a journey

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

I’ve understood for a long time that God is a Jealous God and He absolutely detests idolatry in the lives of His children. In my youth group in high school, we were often warned of the dangers and consequences of placing anything in our lives before Christ. Thankfully, God has taught my heart to fear Him in this regard though recently, I felt led to investigate the topic of idolatry further. Through my study, I found tons of examples in the Old Testament where people made idols and served them, sometimes going as far as burning incense to these false gods (2 Kings 17:11-12). Most of the time, idols were handmade and were constructed out of materials like silver, wood, stone, and gold (Deut 29:17, Ps 115:4). I realized that wood in and of itself is not an evil thing. In fact, carpenters have been using wood since Biblical times to benefit our society by building furniture and tools. Wood is not detestable in God’s sight, it’s a tool He gave to mankind – he created it! What is detestable to God is when someone takes a piece of wood and dedicates time, energy, attention, and effort to sculpt an object of worship out of its form. It is the attitude of someone towards that piece of wood that determines whether it’s good or evil.

For us, I believe the principle is the same. Only instead of wood or stone, we build up idols out of wealth, loved ones, reputation, goals, and aspirations for the future. In 1 Cor 10:14, we are called to flee from idolatry. In fact, idolatry is a sin which is considered an act of our old, sinful nature which has no control over us as believers in Christ Jesus. I realized something else though, which I believe is just as important: God doesn't necessarily ask us in His Word to get rid of anything and everything that could ever potentially become an idol or object of worship (i.e. wood, stone, gold). It’s not about the thing. It’s about the condition of our heart towards it. It’s about the condition of our heart towards Christ. The Lord is to be feared above all gods (1 Chr 16:25). He desires that our hearts overflow with love and affection for His Name which will inevitably lead to unashamed worship and fruitful service. It’s when we reach that point, when we wholeheartedly seek His face and center our hearts on His love that all the idols and gods of this earth become tiny specks compared to the un-surpassing brilliance of His glory.

Labels: faith

# posted by Kelly @ 1:41 PM