Mystery the great

Who can possibly understand? The entire ancient world knew all about the unprecedented series of shocking displays of heavenly power that had brought Egypt to its knees. For weeks, God had hit the nation with one massive unnatural disaster after another resulting in physical devastation of the land and the utter humiliation of Egypt's pantheon of gods, not to mention loss of life matching the ravages of the later Black Death. Perhaps every citizen of planet earth had heard about the total annihilation of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea following the splitting of its waters and the safe passage of the entire Israelite nation through its midst.

When, forty years later, the Israelites were about to enter and occupy Canaan, the land of promise, one of its citizens confided to an Israelite spy that,

I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites. whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath (Josh. 2:9-11).

In the years that followed, this famous woman's confession of the awesome power of the only true God was underscored and highlighted by Israel's astonishing success in conquering nation after nation against all the odds. Many times over the course of ensuing centuries, the God of Israel showed His infinite superiority to the so-called "gods" - figments of human devising - of many other peoples. In the name of Israel's God, Samson collapsed an entire stadium filled with Philistine worshipers of the non-god, Dagon (Jdg. 16). The same god's statue was unceremoniously and mysteriously knocked off its pedestal when the captured Israelite ark of the covenant was placed in Dagon's temple (1 Sam. 5). Time after time enemy armies were routed by Israel's God, demonstrating again and again the immensity of His power. Jeremiah summed it all up admirably:

You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day,

and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself a name, as it is this day (32:20).

What a mystery. The Canaanites were scared spitless of Israel's God yet they refused to abandon their own lifeless idols and turn to Him in humble worship even though their very lives were at stake. In the face of the clearest possible evidence of the might of Israel's God and Dagon's impotence, the Philistines would not own up to the futility of worshiping Dagon and embrace Yahweh instead. Even though Israel's God had made Himself a name of world renown by His mighty acts none of the nations bowed in reverence before Him. Madness, sheer madness. And worse, much worse, the Israelites, who had firsthand knowledge of the true God,

. forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them (Jdg. 2:12).

Jeremiah added,

Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit (Jer. 2:11).

Stupidity, utter stupidity! What else can you call it? What can possibly have turned rational human beings into such. well. nitwits? Only one answer makes any sense at all; let Paul enlighten us:

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be (Rom. 8:7).

Something in us makes us reject God, truth, and life and embrace error and death. We will resist submitting ourselves to the "First Cause" and to His way of life to the bitter end. When God entered flesh in Jesus Christ and spoke of "heavenly things", almost nobody accepted His testimony (John 3:32). Even Christendom resists the will of Jesus Christ and hides its intransigence under a cloak of specious "salvation without works" theology. Folly, utter folly. What else can you call it?