What a thought it must have been for the Jews--all these people have
their gods, but they are all wrong. We have the RIGHT God; the only
true God. They are the people of this god, or of that; we are the
people of the one true God. They look to many gods; we look to the
one God, who made all things, and beside whom there is none else.
They look to one god to bless them in one thing, and another in
another; one to send them sunshine, one to send them fruitful
seasons, one to prosper their crops, another their flocks and herds,
and so forth. We look to one God to do all these things for us,
because he is Lord of all at once, and has made all.
Therefore we need not fear the gods of the heathen, or cry to any of
them, even in our utmost distress; for we belong to him who is
before all gods, the God of gods, of whom it is written, 'Worship
him, all ye gods;' and 'It is the Lord who made the heaven and the
earth, the sea and all that therein is. Him only shalt thou
worship, and him only shalt thou serve.' If we obey him, and keep
his commandments; if we trust in him, utterly, through good fortune
and through bad--then we must prosper in peace and war, we and our
children after us; because our prosperity is grounded on the real
truth, and that of the heathen on a lie; and all that the heathen
expect their false gods to do for them, one here and another there,
all that, the one real God will do for us, himself alone.
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