“When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker.” Acts of the Apostles 14:11-12 NLT
I’m kind of chuckling as I read this Scripture. When the crowd saw that Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form. They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and Paul was her. Hermes since he was the chief speaker.”
Can you imagine being up in front of a group of people talking about Jesus and God and then they start yelling out that you are god in human form and you are Zeus and you are Hermes I can’t even imagine how Paul and Barnabas felt as they were doing this. I think why the people craved a “god” is that in our spiritual DNA, we have the desire and the need to worship. I think that’s in us.
But the problem is, if we decide to worship something other than God, everything goes crazy. And, I mean, here they are in New Testament times and they’re wanting to worship Barnabas and Paul as Zeus and Hermes. Back on the mountain of Sinai, when Moses didn’t come back down the mountain fast enough, the Israelites wanted something to worship too. So they told Aaron to create a golden calf so they could worship it.
I think we inherently have a need to worship. It is built into us to seek Jesus. But the problem is, if we don’t have our worship focused on God, we start worshiping all sorts of other little things and other people and stuff.
Honestly, I can make anything an idol, a little “g” god. We can make our phones. We can make our kids. We can make… Hollywood stars, boy bands or a boyfriend or etc. Anything we can make absolutely anything into a little god.
And we do that because God put in our hearts a desire to worship Him. But we often look to anything else, but Him. I think this is kind of what was happening here in these Scripture verses. They were passionate about what Paul was talking about, but they totally missed the point that he was trying to show them God and Jesus. Instead they defaulted to their little g gods Zeus and Hermes.
Bottom line is this: when we feel the need to worship something, someone. We need to turn our eyes on Jesus and know that only He can fill that worship need and desire we have in our spiritual DNA. Only He is to be worshiped.
That’s where my mind went when I read this scripture today.
Until next time with Jesus’ help let’s be less messy and choose what’s better.