Who do you worship?

In church we are studying the book of Daniel which is one of my favorite books in the Bible. This is the book where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the furnace lit 7 times hotter than normal. This is also the book where Daniel was thrown in the lions den. This is the book where a disembodied hand writes on the wall pronouncing judgment over a king.

Even though it is my favorite book, I am still learning from it - I love how God can do that! You know, show you something new each time.

To set this up, I need to give you a very, very condensed version of one of the stories.

So in Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzer has a dream that he wants interpreted because he can't sleep, but he doesn't want to tell what the dream is. Daniel and his friends pray and God tells Daniel about the dream and what it means. Daniel then tells the king what his dream is and what it means. The king is mighty impressed and makes Daniel a VIP.

Here is something I never noticed, Daniel 2:46 "Then King Nebuchadnezzer threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him." Daniel had given all the credit to God but Nebuchadnezzer worshiped Daniel.

So we were discussing this in our class and someone mentioned how stupid Nebuchadnezzer was to worship the wrong one. Instead of worshiping the Most High God, he worships the messenger. But he wasn't the only one who did this.

It is human nature! We want someone with skin or something we can see to worship. For example, when Moses died, he was buried by God (or the angels) so that no one could worship him. You might think that is a bit extreme but if you consider all the "holy relics" of the middle ages - splinters off the cross, etc - you might realize that it probably would have happened.

And what about today? We aren't really any better. A popular pastor says something that is contrary to God's word and we would prefer to believe the pastor. Or almost as bad, we never look to see if he is correct.

Is that not a form of worship? The only infallible human to have ever walked the earth was Jesus, the rest of us - pastors and priests included - mess up daily.

Please read the Bible for yourself, double check what you are being taught.

I am very blessed to have a pastor that is very open to correction. If you can show him in the Bible where he is wrong, he admits it. He says he is only right 80-90% of the time, and that it is our job to figure out where he is wrong.

Some are not like that, they want to be who you trust. They remind me of the abusive spouse/boyfriend, the first thing they do is isolate you from what can tell you the truth.

If you are told that you are too stupid to read and understand God's word, you have been lied to.

If you have been told to blindly trust your preacher because they know God's word better, you are being told to worship a man.

Unfortunately, it is much easier to worship a man, especially when he is saying what you want to hear.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4 New International Version)

Who do you worship? The one true living God who made the heavens and the earth or someone who is a fallible human.