How do you respond to the greeting, “How are you?” Most of us simply reply, “Fine. How are you?” Others develop trademark comebacks, such as “Better than I deserve.” I know of one fellow who answers, “I’m just the Lord’s prostitute.”
What?! This provocative reply is an inappropriate response to an innocuous greeting—too much information!—but it does make an important point. The fellow is comparing his life to Gomer, the wayward woman whom God told the prophet Hosea to marry to “illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods” (Hosea 1:2).
Israel had been unfaithful from its inception. On its “wedding night”—the very night that Moses was receiving their covenant from God on Mount Sinai—the Israelites melted their earrings into a golden calf and worshiped it. Who commits adultery on their wedding night?!
The Lord was deeply hurt by Israel’s adultery, and he told Moses to “leave Me alone so My fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them.” Moses begged God to remember the oath He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And “the Lord changed His mind about the terrible disaster He had threatened to bring on His people” (Exodus 32:10-14). But He wasn’t happy. The Lord was as aggrieved as any lover who learns that His spouse has been sleeping with another.
We may not worship a golden calf, but we cheat on the Lord whenever we sacrifice Him or our families and friends on the altar of career, wealth, or pleasure. It comes down to what gives us ultimate worth and security. If it’s anything other than Jesus, then we’re committing spiritual adultery. We then need to confess our wandering ways, beg Christ’s forgiveness, and ask Him to empower us to forsake all others.
More:
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. . . . ”Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; My love will know no bounds, for My anger will be gone forever” (Hosea 14:1,4).
Next:
How can you tell when you’ve turned one of God’s good gifts into an idol? What can you do to return this good thing to its rightful place?
caxtell on September 25, 2010 at 11:53 am
I confess that in the past I did not understand this concept at all. Our relationship with Jesus must be where we get our worth and identity or we are nothing. I am so thankful that God is so faithful in showing me daily that my value comes from my relationship with Him. The joy that I receive from this is unlike any thing that the world has to offer.
gruuvin2001 on September 25, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Am I supposed to respond to ‘telling if I’ve turned a gift from God into an idol’? -or- ‘How are ya?’, or the overall lesson for the day?? I’m always confused as to what I’m going to respond to……
mike wittmer on September 25, 2010 at 7:37 pm
gruuvin:
The “how are you” is the opening hook. I wouldn’t recommend imitating that. The application is about spiritual adultery–do we cheat on God? Do we presume on his grace, chasing other lovers because we know he will always take us back? That’s the point I was going for.
jlazzie on September 25, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Our God deserves to be preferred in our hearts, we should not do something for Him to be jealous over something in our life. We should love more than anything we possess or whoever we have.
Let us be cautious in giving so much importance to people or possession more than we value God. Because sooner or later consequences happen that we may need to give up what we value more than God and most often than not, it could be painful then.
But God’s love is sufficient to forgive us in our tresspasses. He meets us in our needs.
mikan14 on September 27, 2010 at 10:55 am
“How are you?” asks us how have we been doing as the Lord’s beloved…As His lover, we must be faithful to Him as He is to us.
Tyla808 on October 2, 2010 at 5:28 am
It’s not right and I pray that I will gain victory over this thought pattern but I do admit to idolatry and I do admit to taking advantage of God’s grace, love and forgiveness. I want to have the FREEDOM Jesus paid for but sometimes like a dog going back to their vomit I still go back to things I put as a priority over God.
I pray for these things to go away, intellectually I know idolatry is wrong and that I shouldn’t do it but applying what is in my head to what I do in the physical realm is two very different things.
Thank you for sharing this…a good kick start in the right direction!