Journey to ResolveResolution 1: Worship God Alone

 

It’s July, a little late for resolutions,
but it’s summer when many of us try to do something different,
so here we go.

Come with me on a journey to resolve.

This is the beginning of a series that will keep us busy for several months. A series of resolutions toward which every Christian should strive. Since we’re in the Year 2024, these resolutions are drawn from every chapter 20, verse 24 of God’s Word – 15 total, 1 post at a time, in the order they appear in our Bibles.

Here are the resolutions and Bible books.

I will…

1.       Worship God Alone (Exodus)

2.       Be More Holy (Leviticus)

3.       Aim High (Numbers)

4.       Trust in God’s Strength (Judges)

5.       Nurture Quality Friendships (1 Samuel)

6.       Stand for God’s Government (2 Samuel)

7.       Follow God Through Highs and Lows (1 Kings)

8.       Let God Win My Battles (2 Chronicles)

9.       Rise Above the Naysayers (Job)

10.   Trust God’s Ways (Proverbs)

11.   Allow God to Correct Me (Ezekiel)

12.   Serve Others Without the Glory (Matthew)

13.   Rely On the Wisdom of God (Luke)

14.   Trust the Words of My Savior (John)

15.   Complete the Work God Has for Me (Acts)

This is quite a list. God put it together with every verse 20:24 He wrote. Well, He didn’t include chapter and verse numbers, but it worked out for our benefit, nonetheless.

Let’s dive in.

Resolution #1: I Will Worship God Alone

 

“‘Make an altar of earth for me
and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings
and fellowship offerings,
your sheep and goats and your cattle.
Wherever I cause my name to be honored,
I will come to you and bless you.”

Exodus 20:24

God instructed the Israelites to make an altar for Him. It was to be a simple, earthen altar, undefiled by special tools. Nothing fancy because fancy could redirect their hearts to other “gods,” like gods made of silver and gold. Even silver and gold themselves were gods as they are to some of us today. Do we worship God and God alone?

In Exodus 20, we learn a couple of things about God that should focus our worship on Him.

1.     God is present

2.     God is jealous

God Is Present

Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity, across the Red Sea, and on to Mount Sinai where they stood in the presence of God. His presence was assured by fire and billows upon billows of smoke. There was no mistaking that God was there. And His people were so terrified that they asked Moses to be their spokesperson while they remained at a distance (Exodus 20:18-21).

The Israelites knew, without doubt, that God was present. When we recognize His pesence, we realize that worship is not just an activity. It's a lifestyle. For the Israelites, God’s presence evoked fear, but Moses encouraged them. He told them their fear should keep them from sinning. This should have reminded them that, before God made His presence undeniably obvious, the Israelites heartily agreed to obey Him. At Mt. Sinai, maybe they wondered if they overcommitted. We may have done something similar. We may have zealously promised to serve God, and then things got hard because God challenged our commitment. He is present when we make our commitments, and He is present as we attempt to follow through.

And God wants us to succeed in a life of obedience and worship. We don’t need to fear Him as an adversary. With His presence comes not only righteousness, judgment, and power, but also empathy, mercy, and grace (Hebrews 4:15-16). He understands us. Even though He is without sin, He identifies with our weaknesses and He knows that life is hard. So, He helps us.

**** Click to tweet ****

God wants us to succeed.
With His presence comes not only
righteousness, judgment, and power,
but also empathy, mercy, and grace.

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God’s presence surely gives us reason to worship Him. He is great and greatly to be feared (Psalm 89:6-14). And this great God is our helper who walks alongside us with mercy and grace.

Yet God is a holy God who is worthy of our living sacrifice – our pure and acceptable worship (Romans 12:1) – and He is jealous for our attention (Exodus 20:2-6).

God is Jealous

God wants to be our One and Only. Worshiping Him is not very difficult for some of us. What’s hard is worshiping Him exclusively. Consider our goals and values. When we go about our days, what grabs our attention and affection? There are plenty of things we need to do each day, but do we spend time with God? Do we pray to Him throughout our days? Do we talk about Him with our family, friends, and others? Do we honor Him with our choices and actions? When we sing songs in church, do we praise God or do we admire the band or talk to the people around us? Do we listen for understanding and heart correction during the sermon, or do we check our emails and texts and thumb through our notifications? Your answers may not be the greatest, but I am right there with you.

God said, “Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold” (Exodus 20:23). There at Mount Sinai, God spoke the 10 commandments directly to the people. He also spoke many, many more. Afterwards, Moses went up and down the mountain a few times with Israel’s leaders so they could all hear from God. Then He went up with just an assistant (Exodus 24:12-13). He was to stay there for some time (40 days according to Exodus 24:18), so he left Aaron and Hur to lead the people (Exodus24:14).

The Israelites grew anxious while Moses was high up the mountain. He hadn’t come down quickly like he did the other times. God was still there, for the cloud still covered the mountain, but the people were used to gods they could see and touch and feel. The true God of Israel is not what they expected to be their God, just as their descendants didn’t expect someone like Jesus to be their Messiah. So, they chose another god (Exodus 32:1-6). These are the same people who said at least twice that they would do everything the LORD commanded them to do. Their leaders also made the same claim on multiple occasions. Even Aaron helped them cast a statue made out of gold. This is the Aaron who would soon be the progenitor of the priestly line that would lead Israel in worship (Exodus 28:1-5, 29), yet he crafted a golden calf – a false god to worship. He also built an altar where they sacrificed offerings, and later they enjoyed a feast which turned into an orgy. This was a celebration for different gods who they claimed “brought [them] up out of Egypt.”

**** Click to tweet ****

The true God of Israel is
not what Israel expected
to be their God,
just as their descendants
didn't expect someone like Jesus
to be their Messiah.
So, they chose another god.

****

God is jealous for our worship and attention. When Moses returned from the mountain, he was so angry with the people that he threw down tablets freshly inscribed with the 10 commandments by God Himself (Exodus 32:19-20). There laid the tablets shattered at their feet – shattered like the Israelite's commitment to obey God.

What are our golden calves today? I'll close with a commitment my wife and I made:

When we had a baby, we didn't make any changes in our church attendance and ministries. Babies can become gods for families and we didn't want that to be our reality. We didn't want a baby to lessen our service to God when we should be giving of ourselves more and more as we journey through life. So, our baby was a welcome member of our family, but not an excuse to relax our commitment to God. We were very intentional. It was the same for our second baby, and our third. We weren't perfect at this, but it was our aim and we see later in life how our commitment was beneficial to our whole family. 

When we find ourselves struggling to worship God alone, remember that He is worthy. He remains present and understands our shortcomings. He still wants a relationship with us. Don’t make excuses as Aaron did (Exodus 32:22-25). Understand that Jesus is praying for us and that we can encourage each other to focus our attention upward (John 17:20-24).

Let’s all resolve to worship God and God alone.

More resolutions to come...

If you want to dialog more about worship, feel free to leave a comment or email me at authordlv@att.net. God is present and wants to be our One and Only.

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