“Misguided Worship
Rejected”
"And
when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in
the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of
men." (v.11)
Here Paul
and Barnabas perform one miracle, the healing of a man lame from birth, and the
people are calling them gods. Not only that, later on in this chapter
(v.13) those same people went so far as to attempt a sacrifice to them. When
Christ, the Son of God, appeared in the likeness of man, and did many miracles,
men were far from wanting to sacrifice to Him. On the contrary, they made him a
sacrifice, claiming His miracles were done by the power of Satan.
The god
of this world (satan) is the author of confusion and can so close the carnal
mind of man to be blinded to the truth, but be willing to accept a lie. While
some servants of God might easily obtain undue honors, Paul and Barnabas did
not. They were more concerned with God's honor than their own. When the people
spoke of worshiping them they could not bear it; "they rent their clothes,
and ran in among the people, crying out, Sirs, why do you these things"
(v.15), rebuking the people for their misguided worship.
The
longer I live, the more evidence I see of how satan is the author of confusion.
One only has to watch the evening news to see that. The lines of right and
wrong have become so blurred that they fad into the policies of humanism with
no absolutes. The lack of Godly leadership in this country will be its downfall,
imploding from within – “In those days there
was no king in Israel;
everyone did what was
right in his own eyes.” (Judges
17:6, 21:25).
But be of
good cheer, for with God all things are possible. He is the answer to all that
troubles us if we would recognize our sin, repent from it, and turn to Him as
King to heal our land.
The Truth
But Jesus
looked at them and said to them,
“With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
