Wonder of God
What a description of people's response to Simon the sorcerer. In verse Acts 8:10, we read, "They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'The man is the power of God that is called Great.'" Man's recognition of great power with awe and wonder towards the supernatural is part of what it means to be human. One could argue that affinity with the supernatural is a product of the imago dei with which we were all created.
Now if we were to profit from any lessons from the Old Testament, it would be mankind's potential of allowing rightly-ordered desires to turn into idolatry of the highest order. Moses went up to Mt. Sanai to visit with God, and when he returned, the Israelites had created a golden calf to worship (Exodus 32). God commanded the Israelites to be his consecrated and holy people that were separate from the surrounding nations, and yet time and time again, they would intermarry with foreign people and adopt their foreign gods (Deuteronomy 29:26, Judges 2:11-19).
The lesson is simple - we were made to worship, but when our God-ordained desire to worship is tainted with sin, idolatry becomes the order of the day. Today, we may not worship golden calves and other foreign gods. However, our affections are often divided amongst many worldly things, from personal possessions to money to jobs, and yes, even other people. We idolize celebrities…we idolize spouses…we even idolize our children. An idol is simply something or someone that receives our attention and affections that are due God.
The people in Samaria were clearly captivated by the magical works of Simon. They were likely seeing things in Simon that they had either never seen before, or that they had attributed with the divine, and were now recognizing as intrinsic to Simon. However, they were simply falling into the trap that Paul addresses in Romans 1:21-25, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, but they became futile in their thinking…they exchanged the truth of about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."
The Advent season is a reminder that only one is worthy of our worshipful attention and affections and actually deserves to be called 'Great.' The decorations, the festivities, the presents and parties - they're all good things. But know that the enemy will seek to use good things to distract us from what is truly great. He will take our rightly ordered affections and turn them towards the creation, as opposed to the Creator. Jesus alone is worthy of our undivided attention, for he alone displays the power of God because he is truly great!
Therefore, on this eve of Christmas, we are invited to take the opportunity to embrace all the festivities as reminders of who we are celebrating - not the created order, but the Creator Himself. Take some time today to reflect on the stories, listen to the carols, commune with God and His people, and be intentional with keeping Jesus at the center of it all!