God is not someone who can be bandied back and forth, but that's just what the Israelites did. They took their gold and silver and created ephods and idols that they called upon whenever they wished. Of course their behavior was as holy as the gods they worshipped, culminating in all of the tribes uniting to go against Benjamin in retribution for the Levite whose concubine was raped and murdered as he tried to make his way from Bethlehem to Ephraim. In the end over forty thousand Israelites and twenty-five thousand Benjamites lost their lives in the battle that ensued. Brother fighting against brother.
As Dr. Phil would say, 'How's that working for you." Little gods do not deliver us, they only put a murderous heart in our midst. I recognize the same thing in me. When I start worshipping man made possessions, the ephods and idols created from the gold and silver of our current day, I suddenly become more self-protective, my heart is more easily deceived into fighting my brothers and sisters over things that really don't matter. I never feel that way when God is at the center of my life, when he is the only one I worship.
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