PROVOKING GODS ANGER

“Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.  For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images…Psalm 78:56-58.”

This psalm tells the whole story of the children of Israel from their escape from Egypt to the time of the exile’.    God reads the story of the children of Israel and it makes sorry reading.    These verses are some of the saddest in the whole psalm, after all that God has done for them, they provoked God to anger.

Could this be written across our lives?    I know that I provoke God to anger, by my sin and rebellion. Sometimes I/we act like spoiled brats, just like the children of Israel were acting here.

What are these high places, we so often hear about in the Old Testament? So often we hear about them getting rid of their idols, but the high places weren’t torn down.   Remember an idol is anything, we place above God. He is right to be angry and jealous; he deserves and demands first place in our lives.

So often we tear down the idols we want to tear down, but we cleave unto those precious idols we hold dear.  So, what graven images and high places have we got in our lives? Maybe it is our beloved TV or even our computer/mobile phone.

Do you spend more on the latest gadget than you give to the Lord’s work?    When the book of your/my life is written and read, I pray that it doesn’t say these words in the verses above about us.

God bless you

Keith