God says, “I carry you.”

What’s so bad about lesser gods?

There aren’t any.

Why does God want your attention? to make you righteous? yes, certainly. But, this world is full of trouble and God wants to help you.

He says in the book of Isaiah through the prophet Isaiah in the 46th chapter about idols:

“their idols are borne by beasts of burden… a burden for the weary… unable to rescue the burden” NIV

He’s talking about the figurines carried in pockets, which people give to but can never receive from. Conversely, he says about himself in the next passage:

“[I] have carried you since you were born. Even in your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I sustain you and I rescue you.”

Emphasis added to bring your attention to this perspective that God is comparing himself to the little pocket gods to set us free from what they extort from us.

God, is not the demanding and unsatisfiable beast we’re told he is by people who don’t follow him, but extort in his name. Extortion in God’s name in as old as mankind. The only God that has power made you with the intent to carry your needs and sustain you. He hates when the weary have their burden increased.

God Almighty made us to learn through example. So, he behaves in the way he intends for us to behave. And, on the seventh day he rested. Ignoring the length of time God’s snapshot of creation came to his prophet of old, later to be written, likely, by Moses while in the wilderness leading the Israelites out of Egypt, the point is he rested a whole day so that he would protect our right to rest.

He is sovereign over all things. His plan is good.

God spoke through Moses to set the Israelites free from slavery to Egypt. He spoke through Moses in the wilderness to set the Israelites free from of the the gods of Egypt that can’t help them. Although Israel never made a great work of following God and so failed to be the example to the world of what God’s way looks like: prosperity, rest, abundance and peace, with lots of joyous festivals, God Almighty is still their God, and so they are an example of his grace and his merit to make a vow and keep it.

He wants us restored to freedom, peace, and life.

Christ said, “The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10.)

Similarly, while Christ’s church in the U.S. struggles to exhibit the fullness of what God’s grace looks like, Jesus is still their husband. It’s not about the people who struggle to focus on the God their supposed to serve. It’s about the God himself. God is good. God is safe. God is able. God is worthy to be trusted, even when choosing to follow him sets us apart from the cool kids.