Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MT 4:4
1 KINGS 12:26-32,13:33-34
My Soul's Beloved,
When we fail to trust in Your promises as Jeroboam did, we will place greater trust in our own judgment, the fruit of which will always be great sorrow, confusion, and distress. The more we turn away from You, from Your Word, and the teachings of the Church, the deeper will be the rift between ourselves and You, and the further we will drift from the Truth that saves.
Beloved, all Your promises are true. Your Word is true. We must believe in every one of Your assurances; only then can we live in childlike simplicity, looking to You to satisfy all our needs. You have no use for a divided heart with one foot in heaven and one on earth. You desire our whole self, all that makes us who we are in entirety. You poured Yourself out for love of us, and we are invited to do the same. The more we love our neighbor whom we can see for Your sake, the more we will love You whom we cannot.
When we compromise our faith and juggle our conscience to accept what is clearly a lie, we will find ourselves on the slippery slope to heartache and heartbreak. We cannot make idols of anything. Your Word is crystal clear: "The LORD God tolerates no rivals; he punishes those who oppose him. In his anger, he pays them back". Grant us the wisdom, Beloved, to trust You always, for You alone have the power to draw good from evil and through our sorrow You have the power to bring joy.
Jeroboam thought to himself, ‘As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David. If this people continues to go up to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people’s heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.’ So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, ‘You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, Israel; these brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ He set up one in Bethel and the people went in procession all the way to Dan in front of the other. He set up the temple of the high places and appointed priests from ordinary families, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast that was kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. That was how he behaved in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made; and at Bethel he put the priests of the high places he had established.
Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be. Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.
PSALM 105(106):6-7,19-22
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
PSALM 105(106):6-7,19-22
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
Our sin is the sin of our fathers;
we have done wrong, our deeds have been evil.
Our fathers when they were in Egypt
paid no heed to your wonderful deeds.
They fashioned a calf at Horeb
and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory
for the image of a bull that eats grass.
They forgot the God who was their saviour,
who had done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the land of Ham,
such marvels at the Red Sea.
we have done wrong, our deeds have been evil.
Our fathers when they were in Egypt
paid no heed to your wonderful deeds.
They fashioned a calf at Horeb
and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory
for the image of a bull that eats grass.
They forgot the God who was their saviour,
who had done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the land of Ham,
such marvels at the Red Sea.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
MARK 8:1-10
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