July 9, Day 190 – Our Human Inclinations
- Dr. Eric Stricker
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
In the historical accounts that we find today in the books of 1 and 2 Kings, God has generally but mercifully given us illustrations of our human inclinations and natural propensities to sin and to the misapplication of worship. We see these predispositions in the personal accounts of the various kings of Israel and Judah. Over, and over again, we see how they falsely worshipped anything and everything except the one true God, and they led their kingdoms into unspeakable evil practices that even included child sacrifice – which we see in today’s readings (cf., 2 Kings 16:3 and 21:6). In God’s sight, today’s problem with abortion is similar to that evil Canaanite practice. In chapter 16, we see King Ahaz, who reinstituted idolatry and “followed the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out” (verse 3). Earlier, we pointed out that “the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel” because of its sin (cf., 2 Kings 10:31-32), so this divine reduction is becoming effective. Instead of turning to the Lord, Ahaz appealed to a vicious neighboring king, “Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria – to come up and save him – [in exchange] for tribute from the temple’s silver and gold” (verse 7). Ahaz also modified the Lord’s altar in the temple – “in deference to the king of Assyria” (verse 18). Next, in chapter 17, we see that Hoshea – who conspired against Pekah and assassinated him (cf., 1 Kings 15:30) – ascended the throne as the last king of Israel. The subsequent king of Assyria – Shalmaneser – “discovered that Hoshea was a traitor and put him in prison” (verse 4). In this very sad chapter, the northern kingdom of Israel collapsed, and “the Israelites were deported to Assyria; all this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God” (verses 6-7). Chapter 17 ends with the Assyrians re-populating Samaria with people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim – people of all religious cults and mixed immigrants from everywhere but there. Sound familiar? Proactively, these chapters teach us that we must guard and keep ourselves from our human inclinations to sin and to worship the many other gods that we – knowingly or unknowingly – might allow or invite into our lives. The solution to this problem is found in our Psalm for today …
In Psalm 81:13, we read “If my people would only listen to me.” To live above our human inclinations toward idolatry, we need to listen to the Word of God daily. Verse 8 warns us to listen to God and refrain from worshipping other gods. I realize how difficult it is to heed this warning because we all fell in Adam’s original sin, and we are inclined toward rebellion, which is a form of false worship. Except for angels, we are the only creatures who were fashioned with the awareness and conscious capacity to worship, but our sinful dispositions bend us toward the worship of anything and everything other than the worship of our Creator and the true God. This tendency is the natural result of our human inclinations, and we must overcome them.
Now in Acts 26:24-27:12, we pick up again with Paul before Festus and Agrippa – both of whom demonstrate man’s natural tendency to shift true worship away from God to something else. Rather than listen carefully to and consider the facts, Festus thinks Paul is “insane” (verse 24), and Agrippa says to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” (verse 28). Clearly, Paul is in no hurry (verse 29); he simply wants Festus and Agrippa to come to the truth and a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Both men clearly recognized that Paul has done “nothing that deserves death or imprisonment” (verse 31), but they were content to send Paul on to Rome where they wouldn’t have to think about him anymore. In chapter 27, verses 1-12, we see Luke’s account of Paul’s voyage from Adramyttium to Fair Havens – on the voyage now to Rome.
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