Amos 4:4-5 “’Come to Bethel and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression; Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; for this you love, you children of Israel!’ says the Lord.”
Amos 5:4-6a “For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: ‘Seek Me and live; but do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live…’”
The mind of man thinks that religion is a good thing, even lesser desirable forms of religion are better than no religion at all. We put stock in our religious practices, and think our relationship with God consists of the religious things that we do. However, God detests religion as such.
Each of the locations mentioned in the above passages is a picture of an aspect of religion, even specifically the worship of the true God. However, people had begun to revere the location and look back to God’s relationship with people in the past, rather than addressing their relationship with God in the present.
These three cities even circle Jerusalem, the location of the true Temple as God desired to be worshipped. Bethel was to the north-west, Gilgal to the east, and Beersheba to the south. God is demonstrating that we can circle around true faith and relationship without actually entering into the life He has prepared for us. Let’s explore the three cities mentioned and the ways in which each represents a form of religious practice that misses the heart of true faith.
Bethel
Bethel was the center of Old Testament worship in the south of Israel, and it has significant history. This city is associated with the patriarch Jacob who rested there after cheating his brother Esau from the birthright. He fled from home, and that night was visited by God in a dream as angels ascended and descended from heaven on a ladder. God re-established the covenant with him, and promised to be with him wherever he went. (Genesis 28:15) When Jacob awoke, he renamed the place Bethel, meaning “the house or dwelling place of God.” This city was the place where God was supposed to be, where people could go to meet Him. However, Jeroboam I set up a golden calf in Bethel, appointed priests there and made it the center of a national festival (1 Kings 12:31-33). This was religion, but not the pursuit of the true God. Priests were appointed, a religious clergy was established, and offerings were made, but not according to the desires of the Lord. We, too, often look to priests and clergy to perform offerings for us. Society accepts a form of service, and religion takes on a look of religion, even celebrating national holidays and festivals. However, the focus was completely misguided. It was not the Lord who was worshipped at Bethel, for the center of the temple in this place was focused on a golden calf. Our worship can often find as its object a golden calf of some sort. We can appoint priests, celebrate special days unto our calf, but the fact remains that it is not the Lord being worshipped.
In what ways does our worship become similar to Bethel? When we remove God from the throne and place something else upon it. This could be a relationship, a career, finances, or any other aspect of life that we hold in greater reverence to God. Often times, we declare that these things are from God, and therefore hold them at a higher place of importance or value. Just as Bethel worshipped the golden calf, that very thing to which the recently liberated people of Israel ascribed the power of the Exodus, we can give authority, value and power to those things that would become the center of our worship.
Gilgal
Gilgal gained prominence at the beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land. The Israelites had been wandering for 40 years, crossed the Jordan River, they paused at Gilgal to erect a monument to their crossing and to re-consecrate themselves to the Lord (Joshua 4:19-24). Those who were born during the wanderings were circumcised and they observed the Passover here before fully entering the Promised Land (Joshua 5:1-12). It was in Gilgal that they stopped receiving manna and began to eat of the fruit and nuts of the Promised Land. The God of Gilgal was the guarantee of the promises, but Gilgal without God - religion without reality – meant nothing.
