READING:
One-year plan: Job 9-11, Acts 19:21-20:6
Two-year plan: Judges 1, Luke 10:13-24
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I continue to be struck by how often the Scriptures show us the folly of idolatry. It’s everywhere, as you might have seen as you’ve read these devotions through the years. In today’s New Testament reading, non-believing Demetrius, a silversmith in Ephesus whose business supported the idolatry of that city, inadvertently and surely unintentionally makes that case for us.
The Christ-followers, then known as “the Way,” were making their mark in Ephesus as they stood against idolatry. In response, Demetrius assembled the people involved in crafting the idols and spoke these words to them: “You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods. Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin—the very one all of Asia and the world worship”(Acts 19:25-27).
Paul was indeed correct that “gods made by hands are not gods,” and Demetrius was indeed on target that the magnificence of Artemis was headed toward “the verge of ruin” under the message of the true God. Demetrius’ concern was much more economic than spiritual (which also shows the silliness of the idolatry of prosperity), but the gospel of Jesus Christ dethrones all the false gods in the world.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you have any “gods” in your life other than the true God?
DAILY PRAYER: “Almighty Father, help me to live rightly with the understanding that You alone are God.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Job 12-15, Acts 20:7-38
Two-year plan: Judges 2-3, Luke 10:25-42
