Purging, shaking, cleansing of the heart

It seems that God is out to purge me of any potential or real false gods that I'm putting on a pedestal with him.  That's a good thing, but I'm struggling to figure out exactly what He's trying to purge.

Today I read Amos 5:21-27, then read some commentary on those verses.  Here is what the commentary author had to say about them.

"There is no more seemingly effective way to hide from God than in religion. When Amos came to Bethel, he called it for what it was—an evasion of righteousness. God was not impressed by the piping of pious songs and psalms while the people forgot their responsibilities to their fellow women and men, as they ground the poor into the mire and loaded the overburdened with misery. Burnt offerings that were to be an outward sign of total dedication to God were a religious mockery; peace offerings affirming fellowship with God were contradicted by the people's unwillingness to obey Him. What God wanted was inner righteousness, an inward moral commitment to do what He had declared was right. He demanded that this inward righteousness be expressed in justice, righteousness in action. And so, in the midst of Israel's covenant confidence that had led into complacency and complicity with social injustice, Yahweh roared, "But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amo 5:24). Yahweh did not want a high mountain trickle or a little rivulet of righteousness and justice, but a rushing white-water river, running fast and pure.

And Yahweh wanted something more. He wanted Israel's worship cleansed of the pollution of foreign idols and false gods. Verse 26 identifies the Gods of the Assyrians that the Israelites had added to the worship of Yahweh in an effort to pacify the potential invader. In that day, truce settlements were sealed by the dominant nation leaving behind images of its Gods in the shrines of the subservient nation. Trying to buy time in her uneasy relationships with Assyria, Israel had placed at Bethel an image of Sikkuth, from the Assyrian tabernacle of Molach. Chiun, the star God of the Assyrians, was placed in Israel's constellation of Gods along with Yahweh. And added to all that petulant polytheism was the ever present syncretism with Baal worship.

Now we can see why Yahweh was tracking down His people. What was happening in their lives and their society was directly related to their escape into false religion. The forms of their religion were keeping them from Him!

The same thing happens to us when we add our false gods to our worship of the Lord God. Our gods of success, affluence, materialism, popularity, political loyalties, and even our religious work compete for first place in our lives. Sometimes we even seek God's strength to continue our obligation to our secondary gods. Soon our lack of commitment to the Lord as our first love shows in our lack of love for others. That is when the Lord starts tracking us, meeting us at every turn of our fast-paced run from Him.

Life begins to fall apart in one setback after another. We go from pillar to post, failure to failure, difficulty to disappointment. We escape from one problem only to meet another. The lion and the bear confronting us with who we are! We thought we had closure with Him when we said we believed in Him, joined the church, and began acting religious. Like Houdini, we thought we had God in a box from which we could escape. We think we are finished with God, but He has only begun with us. He wants to remold our character, reshape our personalities, and reorder our priorities. Most of all He wants inner righteousness and outer justice. It is when we really see the demands God makes on His chosen people that we start running. We may stay in the same place, but our minds and hearts are running away."  Lloyd Ogilvie, The Preacher's Commentary.



This, alone, caused me to look at my heart; to do some serious soul searching to see if there is any hidden sins or gods that I don't even realize I'm putting before Yahweh.  While nothing came readily to mind, I can't help but believe God wouldn't be prompting me if something wasn't there.  As I get ready to take part with my wife and kids in receiving a prophetic word from God this weekend, I want my heart to be open and ready to receive whatever God has for me.  I don't want anything in there to be blocking that, or tempting me towards not receiving what He has for me.

Then God added a little more.  I read another section of Manning's book, "The Signature of Jesus."  In that section Mr. Manning discussed a similar issue of being content with our culture's views on serving God; of being okay with mediocrity in my worship.  God's prompting something here.  I'm not sure what.  Maybe He's just getting me ready for more revelation later.  Whatever the case, I continue to seek Him for answers, and ask Him for the strength, wisdom, and grace to submit to His Holy Spirit's work in me.


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