Beyond Remedy
God’s people in the Old Testament went through many trials that tested their faith and allegiance to God.
Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin."
God knows that man is prone to sin. God loves us and knows that sin can enslave us and be our 'master'. He is a jealous God and wants all of our devotional focus on him, not idols. We are to have no other gods except him, today we may not bow before an image made of wood or stone, but we create idols of other types in our lives that are sinful.
Paul tells the Philippians,
“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame— who set their mind on earthly things.”
The phrase “whose god is their belly” means; our carnal appetites can become our gods or idols in this life and that makes us enemies of Jesus. If unrepented of, our idol worship can cause us to be eternally lost.
Sin can so consume us it literally can deceive us and blind us to the lost spiritual state we are in. Israel found that out the hard way, they rejected all the prophets who warned them to repent and their sin got so bad that the Assyrian kings killed many of them and carried the rest of them away. Judah too soon found itself in the same predicament years later.
“but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.”
No remedy; nothing could fix or heal them, they were in spiritual hospice waiHng to die. God had to destroy them to get their attention, most of them were slaughtered and a remnant were exiled to Babylon for 70 years. John tells us that there is sin that leads to death, I believe it is sin that is unrepented of that has become an idol in our life, John then concludes his letter by saying, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
— Jim L