Israel’s idolatrous ways are described in the OT as their rejection of Him. They rejected the promised land and even rejected God Himself. They also rejected His rule when they asked for a king to replace Him as their ruler.
Their rejection had consequences. They rejected manna and He gave them meat, but He told them, “You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, ‘Why did we come out of Egypt?’ ” Later, the king who they wanted rejected the Lord so God rejected him.
1 Samuel 15:26. And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
God sends Samuel to anoint David in the place of Saul but the prophet thought David’s older brother was the one. God then said to him (1 Samuel 16:7), “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Throughout their history, Israel rejected God’s law, His word, His judgments and statutes. Their rejection of Him led to their destruction, at first in-house and then by giving them over to exile in a pagan nation.
2 Kings 17:20. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
During the exile, some wondered if God had rejected Israel completely. They should not have been surprised. The covenant blessings and curses in Leviticus warn that the punishment for rejecting God’s statutes would be to have their enemies rule over them. However, the promise held; He would not destroy them completely or break his covenant with them but restore them. Even so, Hosea 9:17 warns: “My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.”
Although the exile seemed to cure idolatry, when Jesus came, they also rejected God’s Messiah. It began when their leaders refused to submit to John’s baptism and rejected His teaching and that of His disciples. Jesus said in Luke 10:16, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
As for Jesus, the rejection was not just what He taught (that all need to repent) but His claim to be God the Son. Even His disciples were dismayed when, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” They didn’t get it and didn’t want this to happen.
Hebrews 12:25 warns all readers: “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.” 1 Peter 2:4–5 gives the positive: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
There is also another positive form of rejecting, namely, rejecting one’s own interests and serving Christ instead. In Matthew 16:24–26, Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Most of the issues of this life are not worth fighting for because they are related to temporal stuff that will not last. However, God’s will and His ways are eternal. The Bible is clear that those who are determined to follow Him will be rejected by others who are just as determined to manage their own lives without God and without Jesus Christ. When I keep my eyes on Jesus, I can see that some things may seem right to people, but “the end thereof is the way of death” if the Lord God and His will are rejected. While I cannot ensure that others will see this or agree with it, for me it is vital to never reject or resist the will of the Lord.
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