Could we abandon God when he relies upon us?

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/081919.cfm
Judges 2:11-19
Matthew 19:16-22

If we abandon God and then serve, follow and worship other gods then we provoke him, says the writer of the second chapter of the book of Judges. No kidding. It sounds like a rather likely response from God, doesn’t it?

The important part of this provoking perambulation, however, relies upon the beginning step. We abandon God. We can’t abandon a God we don’t know. So, for those who don’t know the one, true God, then this provoking recipe of serving other gods doesn’t actually render the same reaction from the creator. Other places in scripture provide God’s emotional reaction to those who don’t know him, which is the subject of another reflection. This reflection centers specifically on folks who know God and then turn away. No, more than turn away. Those folks who abandon God for other gods.

I’m pretty sure that those in the know get a rougher treatment than those who are ignorant of following the true God. That just makes sense. 

For instance, once you’re introduced to someone quite important life suddenly plays out on a different stage. Important people exact more influence in all kinds of ways. Buddy up to a person of position and power, who then invites you into their circle and showers you with gifts and prestige, and you’ve entered a rarified atmosphere. While powerful folks may have access to amenities we may want to enjoy, we must not forget that their power-center separates them from us. Expect anything from banishment to ridicule if you damage your relationship to a powerful person. Especially abandoning a powerful friend in their time of need, when they depend on you, such an insult will provoke them to hurt you.

Yes, we’re discussing abandoning God here. God would not wield his power with revenge like a human would. Right? Correct. God will be merciful, eventually. Don’t expect, though, that God won’t exact a very specific form of attention-getting divinity to fit each of our individual lives. Again, we’re only talking here about God’s behavior with us when we have known his love, his care, his salvific nature, and then left God to serve, follow, and worship another god.

It’s one thing to be rude to a uniformed person who tells you to go back to the starting point of a long waiting line because you’ve complained too loudly about the delay. It’s another thing to be rude to your mom, or your grandpa and throw your plate of food at them when they tell you to eat your vegetables. The person managing a long waiting line doesn’t know you from a can of paint. Your parents or grandparents have gone to great lengths to make your life easier by meeting your needs at the expense of themselves. They’re going to be devastated by your cruelty. Even if you’re only 9 months old. 

Our relationships to our caretakers supersedes all other relationships. These are people who deserve respect. When they need us we’d better step up. 

Does God need us? Does God depend upon us? God can do whatever he wants, so no. God doesn’t really need us. In his design of our world, and his desire to dwell in us and draw him to be like him, however, God has chosen most dramatically to rely upon us to be collaborators in creation, and even in heaven. Think about the fact we’re co-creators of humans. He’s made it a requirement that we join in the very population of the creatures in his image. His plans for us in the next life with him will be even more reliant.

To complain at people keeping us in line and to purposely make their lives miserable shows very bad form. If we mess up and act in that way, however, the penalty results from a low level infraction. We just get put at the back of a long line. It’s a rather ugly experience, but it’s probably over within a few minutes. Our grandpa, however, might tie us to a chair if we get violent with him. He might even change his mind about us altogether and start treating us like a criminal. Worse, abandon your grandpa in his time of need (which is actually worse than childish outbursts) and he might stop loving us. Banishment is an appropriate response. Grandpas, though, are usually very forgiving.

God is not a low level person of power. In fact, there’s nobody more important and more powerful than God. God is like the super grandpa of grandpas. He is the Father that has all the answers and would even send his son to be our brother, and then go so far as to die for our salvation. God’s at the pinnacle of all relationships. He holds our life, literally, in his hands. No one is more forgiving.

What were the Israelites in Judges thinking when they “abandoned” God for other gods? In what universe does that make any sense? God had done so many great things for them. Who would do this?

I think we can imagine what got into their thinking which led to following, serving and worshipping other gods. We have our gods, too. We have elevated money into a god if we think about it all the time. We’ve made our reputation into a god if we’re constantly fine-tuning how other people perceive us. We can make our intellect a god, too. We can be all in making sure we’re the smartest person in the room, the one with the clever retort, the one with the keen eye on what’s going on in the world. 

If we don’t know the true God, though, we can’t abandon him. The gods of money, reputation and intellect are simply handy choices -- momentary gods. People who don’t know the true God are simply living in ignorance.

Those of us who know God, however, can easily identify the gods we have put in place before God. We know about food, and drugs, and competitive arenas that drive us; and subsequently lead us to abandon the God we have earlier decided to follow. Few of us are perfect, doing everything that God wants us to do. Everyone falls into the support of gods who serve our beck and call, rather than serve and follow the true God. 

We can surely rely upon God to take us back. We can be cruel at a level beyond the worst behavior with God. He’ll still love us.

It’s not that such behavior can be forgiven, though, that should give us pause. It’s that God needs us so badly that the world depends on our cooperation with God. God is pained greatly by our abandonment for other gods.

This is the story in Judges that should turn our hearts around. This is the story in Matthew that surely made the young man so sad. The gods we have built into our support for everything we do will displace the true God who relies upon us.

If we know this God, we will return to him. The more we become like God, the more we will cooperate with God. 

And, the incredible truth is that God relies upon us to witness to those ignorant of him. We are essential in pointing others to God. He needs them. He desires them to be his. This is where God's desire and ours meet up with all seriousness. Who do we know that God loves, but does not yet love him? How does he want us to witness? Not, how do we want to witness. It's not about us. It's about us, as the body of believers, and God witnessing to those he wants to belong to him. We all grow closer to God together.