When we moved from Arizona to Texas, we stayed at a hotel in New Mexico. After filling up the moving truck and the car with gas we headed back to the hotel. It was tricky as to where you turned in. If you took the wrong left you would be headed back to Arizona. This is how my husband got his nickname Wrong Way. I had to make a u-turn in the parking lot to follow him to the next exit, which was twelve miles away.
Israel went the wrong way too. They made the wrong turn when they followed the gods of the countries around them and turned away from the One true God.
We have done the same, Isiaha 53:6;
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Sheep are dumb animals. They don’t stay close to the shepherd. They tend to follow each other. They wander away and get stuck or lost. Danger has no meaning to them. We are like that. We will follow something that is not from God but has a slight hint that it is. If certain stars a doing it we want to do it too. I remember wanting to try a certain beer when I grew up because the commercial made it look like the thing to do. Never did.
Look at Adam and Eve. They had daily fellowship with God, face to face. Yet, when temptation came along both of them turned from God in order to become like Him. They are the ones who started following after other gods.
When we start looking around at what this world has to offer and go after it instead of following God, there are two things we do, Jeremiah 2:13;
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
We have the perfect example of this in John 4, where Jesus is talking with the woman at the well. Jesus is the living water which brings life to our dry and thirsty souls. When we place other things/gods in His place they cannot satisfy us like He does. The woman at the well kind of understood what He meant at first. Life was hard for her because she went after her own way which had made her an outcast with the other women in the town and why she was drawing water from the well in the heat of the day. She, herself was thirsty; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She desired to no longer be thirsty emotionally or spiritually but had a hard time separating it from the physical at first until Jesus got personal with her.
God wants to get personal with us by getting away from the physical desires. The physical desires are what lead us to the other gods. Eve saw the fruit was good and desirable for food.
Judah, Eve and Adam were all punished for going their own way because they preferred it over God’s way. Take another look at Isiaha 53:6, this is the prophecy of Jesus taking on our sins upon Himself. He took our punishment in order for us to have eternal life. Even when we walk away from God and go after other gods, He has provided a way back to Him.
Bonnie Sue Writes 