Again?!

After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves.  He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go to Jerusalem.  Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”  1 Kings 12:28 (NIV)

The king referred to is Jeroboam, who should not be the king, and who is worried he’ll lose control to the rightful king back in Jerusalem.  Confused yet?  Ok, so he decides to keep his people under control by making them idols to worship closer to home in place of  the true God, whose temple is back in Jerusalem. 

But isn’t it interesting the images he chose after getting advice?  Golden calves.  That ring a bell?  Back in Exodus 32, the Israelites get in trouble by making and worshiping….wait for it……a golden calf.

Something was programmed into these people’s heads and hearts to want to worship an image of a calf made out of gold.  Years and years, even generations, passed but the temptation remained and it was the exact same temptation.  Spooky ain’t it?

The point?  I think my temptations, my idols, are more likely to be old ones that come back to haunt me than totally new ones.  If I have a history of substance abuse, it’s likely to be a continuing temptation.  If what has pulled me away from God in the past is ambition, lust, temper, bad relational choices, gambling, gossip, whatever….. that’s very likely gonna come up again.  I think it helps to know that so I can be on the watchout, so I can pray, and so I can make practical plans to avoid the same sin again, and again, and again, and again……