Righteousness in Ruins
Deuteronomy 12:29-31
“When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, … take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.”
When man’s innate tribalism isn’t leading him to disregard other cultures as inferior, thinking his own norms and traditions and wisdom the best of all, it often goes the opposite way, causing him to cynically disregard his own upbringing and seek wisdom elsewhere, believing foreign and more exotic practices to be superior to traditional ones. That’s part of the reason so many Anglo-European politicians have recently identified as Native American or African, and why, every June, during ‘Pride Month,’ a raft of celebrities and influencers ‘come out’ as gay or bisexual or trans, and why words like ‘Namaste’ and ‘Karma’ are common vernacular in society these days. The grass is always greener on the other side.
My wife and I have been watching a documentary series that explores diverse ancient sites like Machu Pichu and Stonehenge and Easter Island, chronicling the tireless work of archeologists and researchers and metallurgists to uncover the secrets that lie buried beneath the ruins, ascertaining from the glorious but illusive architectural megaliths that the ancients must’ve tapped into mysteries of the universe we moderns have no concept of, that they must’ve read the stars better, or harnessed energies from earth’s fault lines, or found portals in outer space, and if we just keep digging a little deeper we’ll have all the answers too. That is, if we could just crack the codes of these ruined temples, if we could just find the ingredients to their rituals, we’d be so much wiser for it! Evidently, words from an incarnate LORD, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” aren’t exotic enough. They’re too close to home. Too easy. So, men find it far more compelling to search for life’s meaning in secret, hidden tombs, rather than empty ones.
“There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” according to Acts 4:11-12. So friend, keep proclaiming Jesus to your lost world, even if He’s no longer fashionable!