All throughout history and as noted in the Bible, man has had the ridiculous habit of replacement. And the insanity is that when man replaces the truth for a lie and does not get the results he expects, he gets hurt. Because it is insane to think that you can get one set of results when you replace the principles that would yield those results with a lie.
There are two paths in life; the path of truth and the path of fallacy. Why would anyone choose the path of fallacy? And if they do, why would they expect to encounter truth, love, and kindness on a road that is clearly marked with hatred, lies, and pain.
And yet, even though we are warned about these too paths as early in the Bible as the Garden of Eden, man in his arrogance, total ignorance and free will attempts to get the benefits of truth by replacing it for a lie. That’s insanity!
Let’s take a look at a few noted replacements in the Bible.
In Exodus 16, we are told how the Israelites respond like cowards in the wilderness. They wanted to replace the slavery of the Egyptian king with the love and freedom of YHWH. They preferred the harsh treatment of an evil, homicidal man over the kindness and provision of our mighty God. They chose to abandon their faith and return to the bitterness of a king whose only value for them was servitude. They did not understand that Good wanted to walk them! He wanted to prove his love for them by providing for all their needs and setting them free from the hand of the Egyptian king. God promised to take them to a land filled with milk and honey, but they wanted to replace God’s promise with pain and anguish. Insanity!
The Bible says that they had only been on their journey for two and a half months before the whole community grumbled against Moses and Arron.
They said:
“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
We must never doubt God’s love for us. We must never lose hope. God is always working all things out for our good. Just because we have not seen his work in our lives yet, we must consider that it is most likely just around the bend if we hold fast to our faith. When we find ourselves in the wilderness, that is to say illness, financial woes, relationship troubles, this is the perfect time to live with expectation that God is who he says he is and that he can and will do what he promised. This is our opportunity to test our faith. YHWH has promised that if we put our trust in him, we will have the victory. In Psalm 25, David proclaims:
In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust.
I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame.
Psalm 25: 1-3a
possibly expect to replace a metal, man-made image with the Glory of YHWH, our LORD MOST HIGH! What benefits could they possibly expect? They fashioned it with inanimate objects with their own hands. Can man create a god! I think not! Insanity!
I have often heard it said, “We have free will.” That is true, but is it really free. Let’s take a look at that. We can use our free will to follow a loving God, or we can be free to suffer the pain of following the ways of this world and the habits of sinful man. Yes, free will indeed. I guess that’s what happened in the Book of Judges which demonstrates an insane cycle of sin and deliverance. This is a book worth studying. And when you do, you will that 12 times, the children abandoned their faith and refused to follow the Laws of YHWH. They chose to follow in the way of heathens that inhabited the land. They were influenced to worship idols, and participate in great violence which only lead to destruction and utter chaos. Then when the fire got to hot, they cried out to the LORD and he sent a Judge to restore order. The insanity here is that it happened 12 times between the death of Joshua and the first king of Israel, Saul.
The way King Saul was enthroned is another instance where the chosen children rejected God, regardless of his warnings, and insisted on having a king to rule them. YHWH, only wanting the very best for them warned them of how a human king would treat them. But they disregarded his warning and were determined to replace YHWH as their Sovereign King for a man king. God’s warning was straight forward and we see are still witnessing the results today. Take a look and you will see many of the conditions noted here as traits of the rulers of our day.
God said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights:
He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
1Samuel 8:11-18
Are we not seeing similar results today? Are not the leaders of this world swallowing and hording the wealth and leaving the majority of people in dire need and poverty? Today, the income distribution has a larger gap than it has ever experienced in the history of man, leaving us with global inequality. Are you aware that 1% of the world population enjoys 44% of the wealth and 99% of us have to share the other 46%? Check it out for yourself (https://inequality.org/facts/global-inequality/).
This is the result of replacing YHWH with a man king.
These are just a few of the Biblical accounts of how people replace the truth for a lie and how we are living with those results today. But in the end, those who have replaced truth for lies will beg to be accepted back into the fold of YHWH. Amazing. How many times must man bang his head on a brick wall until he realizes that God has provided a door of escape that leads to him.
The real insanity is that we who are living today, and those who I have encountered in my lifetime, including ME at some point, believe that we can straddle the fence and get the so-called “best of both worlds.” That’s impossible and anyone who says it is possible is a liar.
The results we get in life is totally dependent on who we choose to listen to and who we choose to believe. The Bible tells that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). We must choose one or the other. God makes this an easy choice for us because the Bible gives a clear view of our options. Are you aware that God actually describes himself in the Bible? And he describes the nature of Satan also. He did this so that we could make a comparison and then make an intelligent choice of whom they will follow.
How God
Describes Himself
Genesis 34:6-7
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
How God
Describes Satan
John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
And the most intelligent choice would be…?
Right now, we are all witnessing the insanity and chaos of a world that is still trying to replace God and his will, way and laws. God’s love is being replaced by every vile and evil thing that many would describe as enjoyable. In an attempt to find happiness, people follow the blind into disorder, confusion, and turmoil.
No one can replace a woman with a man and call him a wife. No one can replace drug dealing with a job and call it a career. No one can hate their neighbor and say they are a loving person. No one can treat another human being in a harsh way and expect to receive kindness. No one can abandon their children and live a peaceful life. No one can steal and consider it getting ahead. And on, and on, and on. But people can repent! People can turn and stop living the lie that tries to replace the things of this world with the Kingdom of YHWH.
We cannot replace the Kingdom of YHWY with anything. That is insanity! The act of any attempt to compare or replace YHWH in any way is insanity. It is an impossible undertaking and will lead to hurt, pain, and destruction – if not today, someday. It’s not about if the bitterness of insanity will reveal its evil face, it’s about when. It is inevitable.
We serve a loving King, who sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to serve as an example of all that is true and loving and good. To choose any other path is to be insanely self-destructive. Replacement is insanity.
We have to make a choice, just like Adam and Eve had to make a choice. And what did they choose? They chose to put their faith in the hands of the father of lies. And the result…banishment from the Garden.
This is the first example God documented for us to learn from, and thousands of years later, many are still making the same mistake. Generation after generation and the lesson still has not been learned. There is one God, one creator and ruler over all, one truth.
If there is any truth in any of us, then there is hope. The love of YHWH continues to open the door for any who will knock. But God will not wait forever! His wrath will eventually tear a hole into every lie and reveal its “dark truth” for everyone to see. Yes, every liar and sinner will be revealed and the punishment will be death. Stop the madness of insanity and follow truth.
