New Morning Mercies #184

Corporate worship is designed to turn your heart from the shadow glories of creation to the one glory that will satisfy it.

It was a warning to the children of Israel, but it is one we all need to hear and heed:

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. (Deut. 6:10–15)

This side of eternity, material affluence is dangerous. It’s not that material things are bad in and of themselves. God intentionally designed his world to be a beautiful place. It’s not that it’s wrong to enjoy the material world around us. God gave us the capacity to take in and enjoy this beauty. In fact, God placed a desire for beauty in our hearts. The problem with material things is not found in the material things; it’s found in us. Our problem with the material world is a heart problem. This problem is captured here by God’s warning to his people as they enter a land lush with physical glories. The problem is that material affluence has the power to cause us to forget God. The sight, sound, touch, taste, and splendor of these created glories tempt us to think that life is found in having these things and to think we have everything that we need because we have them. Because these things weaken our God awareness and our God hunger, we are then set up to give our hearts to the worship of what is created rather than the worship of the One who created it all. At street level, we forsake the God who created and supplied us with these physical glories, even though we continue to say that we believe in him.

The warning can be stated in a few words: Be careful when you’re full that you do not forget. The physical world is full of many glories, but the pursuit of these glories must not rule my heart because they have no ability whatsoever to offer me the life that I so desperately need. Life is only ever found in what all those earth-bound glories point to—a God of awesome glory who is the Source and Giver of life; life that satisfies and remains forever. Because he is a God of grace, he showers glories on me so that those glories would lead me to him.

For further study and encouragement: Deuteronomy 9