Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
I closed yesterday with a question. How does God feel about rejection? As I sought an answer to that question I discovered few answers about God’s true feelings about rejection. As I began this morning, this word of the Lord appeared before me. Jealous.
His reaction to rejection goes to the root of the problem, sin. God is consistent in His dealing with man in all aspects of restoration, deal with the real problem. Since we are a people that don’t mind sinning, perhaps if we see our sins affect those we love, then sin becomes our problem and not God.
I love my children and I don’t want my sins to be their problem. If I truly understand the consequences of sin, then my sin is the problem. How God showed me that did not come about in a way that is easy to explain.
1 Samuel 10:27 But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought no presents. But he held his peace.
Belial is not a proper noun, a person or a place, but rather an attitude. It means worthlessness or base person. The word became synonymous with followers of Satan, the man of perdition, the Antichrist, and Satan himself.
What I found strange was in how I discovered this in the attitudes and thoughts of men talking about Israel’s first king, Saul. Saul, when called into service to be King over Israel, hid himself from the people.
1 Samuel 10:22 Therefore they enquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, Behold he hath hid himself among the stuff.
Stuff, keliy in the Hebrew, is a representation of things man made. That reminds me of a commandment, don’t hide behind idols. (or fig leaves)
Make of that what you will.