J22-21: Does The Lord Care About What’s In Your Heart More Than Your Actual Behavior?

God’s Word commands us to NOT make any symbols or images of God.

Actually, it goes farther than that.

The Lord commands us to not even make symbols of earthly creatures to represent Him.

Boy we sure have failed miserably in heeding these commandments, haven’t we?

And yes, I’ve heard all of the arguments why it’s okay.

We tell ourselves everything is all fine and dandy as long as we don’t bow down and worship these symbols and ornaments we’ve built.

That’s exactly what the ancient Israelites told themselves.

“These home altars are cool as long as we don’t sacrifice upon them”.

Or…

“It’s cool to sacrifice on these altars as long as it’s a different type of sacrifice than what the Lord permitted to be sacrificed on His Altar”.

But oh man, does it gets a helluva lot worse than that!

In the name of peace, love and doing the “right thing”, the Israelites ended up reasoning with themselves that it was okay to even participate in worship services and celebrations paying homage to their pagan friends’ deities just as long as they didn’t acknowledge that deity as their God.

Their thinking was based on the assumption that their friends and family members would have the willpower to resist taking things to the next step.

Again, the familiar refrain was…

…”Look, it’s our heart-felt sincerity that counts.  The Lord cares more about what’s in our hearts than our actual behavior”.

Where did this thinking lead Israel in just a mere few years after this incident?

I’ll tell you where it led them.

As a result, within the space of a decade, Israel found themselves on a downward trajectory straight into idolatrous hell (to put it bluntly).

Here’s something I’m gonna clue you in on that few (if any) students of the Bible really understand.

This very incident about Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh building the Altar is a key linchpin to understanding the Book of Judges.

How so?

Because the primary theme of the Book of Judges is what occurs when one falls for the idea that heart-felt sincerity is more important than actual obedience.

The Altar incident opened the door to so many more issues than the basic theological problem that the 2 1/2 tribes were rebelling against Hashem’s chosen Levitical priesthood (and thus by default the Mosaic Law).

Consider that a war almost broke out because of all the doubt and mistrust that arose between the tribes residing on each side of the Jordan.

What it boils down to is that the tribes on the west side of the Jordan (those living in the Promised Land), were accusing the 2 1/2 tribes on the eastern side of Golden Calf level idolatry.

Plus here’s another thing we shouldn’t overlook.

The disagreement between the 2 1/2 tribes had nothing to do with doctrinal differences like Calvinism versus Arminianism or Trinitarianism versus Unitarianism.

It was all about where and how to worship.