Sunday, November 16, 2008

No Saviour Beside Me

Hosea 13:4 KJV
Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
Unlike the majority of the tribes of Israel, Ephraim was born in the land of Egypt. God was not just the God that brought him out of Egypt; God was his God from his very beginning. Ephraim's father, Joseph was the most faithful; it appears to me, of all of the sons of Jacob. Ephraim would surely have been taught to know the Lord God from his childhood in Egypt.

And this God, who had been Ephraim's God from the first, told them,
thou shalt know no God but me
There were dozens of gods people followed in those days. And perhaps there are hundreds more in our day. We may not use the same names for them, but they still exist.
The sun god who keeps people out of church on nice days
The snow god, who keeps them out for ski trips
The river god, who can keep them out fishing
The gods formed by men's hands, that must be washing and waxed on the weekends
The god of prosperity that requires men worship it seven days a week, so there is no time to worship the Lord.
And on we could go with the false gods of this world. God says we are not to know any God but Him.

for there is no Saviour beside me
God provides the best of reasons for this command; there is no Saviour besides Him.
No other religion
No other activity
No other dedication
No other interest

Is able to save a man's soul. God's desire for us is for good, always for good. He does not command us to remove anything from our lives that are good for us but expects us only to follow His guidance for our best.

The reasoning of our minds and the pressures of this world seldom can understand God's intention and heart. Just as Eve came to believe, through the serpent's influence, that the fruit God had withheld from them, was to be desired, Satan's influences in the world today also bring us to believe those things God restricts us from are good to be desired. Don't you believe it! God's only intention is for our good and our salvation.

Proverbs 16:20 KJV
He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.
The man who will trust in the Lord will always be a happy man.

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