DO NOT LET THE WORLD SQUEEZE YOU INTO ITS MOLD

I Samuel 12:23 “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord by not praying for you.”

These were Samuel’s words spoken to Israel after they had rejected God as their king and demanded to have a king like the nations around them. God’s people wanted to be like the nations around them. There has been an ongoing demonic assault against the people of God and the purposes of God, tempting us to adapt ourselves to the paganism of the culture around us.

You see, paganism is a mechanistic religious form that runs on a “quid-pro-quo” philosophy. If I comply with the assumed requirements of the gods, then the gods are obligated to give me what I want. It is kind of how Congress works in relation to lobbyist groups. Israel got seduced by pragmatics rather than trusting in the Lord. The pagan nations around Israel had gods of the harvest, gods of the rain, gods of fertility, gods of war, city gods of protection, etc.

The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob had promised the prosperity of His people in more ways than the above if they would only trust Him and obey His Word (which, by the way, if followed would have resulted in the flourishing of the nation in every way). He would provide wholeness of life for them. He had proved to them that He could and would care for them by their deliverance from Egypt and by 40 miraculous years as they traveled through the wilderness.

The gods of the nations were demonic in nature demanding more and more slaughter and debauchery from those who served them. God Almighty was the One who gave the rain and caused nature to operate in such a way as to bless the creation He had made, not lifeless idols.

Deuteronomy 12:29-32  

“When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

God had told them, warned them, not to ask how the pagans worshipped their Gods. God forbad Israel using pagan ways to seek Him or worship Him. God’s ways would make for Life and human flourishing; nothing else can or ever will. Israel was seduced and succumbed to the “ways” of the world around them.

Jeremiah 10:1-2 “Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O Israel! ² This is what the Lord says: “Do not act like the other nations, who try to read their future in the stars. Do not be afraid of their predictions, even though other nations are terrified by them." 

Even in the face of the spiritual compromise of the nation of Israel, Samuel said he would never stop praying for the nation for their repentance and return to the Lord. With all that in mind, we must never stop praying for the world around us. God does not desire the death of sinners but that all should come to repentance. As Tim Keller wrote, “Affecting world events through prayer is not wishful thinking. We influence the course of current events by praying the Father’s heart for the world. We then watch heaven intervene.”