A popular expression says, “Money talks.” The power of wealth does accomplish much, as we can observe from today’s environment.
However, I just engaged in an experiment. I pulled a dollar from my wallet and it won’t surprise you to learn that it didn’t say anything at all to me.
All of the idols that are found in the Old Testament are similar to the dollar in my wallet. They may be worshiped, but as Isaiah declared, they have no ability to speak.
To whom will you liken me and make me equal
and compare me, as though we were alike?
Those who lavish gold from the purse
and weigh out silver in the scales—
they hire a goldsmith, who makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!
They lift it to their shoulders; they carry it;
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries out to it, it does not answer
or save anyone from trouble. (Isaiah 46:5-7)
God Speaks
Vastly different from the idols that have to be created, carried, and cannot speak, God communicates with humans on a regular basis.
After Lot and Abram separated, God spoke to the patriarch. However, this is not the last time God spoke to Abram or others in the Old Testament.
God supremely spoke to humans through Jesus and continues to communicate with us through the Holy Spirit.
Even though “money talks,” let’s not be deceived. It is nothing more than an idol. We haven’t heard what we need to hear until we have heard from God.
When God spoke to Abram, He delivered a promise that still resonates today.
The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you” (Genesis 13:14-17).
Abram was wealthy, but material blessings could not compare to the message of promise that God gave him – the land and offspring.
While I’ve been writing today’s article, the dollar bill still hasn’t spoken. That wasn’t the case with God during my morning prayer time.
God used Psalm 113 and Jeremiah 9 to give me a message about what He values in the world.
Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 113:5-9)
God is the most exalted Being in the Universe. Who gets His attention? He reaches down to the needy who sit in the ashes of broken lives and the world.
Jeremiah’s tears run down his cheeks like water flowing from a fountain. He weeps because the dishonesty of the nation is so severe that repentance seems impossible.
They all deceive their neighbors,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.
Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit!
They refuse to know me, says the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:5-6)
Just as God gave Abram a personal message, He spoke to me from the Bible. I learned that God is intimately concerned with the poor, deprived, marginalized, and dust-dwellers on Earth.
I also learned that dishonesty may succeed in the short run, but ultimately it will lead to ruin.
Another Altar
Abram’s response to a personal encounter with God was to meet with Him at an altar.
So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord (Genesis 13:18).
My response to God’s gracious meeting with me was to respond with prayer, intercession, and worship.
Let’s not cheat ourselves and miss the opportunity of a personal daily encounter with the Lord.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 