No Trade is Worth God

Jeremiah 2:5 – “Thus says the LORD: ‘What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?’”

In the ancient past, although currency was used in some cultures, most people followed the bartering system.  In the bartering system, a person would trade something that he had for something that he wanted or needed.  For example, if I were a farmer of potatoes and my neighbor a cattle rancher, I would trade him a few sacks of potatoes for a cut of his meat.  This type of trading would go on quite often, whether it was with food or goods.  Nowadays, we do not see bartering happen as much unless your part of a collectible gaming community or watch a ton of Pawn Stars.  I personally am a huge fan of collectible card and figurine games, so I barter (or what we call trade) a lot.  The most important rule in trading though is that you receive the same if not more value for what you trade off.  So if I owned something that is worth $10, I would not trade it for anything less than that value.  Unfortunately, there are times when you make mistakes on the value you give to something, pricing it a lot lower than its actual value; at those times, you feel like the seller at a garage sale, accidentally selling a Monet or Picasso for a measly $5.  For those who are fans of Pawn Stars, you see this happen almost all the time – a person comes in with something worth thousands of dollars like a signed letter by George Washington, and instead of sticking to their guns and pushing for more cash, they sell it off for only 30-50% of its value.  They make bad deals.

In our passage today, God directed an important question about the deal that Israel constantly made when they turned from worshipping Him to idols, “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”  He was basically asking them to evaluate whether they made a good deal or not – whether trading Him for something of less value, something in the scope of eternity was useless was a good deal?  In the book of Jeremiah, God pronounced judgment on the people of Israel for their constant idolatry.  Over and over again, God constantly blessed Israel, but in return, they would turn from Him and toward idols of other nations.  Just look at the book of Judges, and you can see the cycle of sin that Israel went through – idolatry then punishment then sorrow and crying out to God then merciful deliverance from God and back again.  The Israelites failed to realize the great gift that was right in front of them, the gift of having God be their own personal God.  They refused to acknowledge the precious love of God for them, the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt, who provided for them in the desert, who conquered the land of Canaan for them.  Instead, they would rather have gold, silver, precious stones, and things that would not last.  They would rather worship the creature than the Creator.  They did not treasure their greatest gift; they traded Him for false gods.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must be alert that our hearts are not like that of the Israelites who traded God for something worthless.  So often, we get caught up in the things and activities of this world that we allow it to distract our devotion from Christ and onto objects of the earth.  We become like the soil in which the seed of the Word of God was choked upon by the thorns of the cares of this world, which in the end yielded little fruit (Matthew 13).  We can trade God for anything.  It needn’t be the common pitfalls of money, houses, or cars; we could be trading our Lord for something good like love or family or even ministry.  Instead of devoting our lives and times to building His kingdom and our personal relationship with Him, we seek to just fill our lives with activities.  That is the wrong attitude.  That is us trading God for something worthless in the end.  That is us trading Him for treasures on earth which can easily be devoured by moths or stolen by thieves.  We trade Him every time we choose to watch TV instead of spending time in His Word?  We trade Him every time we choose to sleep in instead of worshipping Him at church.  We trade Him whenever we are more concerned about what people think of us than sharing the Gospel with them.  We as disciples must instead treasure our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him.  We must lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal.  We must have our hearts fully devoted to loving and serving Christ, never ever trading Him.

Our God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us.  He loved us so much that He called us to a personal relationship with Him.  He loves us so much that He calls us to come boldly to His throne of grace.  If we truly understand, the treasure that we have in this opportunity to have a personal growing relationship with the God of the universe, how can we not but keep our eyes on something that worthwhile?  How can we trade Him for anything else?  Nothing compares to God.  Nothing can even come close to His worth.  Examine your life today.  See if you are trading God for something worthless?  Are you trading your time with Him to pursue something in this world?  If your answer was “Yes,” then stop immediately and return to God again.  No trade is worth God.

For those of you, who like to meditate and think on song, please look over these lyrics by Rhea Miller, she definitely nailed it in the hymn, “I’d rather have Jesus” http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Id_Rather_Have_Jesus/:

1. I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
   I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
   I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
   I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

• Refrain:
  Than to be the king of a vast domain
  And be held in sin’s dread sway;
  I’d rather have Jesus than anything
  This world affords today.

1. I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
   I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
   I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
   I’d rather be true to His holy name
2. He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
   He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
   He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
   I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead

You Could also hear George Beverly Shea, sing it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9f8zhTwIg