Nothing New Under the Sun September 6, 2016

28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. 
1 Kings 18:28,29 ESV

In Ecclesiastes 1:9, the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, wrote, "What has been is, what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun."  How wise he was!

In 1 Kings we see the prophets of Baal crying out to a dead, false god to accept their sacrifice.  To vindicate their worship.  To validate their existence.  Their intensity increased.  Their frantic exhortations multiplied.  Still no response.  No fulfillment.  Nothing.

The world is no different today.  Faster and faster we are running toward false gods.  More and more we cast about looking for meaning.  Desperately searching for validation, contentment, acceptance.

In 1953, Hugh Hefner published the first Playboy magazine with Marilyn Monroe on the cover.  It sold more than 50,000 copies.  The first issue was undated because Hefner wasn't sure there would be another issue.  He needn't have worried.  At its height, Playboy sold 6,000,000 copies a month.

Now pornography is an addiction for over thousands of men and women around the world.  In just the United States alone, pornography, by some estimates, is a $13 billion dollar year industry.  (That's right "billion"!)  Twelve percent of websites, 24,644,172, are related to pornography.  2.5 billion emails a day are pornographic.

Just like the prophets of Baal, we keep upping the ante.  Pornography increases in quantity and vulgarity.  Marijuana and alcohol are replaced by meth and heroine.  In an effort to find meaning and justify existence, we cry out, slash ourselves, and destroy our lives.

No matter how loud we cry, how fast we run, how desperate we become, if we continue to pray to false gods, we will receive the same response as did the Baal prophets of old- silence.  Only entreaties to the one True God will be answered.  Our cries to Yahweh will be heard.  He will respond.  Jehovah Jireh is uniquely able to send fire from heaven.  Only He can hear and respond to our entreaties.

Today's alters are not of stone and blood but of money, power and self, but if we pray to these dead gods the construction of the alter makes no difference.  At the end of the day, silence will be the only response.