J24-18: How Our Modern Religious Practices Are Radically Different From Ancient Peoples

Wanna know what the biggest difference is between us and the ancients in terms of religious practice and worldview?

I can answer that question in one word: compartmentalization (or lack thereof).

In our modern day and age, we view our faith in God as just one aspect out of many in our lives.

We have our social or family activities, our jobs, we go to the gym to exercise, spend time enjoying our personal hobbies and on Saturday or Sunday, we go to church or the synagogue to practice our religion.

Everything is nicely and neatly organized so that there’s no conflict or overlap between all these different activities in our lives.

We do our best to not mix in our religion with our work, social activities or our hobbies because they lie in different spheres we reason.

The result is our worship becomes restricted to certain activities practiced under very limited circumstances.

This compartmentalization has led to idolatry in the sense that God is no longer the Lord of our lives. 

We don’t rely on God for our economic well-being.

Instead, we worship our boss and paycheck.

We don’t invite the Lord to approve of and bless our social activities.

Instead, it’s pleasure and fun that takes priority.

We don’t rely on God for our physical health and mental well being.

Instead, we prioritize the advice of doctors, psychiatrists and the the plethora of prescription medicines they recommend we take.  

We’ve kicked God out of pretty much every sphere of life except that couple of hours once a week when we go to church or the synagogue.

I need to tell you this kind of “compartmentalization” was completely unknown to the people who lived during Bible times.

And this would apply to BOTH the “Old” and New Testament eras.

God influenced every aspect of a believer’s life.

And outside of monotheistic Israel, the culture and community of a nation was defined by which set of gods they worshipped.

This meant every detail of your life from waking up to going to sleep was centered on pleasing the god of your community. 

And if you ever tried to pull away and go off to worship other gods, you could expect strong resistance from your family and friends.

Kind of like how a Jew will be ostracized if he or she ever decides to go the route of believing in Yeshua as Israel’s Messiah.