COMMITTING IDOLATRY

The island where I was born was formerly surrounded by water. Years before I was given to see the light of day, there was a young girl of a prominent family in one of those small villages, who was drawn by God out of the world, and was powerfully convinced by God’s Spirit of sin, righteousness and judgment.

She came under such severe convictions of the righteousness of God, that she saw no deliverance. In that desperate condition, she was urged from within to put an end to her life. She went to the seaside, and jumped into the water, but while she was sinking, the way of deliverance in Christ was opened to her. She came to the surface again and floated upon her clothing, until suddenly a large wave cast her upon the beach.

Her family, who lived in the midst of the world, would have nothing more to do with her. Some of God’s people took her in to live with them. She received much boldness to testify of the great miracle which God had glorified upon her. What had happened to her was extraordinary. Also, she herself became proud with the blessing, and the people danced around her. How much idolatry was committed with her!

She was invited to various places. She travelled from one to the other. She was listened to with great amazement, and because she had been put outside of everthing by her family, the people provided liberally for her support. She was never married. When I was a boy, she was old and lived in a small house while living out of the hand of the Lord.

She never perished in despair, but had to finish her life in great darkness. At first, she was honored as a queen, and the rest of her life she had to spend in much strife. From time to time, she was encouraged, but as far as I know, it never came to a solution for her soul. What happened there upon the bottom of the sea, remained there, but she never arrived at the perfect liberty on this side of the grave.

To the day of her death, she had to lament that she had committed idolatry with the gift which God had granted unto her.

After her death, I reflected upon that much more than during her life. However great the desertion was in which she had to live, the people have never forsaken her. Oh no, that confidence lay there; there was no doubt with respect to what God had done.

Yet she sat there as a beacon in the sea to warn us how jealous God is of His honor. Idolatry is so deeply rooted in our heart. Our idolatrous heart is so inclined to run away with the person upon whom God looked; with the means which God used to his conversion, also with the special ways in which the Lord led him, but that the God which granted grace is not glorified. Ruth has never despised Naomi, her mother-in-law; on the contrary, she loved her dearly, but she needed the God of her mother-in-law, and upon the threshing floor she said to Boaz, “Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid.”

We become disappointed with ourselves; we become disappointed with the people, but we shall never be deceived with God. He is a God of perfect salvation. He alone can perfect our salvation, and unto the Lord belong the issues from death.

And such people that are specially led are much sought for. How often does it happen that the approval of such souls is sought. And a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise. Ah, how much grace from God is necessary, especially when we are poor, to remain honest. At times one hears for years after that such souls have been delivered that their name is still mentioned.

And if it were only that, then nothing can be said against it, because the Lord Himself tells us in His Word that the memory of the just shall be blessed. But — then they say, “I often visited that man or that woman.” And then with all sorts of expressions of those people, yea even with experiences of that people, they secretly cover themselves, even for eternity.

Ah, it cannot be expressed in words how deceitful that the heart of a person is, and what we make a ground of for eternity. Really, we only live to deceive ourselves for eternity.

And how may a child of God, through all that idolatry, bring himself into darkness. At times for years they have an unfruitful and condemned life. Yea, to the end they must bear the sad consequences: that they have not given God the honor to which He alone has a right.

At times, we may become entangled in the snares of sin so that we are made unfruitful for God’s church.

Thus David had learned to know himself by uncovering grace so that he prayed in Ps. 19:13: “Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me; then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”

Ah, it is so dangerous to build ourselves upon imparted grace and gifts. The Lord knows what to do about that. We can exalt ourselves about nothing. It only takes a moment, and we lie in the swamp of sin. The warning, “Be not highminded, but fear” which God gave in His Word is indeed worthy to observe.

Our life is often so thoughtless, and how often are we wrapped up in ourselves, leaning upon our own wisdom, power, and strength. We must constantly censure ourselves and loathe ourselves before God, and be afraid of no one as much as ourselves. We carry the greatest traitor within ourselves, and that is our depraved heart; that is that flesh which does not want to subject itself to the law of God, and Paul tells us, “Neither indeed can be.” We are filled with idolatry. And the reason that we have so little trouble with that is because we have so little discovering of it. And what more grievous life is there for children of the Lord than that God hides His face from them, that they have no access and no passage to God’s throne, That we have to wander upon earth outside of the immediate communion with God. And then all that is our own fault, but are unable to submit to it, for although we can turn away, yet we cannot return, except God has mercy upon us again in Christ. When we feel that pride rise up within our heart, then we should immediately cry to God, and we should shun like the pestilence those people that would thrust us upward. But alas, we are such lovers of self, and we must experience that sin is of a God-dishonoring and soul-destroying character. And no doubt, it shall remain a strife until the end.

Today we bury the idols, and tomorrow we dig them up out of the ground again, and bow ourselves down to them again.

The Lord testified of His ancient people Israel, “Forty years was I grieved with this generation, and said, ‘It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ “ Ps. 95:10.

And it is no different with us. If we are endowed with light from above, then we shall agree more and more that from us there is no more fruit to all eternity.

The two great lessons which God’s people must learn in this life are, “Without Me, ye can do nothing,” and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

And finally, that is now also the question which comes personally to us, whether we have knowledge of that. The Lord is so free, also in calling His people and in gathering His church. The outward circumstances may vary so much, but the main thing is whether we have been called out of death into life, from darkness into God’s marvelous light; been delivered from the power of Satan and have been translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, whether we have been severed from Adam, and implanted into Christ, have fallen away from ourselves, and have fallen toward God.

And if that principle has been truly wrought in us by God the Holy Spirit, then the apostle Paul, having been inspired by God’s Spirit writes, “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil 1:6.

And in that day shall all His people be delivered from their idolatrous heart, in order that in heaven, being perfect, they may forever give their heart to God. There they shall no more be inclined to idolatry.

May then, as we realize our death state, God’s Word be to our comfort, “And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities,” Ps. 130:8. W.C.L.

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