So, it occurs to me that God has disadvantaged Himself. In the ever competing market for people’s deity attachment, God has left out of His “marketing plan” a tried and true tactic which has won a ton of “business” for other deities over the millennia. It occurs to me that we people tend to like clinging to a physical god . . . and that we have a tough time with an invisible god . . . that we’re kind of fickle when it comes to remembering a god of power . . . but gravitate to gods of visible presence. Here’s what’s got me thinking this . . .

And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel . . . And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years . . . And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that He had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. (Judges 2:7-12 ESV)

The wars were over . . . the land had been moved into . . . the generation which had conquered the land had been buried in that land. And now, there was a people one generation removed from the miracle of Jericho . . . a nation that had grown up in the cities, not remembering the “moving in” days when they took up residence in these cities and villages they had not built . . . clans of Israelites that had only known eating from their “own” vineyards and orchards and not knowing what manna was. A generation had grown up who had no personal encounter with the presence and power of the God of heaven.

So, you have a generation living out, literally, the promises of God . . . the reality of those promises all around them. But, it’s a generation which needs to rely on faith rather than fresh revelation. A people who need to read and believe and obey the ancient writings rather than see God’s mighty hand displayed repeatedly in parted seas and falling walls. Enter the “unfair competition” . . . their neighbors had idols . . . physical, tangible, pick ’em up and take ’em home with you graven images.

They were no gods . . . Jehovah the one and only God. They had no power . . . unlike Almighty God. They had no ability to care for people, instead capable only of being a vehicle for destructive spirits to draw in sheep for slaughter . . . unlike Jehovah, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34. 6-7a). But you could see them . . . handle them . . . bow before them. God, on the hand, had said, “No images” . . . believe and it will be counted as righteousness (Genesis 15:6) . . . for the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11, Heb. 10:38) . . . for without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 1:6) . . . for we walk by faith not by sight (2Cor. 5:7).

Faith versus facade . . . puts a bit of pressure on one generation to pass it on to the next

God’s left His “marketing” to me . . . to my generation . . . to pass on to the next. His reality isn’t found in some graven idol, but in the testimony of sinners saved by grace and the realities of lives lived through, and for, the unseen Jesus. We who once were lost, but now are found have been left with telling the old, old story to a brand new generation. While whether or not “it takes” is a work of grace and the Spirit, I need to be faithful in passing the faith along.

God’s left Himself “disadvantaged” . . . leveraging jars of clay rather than idols of gold to show that the surpassing power is of God and not of us (2Cor. 4:6). But mine is to bear the treasure to the next generation . . . for the glory of God . . . amen?