Serving God at a Foreign Altar

Manasseh was an evil king over Judah. He led Israel back into idolatry after the wonderful example of Hezekiah had passed. But when God finally got through to him he repented big time. By then the damage was done, and it had an interesting effect on the people that lasts to this day.

When Manasseh repented of his sin it says in 2 Chronicles 33 that he removed the altars to the foreign gods and threw them out of Jerusalem. He also commanded that Judah serve Yahweh. The response of the people was this: (17) "Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God."

So the people went out to a place where Baal, Ashteroth and other abhorrent gods had been worshiped and tried somehow to redeem them into something pleasing to God - even though the Lord was very clear about where and how He was to be worshiped - at the Temple in Jerusalem as a picture of the coming Messiah Jesus. This was the same problem that Jeroboam had many years before and why Israel deserted Yahweh by serving a calf and calling is LORD. It wasn't.

How does this apply to you? Simply put, you cannot say, think, or do things that are clearly not in the character of Jesus and claim that you are worshiping and serving Him. If you get drunk all the time and just say "praise the Lord" there is something wrong. If you serve at the altar of Mammon (money) and just say "God is in this!" you are sadly mistaken.

I'm not saying that you need to make yourself perfect - that's the job of the Holy Spirit as you yield your life in submission to Him. But to think that you can twist the worldly system and call it godly is only a recipe for trouble. You also can't twist the Word of God to mean that approaching God through any other means than the God-man Jesus will work. It won't.

You can't earn your way to God. You can't change Jesus into the brother of Satan and think you are worshiping Him or that His blood will cover you. Jesus cannot be manipulated into something that we fashion. The good news is that by repenting and coming to Jesus on His terms there is forgiveness and cleansing and a wonderful life that will never end!

Pastor Tom