Choosing Which Gods to Worship

Choosing Which Gods to Worship

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

            The other morning my wife was trying to turn left onto a busy street.  Suddenly, the traffic parted and she had an easy time making the turn.  Because I have a tendency to be a smart aleck (my friends would be shocked to hear this!), I said, “The traffic gods are with you.”

            There was a time—not so very long ago in the overall scheme of things—when that was what humans believed.  Whatever happened—good, bad, evil, blessed—was attributed to the gods, either the gods responsible for that particular function, or the gods of that particular place.

            Gods had specific functions.  In Greek mythology Apollo was the god of the sun, and drove his chariot across the sky each day.  In Norse legends Thor was the god of lightning, and hurled his thunderbolts whenever he was a little upset.  Other cultures had other names for the gods who ruled a particular sphere of life, but every culture had its panoply of divine beings who made things happen—or didn’t make things happen if the whim took them.

            Certain places were sacred to specific gods or goddesses.  Paul ran into this problem when he visited Ephesus, the location of the temple of Diana.  When he began preaching about a God by the name of Jesus Christ, those who sold items associated with the worship of Diana rioted and tried to do away with him.

            If my people went to war against your people, and my people won, it was assumed that my gods were stronger than your gods.  You would put your gods aside and worship mine.  After all, why would you continue to worship weak gods who were unable to protect you against your enemies?  It wouldn’t matter that my army of 10,000 was better trained and equipped than your army of 7,000.  That, too was a gift from my gods.  Worshiping my gods would bring your people the same benefits—to say nothing of a strong ally.

            Primitive people believed gods resided in elements of nature.  Rivers, streams, trees, and especially mountains were homes of gods and therefore to be respected and worshiped.  Native American and African indigenous religions hold certain rivers and mountains to be sacred.  Perhaps those of us who have a more sophisticated outlook on life could learn from these primitive peoples how sacred our environment is, and how much we should respect our rivers, trees, mountains and streams.

Into this multiplicity of religions, each with its plethora of gods, came a new idea:  one God, responsible for all things; a God who created the cosmos and everything in it; a God who not only created but who loved the creation; a God who cared for and provided for all creatures. 

What a radical idea!  No longer did humanity have to worry about offending this god or that god while trying to appease some other god.  No longer did people have to keep track of which god to turn to for which cause.  No longer did nations have to try to figure out which set of gods would do them the most good. 

When Abraham journeyed from Haran to Canaan at God’s command he started something new.  Later, his descendants traveled to Egypt to escape a famine, only to eventually become slaves in their adopted homeland.  Still later, God called upon another of Abraham’s descendants to lead the people to freedom and back to Canaan.  As they approached the Promised Land, Moses gave the Israelites his final words of instruction.  He reminded them of the commandments God had given them in the wilderness.  Then he told them that one commandment stood above all the rest.

“Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

That’s easy to keep track of.