READING:
One-year plan: Genesis 31-32, Matthew 10:32-11:24
Two-year plan: Genesis 19, Matthew 6:9-24
———
Every time I read stories like today’s Old Testament reading, I grieve for the peoples of the world who do not know Jesus. What breaks my heart is most apparent in the story of Rachel and her family’s household gods. Jacob and his family had secretly left Laban, but they did not leave empty-handed. Rather, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. Likely some kind of man-made figurines, these idols were apparently small enough and powerless enough that Rachel could conceal them. If it weren’t, in fact, so tragic that she held on to the gods, it would be almost comical: “Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them” (Gen. 31:34). The gods were, it seems, entirely helpless. As one writer has said, “If you make your gods or buy your gods, then they become vulnerable.”*
Even as I write these words, though, people all over the world are worshiping the same kind of man-made, lifeless, feeble gods. The centuries have come and gone, but the reality of idolatry remains the same. What I grieve is the truth that these peoples are worshiping gods that have no transforming power; indeed, they have no power at all. Through them, however, Satan and his forces keep people blinded (2 Cor 4:3-4). He holds them in his trap, binding them in their darkness. Only the gospel can make a difference in their lives—and they cannot hear unless we take the message to them.
Who will go to them? Who’s praying for them in their bondage? Who’s praying for missionaries on the front line of that darkness? We have much work to do.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Might God be calling you to some level of missionary service?
PRAYER: “God, show us our own idols, and help us reject them.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Genesis 33-35, Matthew 11:25-12:21
Two-year plan: Genesis 20:1-21:21, Matthew 6:25-7:6
*Elwell, W. A. (1995). Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, Ge 31:22). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
