One God
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone."  Deuteronomy 6:4 NRSV

It was a 'Google moment': a single idea that changed the whole world.  Life would never be the same again.  Every culture that covered the face of the earth had then - as today - a deep need for spiritual peace, security and fulfillment. Life is complex - there are hundreds of important things.  Some material, some emotional, some invisible.  But any one of them could go wrong and wreck life. It stood - sorry, stands to reason - that every thing is under the control of a god. There is a god of the sun, a god for the night and moon. a god for the stars. another god for the sea, another god for the soil. A god for the cattle and another for the crops. One god of fertility and health and another for sickness and death. So many gods!  So many gods to appease and please!  If we neglect any one of them, well, disaster may befall us.  The crops may fail, the river might flood, sickness might come, of we might not have any children.
What is more, there is no telling what any one god may do.  Each god is fickle and unpredictable!  Who knows what any one god requires of me?  Only chance and experimentation can tell.  Even if we figure it out today - tomorrow it may change. The priests guide us but each god is different and constantly changes. It's exhausting, debilitating and soul-breaking.  We live on our nerves edge the whole time - constantly afraid like an animal in the woods.

The people of Abraham - the Israelites - come telling us of bizarre news - hard to get our heads around.  They tell us that there is only one God - that this one God is in control of everything - all at the same time.  One God controls the seasons, summer sun and heat, winter rain and floods; tides and weather; fertility, life and death.  Can it be!  How amazing would that be!  As if that wasn't mind-blowing enough, the Israelites tell us that this God - YHWH - doesn't change: He stays the same every moment of every day or every year of every age.  Staggering there is more:  That this one, unchanging God - YHWH - (I think they pronounce it Yahweh) is as plain as day about what he wants from us.  He makes it simple and understandable.  He has even inspired their leader - Moses - to write it down on tablets of stone - so there is no mistake.  No god was every this plain to understand!

How many gods do you have today?  Or let me ask that another way: how many influences do you allow to drive your thoughts and actions, ambitions, plans and expectations?  Do you have the One True God?  Are you living His plan, His way?

Hear O Journey Church, The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.