Serving Foreign Gods

“…Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.” Jeremiah 5:19

Have you ever wondered why we are told that this world is not our home? One reason has to do with the Old Testament Hebrew culture.

In the days of the Old Testament, if someone was driven from his homeland into an alien land, he had to leave his gods behind and serve the gods of the alien territory. This helps explain Ruth’s declaration that she would go with Naomi to Naomi’s land and serve Naomi’s God. In Ruth’s land, Moab, other gods were worshiped.

This also clarifies the Exodus story of Moses wanting God’s people to leave Egypt and go back to their own land so they could worship God instead of the many Egyptian gods. This further helps explain why Daniel was in so much trouble for worshiping the one true God in a foreign land, where other gods were worshiped.

People were expected to worship the god(s) of the land they currently lived in.

This explains why we are not to consider this world our home. If this world was our home, we would worship the gods of this world. Instead, our Father reigns in our home (our body), and so we worship Him. His kingdom is with us now. We are not forced to worship and serve other gods, as the people were in the Old Testament days, for HE IS WITHIN US. He has made us His home, His dwelling place, His tabernacle.

Oh Father, You have made a place for us with You in eternity to worship You. But we don’t have to wait for that day. We can worship You here and now, in the midst of our enemies, because You dwell in us by Your Holy Spirit. Forgive us for worshiping the gods of this world, this culture, this land, as if we belonged to it. Teach us to worship You in spirit and in truth. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.