Identifying Stumbling Blocks

By Dean Collins

It happens to everyone at some point along the way. You may be working on an important project at work, trying to repair, build, or make something at home, or it might be your exercise goals. Then, suddenly, something gets in the way, trips you up, becomes an obstacle. These stumbling blocks come to all of us. Usually, we dust ourselves off, get up, and get back to work with our plans.  The stumbling block was inconvenient but not fatal.

In the context of our relationship with God, there are things we need to be careful about because they can interrupt or even negate our faith-walk. The prophet Ezekiel makes it clear that even our spiritual leaders can make choices that create stumbling blocks to hearing from and following God and partnering with him in his kingdom work. 

Ezekiel wrote during the Babylonian captivity. In chapter 13, the prophet shared that certain elders came to him and sat down to talk. There was nothing particularly strange about the elders of Israel wanting to talk with God’s prophet. In fact, that would normally be a good thing for us to want to hear from the Lord, right? But God gave Ezekiel a heads up concerning the condition of their hearts and their sincerity in truly following God. 

These spiritual leaders had incorporated idols into their worship of God. Maybe it was the stress of captivity. Maybe it came from the neglect of worship and prayer. Maybe it was listening to what those in Babylon believed concerning other gods. But sadly, certain elders who knew better ignored God’s commandment to not have or place another god before him. Ezekiel quoted the Lord’s message to him: “These men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces.”

 God is to be our highest and greatest focus. Yet how often do we make the same mistake as the elders of Israel and give into other things, ideologies, and priorities as more important than God. How and when are we tempted to trust and place our hope in education, economics, or politics as our priorities and sources of salvation?

It may be a hard question, but it is an important one to ask ourselves. Have we watered down our faith in God and drifted toward thinking a political party or candidate can save us? Before we laugh at that suggestion, we might ask ourselves if our political leanings are bringing us into a deeper confidence in God. Is the time we spend listening to various candidates causing us to love others more? 

God desires to be the center of our lives, and he has demonstrated to us that he made us his number one priority when he sent his son to die for us, making the payment for our sins. The elders of Israel thought they could have a little of this and a little of that in their worship, but God called them out, saying that their idols had become their stumbling block to their devotion to God.

If we find ourselves trusting anything as our hope for the future and for our salvation, then it is time to go to the Lord in a prayer of repentance. One of the beautiful things about scripture and prayer is that when we meditate and pray over God’s word, he will reveal where we have placed other things above him. When God reveals this to us, he gives us the opportunity to repent, seek forgiveness, and refocus our lives and our faith in Jesus. 

The problem of idol worship wasn’t just an Old Testament problem. The apostle John wrote to Christians who had allowed their faith in Jesus to become watered down by various ideologies in their culture. He called them to turn from their sins and trust Jesus alone as their source of life. His last words in his letter called 1 John says this:

 “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

The word of God is living and active and speaks to us today with the same message.

Father, forgive us for allowing other things to get mixed into our faith. Today we confess that you and you alone are our God and our source of life and hope. Guide us by your Holy Spirit and your word so that we can identify the subtle ways the enemy tricks us and deceives us to thinking that anything is more important than you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 Your Time with God’s Word
Ezekiel 14:1-11; 1 John 5:18-21 ESV

Photo by Michael Shannon on Unsplash
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