rather than God, and actually rejecting God when He showed up in the flesh, murdering Jesus, His one and only Son. And now they were trying to stamp out the name of Jesus by persecuting those who were sharing His teaching and continuing His work.
But Stephen, bold and spirit-inspired, was giving them all a clear warning that they were walking in the worst traditions of their ancestors, were far from God, even though they believed that they were serving Him, and was trying to show them that a judgment, exile destruction, were even then hanging over their heads. The only question was, would they listen?
Father, it is scary to contemplate the idea the people can be separated from You, and accelerating on a trajectory away from You, but believe that they are spiritually just fine. But, if I think about it, that’s where I was when You caught up with me! And it took a bold and powerful confrontation by You to open my eyes to how lost I really was. Lord, we live among a lot of people in the same state as I was then, as those Sanhedrin members were in the days of Stephen. Help us to continue to speak Your words clearly, boldly, and fearlessly, to give all these people the best opportunity to see their own true state, and their need for repentance and salvation. Amen.
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