Idol Worship
January 24, 2010 – Pastor Mary Scheer
Exodus 20: 2-6
This last Tuesday, the tv show, American Idol started again. I remember watching the previews for the show that first season and pausing at the title “American Idol,” It struck a nerve in me that rattled around somewhere in my brain causing discomfort…but then, I watched the show and got hooked. It dawned on me one day that I was no longer uncomfortable with the show having the word idol in its name. And that got me thinking about the subtle nature of idols & idolatry.
Idols and idol worship have been around as long as people. And God has been talking to us about it for just as long. When he began to form Israel into a nation, he laid down ground rules for their and our relationship with him.
With a strong hand, lots of miracles, God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt. He had brought them through the red sea and across the desert and now he wanted to meet with Moses on a mountain.
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Now, God’s activity on the mountain caused thunder and lightning, the people heard what sounded like a trumpet and saw the mountain smoke and they trembled with fear. The Bible says they stood at a distance while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. (Exod. 20: 18-21) And there, on the mountain he gave Moses these words for the people.
SCRIPTURE: Exodus 20: 2-6 (NLT) “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. They all heard the words and agreed to the rules.
Then on the first day of the third month God called Moses to meet with him a second time on the mountain to give him these same words to take back to the people in writing.
But while Moses was on the mountain, the people grew impatient. They had just left Egypt, a land of many gods, to follow after their God, but now neither he nor Moses was around.
“When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.” So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32: 1-4 NLT)
Every time I read that, I can’t believe they did that. Can you imagine making a gold cow to bow down to?! My brain gets all lofty and likes to think I would never do that…or would I??? Are we so different than they were? From time to time, we need to take a look at the shelves in our heart to see if there’s anything tucked away in there that shouldn’t be.
The Israelites were comfortable with idolatry because they spent 430 years with the Egyptians who worshipped many gods.
Our gods might not look like the gods of other religions, or little statues or golden calves but they can be very real just the same.
“An idol is something other than God that we set our heart on (Luke 12:29; 1 Cor. 10:6), that motivates us (1 Cor. 4:5), that masters or rules us (Ps. 119:133), or that we serve” (Matt. 6:24)[1]
It could be that we are slaves to our drive for perfection, achievement or success. It could be something we hunger for like, power, influence, or wealth; it could be the striving for acceptance, appreciation, the approval of others, or even the quest for security.
None of these things are bad in themselves. Our modern day idols might start out as a “good thing” that we turn into an “ultimate thing”. James 4:2 says, “you desire and do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain.” The Greek word here for desire (Epithumio) literally means to set the heart upon it.[2]
Author Richard Keyes says, “An idol is something within creation that is inflated to function as God. All sort of things are potential idols, depending on our attitudes and actions toward them…idolatry may not involve denial of God’s existence or character. It may well come in the form of an over-attachment to something that is, in itself, perfectly good.”[3]
There are two questions that are helpful for looking to see if we might have any idols.
1) What matters most to me and how would I feel if God asked me to give it up?
2) What is the subject or object of most of my fears?
When I asked myself these questions, I found I did have some idols to deal with…perhaps because of a childhood marked by lack and loss, I discovered that most of my fears centered around a desire for security. As I thought about it, I realized I spent a lot of my adult life working on building security in every area including physical security with 10 years in the martial arts. Now that may not be a bad thing in itself, but when you imagine the thing you fear and your heart quickens with panic, you might have a problem.
God said he is a jealous God; and idols compete for our attention and the worship due only to Him. If we’re not careful, we can drop our guard and then find ourselves worshiping God and serving idols at the same time. The prophet Ezekiel said “One day some of the leaders of Israel visited me, and while they were sitting with me, this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, these leaders have set up idols in their hearts. They have embraced things that will make them fall into sin. Why should I listen to their requests? Tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The people of Israel have set up idols in their hearts and fallen into sin, and then they go to a prophet asking for a message.” (Ezekiel 14:1-11 NIV) So, first they worshiped their idol and then they went to pray and see if the prophet had heard anything from God.
2 Kings said, “They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods…”(2 Kings 17:33) God said he was angry because their worship wasn’t genuine. Hearts that are divided can’t produce worship that honors God. His anger is also out of concern for us. This is so serious, because scriptures say the fall out from idolatry is dangerous, destructive, & degrading. It’s shocking to read about how many ways the reliance on idols can hurt us.
