August 18
August 18
Our Lord hates when we give the worship that is due him to something in creation.
We have a lot to learn about idolatry. Often when we think of the worship of false gods, we think of Buddhists or Hindus, bowing before something made of wood, metal, or stone. But the sad truth is that many of us who would never bow before a religious idol have idolatry in our lives. An idol functions as a God-replacement in our hearts. Sometimes good things become idols. Things that were once blessings rise in level of importance in our hearts until they control our thoughts, desires, choices, actions, and words. A desire for even a good thing will become a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing. I have watched seminary students damage their families in pursuit of theological knowledge. Is theology a bad thing? Of course not, but pursuit of it must not take so much control over you that you neglect your wife and children. Someone’s love can become a life-shaping idol. Is it wrong to want to be loved? No, but this desire must not be allowed to capture the place in your heart that only God should have.
Here is the point. Anything in creation can function in your heart and life as a God-replacement. Street-level idolatry is subtle and deceptive. And the idol that is most seductive and deceptive is the idol of self. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Jesus came so that we would no longer live for ourselves.
Because God understands our idol struggles, he recorded and preserved for us his anger with his children’s idolatry:
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the evil that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.” (Jer. 44:1–5)
God’s anger is the product of his love. True love is always rightfully jealous. God has chosen us as his own, and he will not share our hearts with other lovers. He reveals his anger and offers us his grace, so that our hearts will be ruled by him alone.