Worshiping the Miracle?
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Have you ever had an amazing thing happen in your life? Maybe something that was a miracle or at least seemed like a miracle that took place in your life? I have had a few of those moments in my life.
I remember a time as a young boy when I lost a very important key. My mother had told me not to lose the key and even told me how to avoid losing the key. But I didn’t follow her advice and I lost the key.
Finally after a short prayer, I found the key in a spot where I had already looked. For my young mind that was a miracle. I still look at that moment as my first answered prayer and a small miracle in my life. Hopefully, we have all had moments like that in our lives.
In II Kings it tells the story about what the Israelites did with one of their miracles. When they had been wandering in the wilderness there arose a time when many of them were being bitten by deadly snakes. Moses was told to make a bronze serpent and put it on a stick. Everyone who looked at it would be healed. Pretty cool story.
However, II Kings tells the rest of the story. Hezekiah had just become king and scripture says that he was faithful to God. He broke down all the idols and the high places of sacrifice. But then in chapter 18:4 it says “. . . He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made for up to that time Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehustan.)”
For all those years the Israelites has worshiped their miracle instead of worshiping the God of the miracle. Hezekiah had to come along and destroy the symbol of the miracle so that they would instead focus on the God of the miracle.
In fact, from Hezekiah we can learn how he followed Jesus. Verse 6 states this, “He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him. . .” Hezekiah, I am sure, appreciated miracles like anyone else. Later in life he was physically healed in a miracle. However, what made his relationship with God strong was that he didn’t worship the miracles that happened in his life. He instead kept following God and growing in his relationship with God.
Our challenge is the same today. We can either focus on the few moments of miracles in our lives where we have loved God showing up in our lives or we can continue to love God and grow and worship him daily and not worship the miracles of our lives.