The Israelites were punished the day they made that calf. First Moses melted down the gold cow, ground up the powder and made them drink it. Then he took up a position at the entrance of the camp and said whoever is on God’s side join me and all the Levites stepped up. He told them to crisscross the camp from one end to the other and kill brother, friend and neighbor. They took their swords and killed 3,000 people. Moses told them, today you have confirmed your ordination, at great cost, killing your sons and brothers and God has blessed you. Then God sent a plague among the others. (Exod. 32: 25-29)
They were judged like the idols they worshipped and both suffered destruction. God said, in stead of becoming what they were created to be, they became like what they worshipped. Psalm 115 says, “But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (Psalm 115: 4-8 NIV)
The Talmud says that “Terah, the father of Abraham, was himself an idol worshipper; he even carried on a substantial trade in idols. One day he had to leave home and left his shop full of idols in the care of his son Abraham who was then very young. Soon an idol worshipper came in and wished to buy an idol. How old are you? asked Abraham. Fifty years, answered the idolater. What! An old man like you bows down before a mere image that was just finished yesterday! Another time, again while his father Terah was away, a woman came and placed before the idols in the shop a bowl of flour as a sacrificial offering. No sooner had the woman left when Abraham picked up a stick and broke all the idols. Only one, the largest, did he spare. In the hand of this one Abraham then stuck the stick. Upon his return Terah saw the destruction Abraham had wrought among the idols. He flung himself upon him, crying, “who did this?” “Just listen father and be amazed!” replied Abraham serenely. “A woman came and brought a full bowl of flour for an offering. I placed the bowl at the feet of the idols. Immediately, a murderous battle broke out among them. Each of the idols said the flour was meant for him. While they all squabbled and pulled, the largest of them, determined to create order, picked up a stick and, see for yourself – he killed them all!” “You ne’er-do-well!” cried Abraham’s father. “How can you say the idols squabbled and pulled when they can neither speak nor understand?” “Father, father!” replied Abraham, “the holy truth lies in your words!”[4]
Though they’re completely useless, God said, if you turn to idols, you will become like them, become enslaved to them and wind up trapped.
And then “you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. (Deut 4:28) Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. (Deut 29:4) “Describing Israel as having ears but not hearing and eyes but not seeing (Is 6:9-10) shows how they were becoming spiritually blind and deaf like their idols and then they were judged (or destroyed) in the same manners…Exodus 32 depicts Israel as rebellious cows (like the ones they worshipped) running wild and needing to be regathered…so God punished them by leaving them without a shepherd for a time.”[5]
This distance between the idol worshiper and God is another consequence of letting anything other than God be the focus of our heart. When God’s not the center our brain gets preoccupied pursuing other issues and interests and we stop keeping him first, then we get messed up in our thinking and our relationships. Rom. 1:21 says, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles… 28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. (Romans 1:21-23; 28-31)
They knew God, but because they kept their idols too, Paul called them “backstabbing haters of God,”
If we worship God along with anything else, we might as well not even be worshipping him, because to worship anything else is hateful to God! And our thinking becomes selfish, self centered and deluded. Paul said it happens when we fail to retain the knowledge of God, when we fail to think of him first in all things, fail to find our satisfaction in him alone, then we start looking for it in other places, other relationships, pleasures and things. Then God gets pushed out of the way. Then there’s more room for me…what I want, what I need, life becomes all about me! And this leads to behaviors and choices that hurt us and those around us.
We wind up disillusioned because an idol can never do what we hope. If we depend on someone or something else to make us happy and meet our needs, they will ultimately fail, because we are created to have our needs met by God. We may exhaust ourselves trying to make people like us, or admire & respect us only to wake up one day empty and alone. We may work all hours of the day, put everything second to the pursuit of our career or our search for wealth or whatever, only to discover one day that we bankrupt our relationships. Idols cause heartache, emotional and mental entanglement, disappointment and enslavement as we are dragged around by our desires.
This dysfunction leads to the next reason God warns us against idol worship. He said it gets passed on through the generations as parents will teach their children to worship what they do. The consequences and the messed up thinking and dysfunction can get passed on. We learn how and what to worship at home, how to pursue what we think will make us happy by watching our parents and then one day we model that, or some version of that, for our kids.
