We all have our Ashtoreth. John Macduff, Brief Thoughts
for the Followers of Jesus, 1855 And I said, this is my infirmity,
Psalm 77, 10. The best of men are but men at
best. We all have many remaining corruptions. We are all encompassed, like
the high priests of old, with many infirmities. And what effect
should the consideration of this humiliating but undoubted truth
produce? Ought it not, among other results,
to excite in us a spirit of constant watchfulness? We are frail creatures
ever liable to fall, and being exposed in addition to the wiles
of our spiritual adversaries, our danger is considerably greater. It is on our indwelling corruptions
that Satan works, and often, alas, with sad success. In addition to our general infirmities,
it is probable that there is some one or more besetting sins
to which we are particularly liable, in which case it befits
us to be doubly on our guard. If you are returning to the Lord
with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods
and the Ashtoreths, and commit yourselves to the Lord, and serve
him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."
1 Samuel 7.3. Samuel exhorts them to rid themselves
of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths. But was not Ashtoreth one of
the many idols, an idol like all the rest? Would not one specification
therefore do for all? It appears not. And why? It was because Ashtoreth was
their favourite idol, after whom they were specially liable to
go, so that while they were to put away all their foreign gods,
they were to put away their Ashtoreths in particular. And just so with
us, we all have our Ashtoreth, of whom by reason of, the temper
of our minds, or the constitution of our bodies, or our circumstances
in life, we are in especial danger. And while we are to be on our
guard against every sin, Our spiritual forces must be mustered
against this besetting sin with more than ordinary energy and
decision. We are to lay aside every weight
and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Compassed about, then, as we
are, with infirmities, some of a more special and others of
a more general nature, we should continually be on our watch-tower. Let us never dream that we are
free from danger, for when we imagine that there is the least
danger, there may be the greatest. Reader, remember therefore, and
that continually, the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.