“Many think they know God, but do not because their knowledge is derived from human opinions and is not informed by the whole counsel of God’s word…So what is our application today?  We have not (to my knowledge) bowed to a golden calf or applied to Egypt or Assyria for political gain…God is gracious to us church. He does not allow other things to fulfill the desire that we have for him who is the giver of all good things…These are the things we need to check ourselves in: Am I content with what God has provided through all the means he has granted to be at my disposal?  Is discontentment revealing that I am not finding my joy, hope and fulfillment in Christ?  When we look to other functional saviors, it reveals the deeper heart issue of things we have not truly believed in the gospel.  What is it about Christ that you have not found to be good? As Augustine famously wrote: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

“Israel was in danger of losing - and indeed had lost their unique identity as God’s people…The inhabitants of the land are characterized by infighting, foolishly seeking foreign help, priestly plots, negligent leadership and false repentance. These have left Yahweh with no recourse but to announce the advent of his judgement - but he does so with great pain and no joy…At many times, and in many ways, Israel has rebelled against God and broken his covenant.  They have been faithless and loveless, both to God and each other.  But all of these things he would forgive.  What is damning, what will ultimately result in total judgment, is what they do not do: they do not confess and repent…The root of idolatry is believing a lie about God. Israel has believed the lie that they can sin without consequence….

And so today we must ask: What lies have we believed about God?  In what ways have we accepted false teaching or just filled in the blanks about God when we haven’t been taught the Scriptures.”

“…For God to say ‘I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings,’ is not to say that he no longer required obedience in the sacrifice and burnt offerings of the old covenant, but that those things had become distorted when they replaced knowledge of God and the real practice of ḥesed - the steadfast love of God. Without this relational aspect of their worship, their rituals became transactional or coercive towards God; a means of inducing him to act. This was one of the ways that Canaanite religion had corrupted the worship of God, that the worshippers thought that they could relate to God through sacrifice in order to obtain what they wanted without the loving and compassionate heart that comes from a transformational life with God.”