1 Samuel 12:10

"And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee." 1 Samuel 12:10 .

Commercial piety is the subject of this text. Men who have forsaken the Lord and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth do not seem to have come from the forbidden altar with very exalted ideas of duty. Those who serve false gods must expect to have perverted consciences. Here we find Israel actually endeavouring to bargain with God for the price of worship. If thou wilt deliver, we will serve. To us it seems incredible that the proposition could have taken this form; yet this is the very form which it takes in our own life day by day. It is often in the hope that we may gain something that we do many a religious service. Sometimes it is the hope that we may be able to stave off some calamity: sometimes it is that we may be recovered from a great affliction: sometimes it is that a child may be saved from death, or turned back from ways of rebellion and iniquity: sometimes it is that we may make sure of heaven. It is almost impossible to exclude selfishness from the action of our pious sentiments. Even when we think we have subdued self, it reappears in many an unexpected form. We may even say to ourselves that we will not contemplate any ulterior gain or advantage, and yet there may be a sub-consciousness that after all some real personal good may come of our prayer or gift or sacrifice. No man repents of his sin until he sees the sin itself in its naked and unpardonable deformity, rather than its merely penal consequences which extort a cry of regret or a promise of amendment. When the heart is given to God it must be unconditionally, with all the unreserve of love, pure and absolute. If there should be some taint of selfishness in our best endeavours, yet our desire to extinguish it will be accepted as a conquest on the part of God, who always magnifies our purposes and regards them as accomplished facts. Let that be no bargaining with heaven. Our duty is clear, whatever the result may be. Is our service of so great consequence to God that it is worth his while to deliver us from any danger or fear? Do we not over-estimate ourselves? Is there not an element of intense selfishness in this offer of service and consecration? If the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness!