How would I react if the person working next to me came into the office one morning and set a box on his desk, telling everyone that his god was in that box? How would I respond if he opened the box and took out a folded paper figure and said that this figure was going to make him a great success and fulfill all his needs? How would that person respond if it was me who had the box?
The idols forbidden to God’s people in the Old Testament were
carvings created by men and carried by oxen from one place to another. In a
description from Isaiah 46, God says “Remember
this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former
things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none
like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not
yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my
purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a
far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I
will do it.”
When laid out in such certain terms, the foolishness of
worshiping an idol is clear. However, idol worship can creep into the heart of
anyone. As John Calvin said, the human heart is an idol-making factory. We were
created to worship, to seek a god that would meet our needs. While we don’t
carve idols in our culture, even Christians can fall into the worship of things
like money, prestige, people, ideals, education, sports, and so on.
Our less obvious idols even bear some resemblance to what God
says about these visible and man-made carvings. For one thing, they are carried
like burdens by those who worship them. The person who thinks that fame and
fortune will rescue him from all troubles becomes captive to the idol they
worship, serving it with all his heart and soul, but that idol like all idols
cannot deliver . . .
They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the
burden, but themselves go into captivity . . . They lift it to their shoulders,
they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move
from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his
trouble. (Isaiah 46:1–13)
Instead of carrying the burden of an idol, God calls to us:
“Listen to me . . . (you) who have been borne by me from before
your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray
hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will
save.”
Then He adds, “To
whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?”
The gods of then and now may resemble one another, but
nothing compares to the true God, the one of whom Jesus said, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength . . .” (Mark 12:28–31)
Idols, then and now, are useless. Anything that seems to
be powerful about them is an illusion. They are completely unable to pay back
any of the homage we give them . . .
Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to
idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God
but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as
indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the
Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:4–6)
Whatever
I rely on instead of God is an idol that cannot deliver. It cannot forgive me,
wash away my sin, or make me a better person that is equipped to minister to
others. Nor can any idol make the claim of being the only God who stands alone
and is superior to all. How foolish to create a god to replace the one who
created me and sustains my existence.
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