They will forsake Me

And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭31‬:‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Moses, who was not allowed to enter the promised land, had to watch the people accept the golden calf, because they did not know what had become of him. Moses heard their grumbling, they wanted to stone him, his brother and sister rebelled against him. And then he is at the end of his life and the LORD says that the people will play the harlot with other gods. And they would break the covenant of the LORD. Humanly speaking, you would say, Moses' mission had failed. He was anything but successful. But in God's Kingdom the principles are different. Moses was obedient to God. And the time he wasn't, he wasn't allowed into the promised land (Deuteronomy 32:51). 

Ultimately, the most important thing is not what we all did, but whether we wanted to obey Him, Jesus our Lord. We may never see the fruit of our labor, perhaps someone else will reap it. We may live a meaningless insignificant life before people in which we stumble a lot and fail in the eyes of people. But whoever is in Him is obedient and bears fruit for His glory, even if we do not see it ourselves. The prophets, like Isaiah, lead hard lives in which they were reviled and even killed. But the words they spoke through the Spirit are still powerful and edifying to the Saints thousands of years later. 

The people of Israel became unfaithful and followed other gods. Today we see anti-Semitism increasing, even within the church walls. There is always criticism of Israel. But is the practice of idolatry limited to the Israelites? Or is it also in every person? I think the latter. There are a number of examples in the New Testament.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, ‭‭I Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. ‭Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

This is not about the people who do not know God, this is about the believers. Paul says that the Spirit says it expressly for the later times. And Jude writes in verse 19 that these people do not have the Spirit. Jude writes that you must discern (verse 22). This is portrayed by some Christians as unloving. After all, peace takes precedence over distinction. We don't want divisions. But that is a false peace. It is not without reason that Paul writes in the Timothy letter that people follow the teachings of demons and that as a result their conscience has been seared, it has become inaccessible. You don't want to make peace with that. 

If we put other things above the Lord Jesus, are we not also committing idolatry? If we persist in this, are we not just like the Israelites? We are privileged with the 1st and 2nd Testament. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit. But that is only possible if we want to put our will aside and if we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Hatred and criticism of Israel goes against this and in my opinion it is hypocritical because in our sinful flesh we are no different from those who left His covenant. Remember, there is one who accuses and it is not the Holy Spirit. If we commit idolatry and persist in it, we also break His covenant. 

That we are built up in our most holy faith (Jude verse 20). We can expect His mercy (verse 21). He will come when He comes, and He will come, that's for sure. Jesus is worth everything, He is God's Son. To live for Him is Life, there is nothing like this Life. It's worth everything to give up for. And whoever endures to the end will enter His rest. Glory to His Name.