My parents modeled some good things, like “German work ethic” that became an “ultimate thing” at our house. It was the answer to meaning and purpose, the prevention of lack and loss and the hope future security. So you can see why I would like it. But even a good thing like work ethic can become an “ultimate thing” of control and self sufficiency and self reliance that takes the place of trusting in God. The scripture says, “Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.” (2 Kings 17:41)
So, if idols are so bad, why do we fall for them?
When I first started this study, I really didn’t expect to find any idols in my life. I am after all a Christian and a pastor! I found out no one is immune to idolatry. Like the Israelites, we might be tempted by an idol because we get impatient, we want something and God doesn’t seem to be moving quick enough, so we look for ways to make it happen ourselves.
Sometimes we fall for them because we feel like God’s not there for us. In the Israelites case, they were looking for the leadership and presence of God, but neither he nor Moses was around, so they decided any god would do. They felt alone in the wilderness. For 40 days Moses was gone up on the mountain and they were tired of waiting and tired of being alone. Ezekiel say, “They worshipped idols because they didn’t think God was watching them, and that he had forsaken them.” (Ezk 8:5-13)
Sometimes we fall for them because we’re missing out on something in our relationship with God. Somehow he stops being “our” God and becomes “the” God. There’s a big difference between being “the” God and “our” God and it all goes back to our relationship.
God said, Remember, “I am the Lord “your” God who delivered you from your slavery.” Therefore, you shall have no other gods before me. This is a profoundly personal statement.” (Exod. 48-49; 56)
One author said if we’re not in a personal relationship with God, we will absolutely be in it with something else, a false god, because our hearts are designed in such a way as to be intimate with something.”[6] Scholar and professor, John H. Sailhamer says, “He is a personal God and will not be satisfied with anything less than a personal relationship with men and women whom he created in His image.”[7]
While idols were a real issue and threat to the people of Israel in their relationship with God and each other, we sometimes see the idea of idols as ancient. However, idols are very much alive and real and while they can be things such as gold, stone or wooden objects, they can be much more subtle, living as attitudes, values and desires in our hearts. They still get in the way, and they still anger God. Fortunately there is a way we can avoid idols and stay faithful to God.
We must guard our heart and mind by looking for anything, even good things that may have become “ultimate” things. We have to be willing to look for those things by regularly asking, “who or what am I depending on or worshipping? Are there any lesser gods functioning as God in my life?” Then give those things back to God through prayer and let him be God again. We must continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of God, and work on our relationship by spending time with God, through prayer, devotion, meditation and worship.
And when we are leaning on and worshiping God alone, we will have his blessing, his promise to go with us and be our God and to lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love him and obey his commands.
PRAYER:
Lord, some of us have heart scars from unexpected places where we have given ourselves to idols, not just bad ones, but good ones that became bad. Show us if there are idols that have become a snare to us, alluring and dangerous, stealing affection that belongs to you. Forgive us God for the times we have turned to anything else but you. Help us to be faithful and worship you alone, and to guard ourselves from the temptation to rush ahead of you. Help our families and the generations that will come after us. May we be found faithful, for you are holy and righteous and worthy of our praise. In Jesus name. Amen.
BLESSING: (1Tim. 1:17; Isaiah 46: 5, 9; Deut. 4: 29-31)
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
“If you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul…For the LORD your God is a merciful God…” (Deut. 4: 29-31 NIV)
Go out with joy, in the promise of his presence and his peace. Amen.
[1] Ken Sande, The Peacemaker (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1991). Kelly Minter, No Other Gods, (David C. Cook. 2008). 25.
[2] Strong’s Concordance. (Nashville. Thomas Nelson , 1980).
[3] Richard Keyes, “The Idol Factory,” quoted in Ox Guinness and John Seel, No God but God (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 32-33.
[4] Abraham and the Idols: From the Talmud. Translated from the adaptation by Leo Tolstoy and quoted in A Treasury of Jewish Folklore. (Crown Publishers, Inc NY. 1948) 455.
[5] G. K. Beale. We Become Like What We Worship. A Biblical Theology of Idolatry. (IVP Academic; InterVarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL. 2008). 78-79
[6] Kelly Minter. No Other Gods. (David C. Cook., 2008), 46.
[7] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as narrative (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), 285.