When
I think about idols, my mind goes to several random places. The first place it
goes is back to the Old Testament. The pagan people of those times were idol
collectors. They had community idols and private idols. Idols were like good
luck charms that people accumulated to give them a better chance at having a
happy, productive life. I read in my devotions this morning about Jacob and his
sons. Even though Jacob had several very real, very personal encounters with
God, his household still had idols. So in Genesis 35:2, Jacob had to instruct
his household to get rid of their foreign gods (idols) that they had
accumulated so that they could go before God in worship.
The
second place my mind goes, when I think of idols, is to modern, non-Western
cultures. There are a number of cultures today that still worship idols. They
do not all do this in the same way, but they do it. Some build ornate temples
into which they place gold covered statues. Others carve the images of multiple
gods on the walls of their temples. Still others are more primitive and set up
small, carved wooden idols. These may be masterfully made or crude, but they
serve the same purpose. There are many places that you can go to buy idols, and
many tourists buy them as souvenirs of an exotic culture. They bring them home
and place them in a prominent place in their office or living room.
The
third place that my mind goes, when I think of idols, is to the idols
themselves. Most idols take on some kind of human form, although they may have
unusual features. Some idols take on animal form or supernatural, bazaar forms.
Physical idols can be small or large, simple or extravagant, wood or stone,
plain or covered with gold. Most idols are portable, although some are enormous
and permanently enshrined. The thing about idols is that they are very tangible
in a physical sense.
These
images of idols all serve to do one thing for me, they blind me to the idols
that intrude on my life. As long as I see idols as from ancient cultures that
no longer exist, or as from far away cultures that are not my normal
experience, or as portable, tangible objects that are easily identifiable, then
I am blind to the idols that inhabit my personal world.
Paul
David Tripp, in his book, Lost in the Middle, masterfully points out
that the idols most of us have to deal with are more subtle and less
recognizable to us. Our eyes have become blind to the tangible, temporal things
we have allowed to take the place of God. Anything we trust in to give us ultimate
happiness, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose will become an idol for us. For
example, in America, we have made youth, physical fitness, and pleasure into
idols, just to mention a few.
God
has given to us many good things, which He wants us to enjoy and find pleasure
in. But when we allow these good things to divert our attention from the Giver,
then they have become an idol. I am a runner. I enjoy running. Running gives me
a certain sense of “aliveness.” I have been unable to run for over a year, due
to an injury. I have felt a profound sense of loss and have experienced a
longing to get back to running. As I read Paul Tripp’s book, I began to wonder
if I have made running an idol.
Jesus
addressed the subtle way that the tangible things of this world can blind us to
God and become idols in our life. He addressed this in the context of worry.
Worry, anxiety, and frustration are often signs that we have made something
into an idol. We sense that our idols are failing to deliver what we had hoped
that they would. Look at how Jesus unmasked these often hidden idols in our
lives.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more
important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the
birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of
you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And
why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do
not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was
dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more
clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we
eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run
after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew
6:25-34
There
are a couple of observations to be made from what Jesus tells us. First, the
things that we often strive after, and which can become idols for us, are not
bad in themselves. They are a part of God’s loving provision for us. The
problem comes when we give too much importance to these things.
Second,
God knows exactly what we need and is more than capable of supplying it. God is
not stingy, miserly, or reluctant. God created us and the world into which He
placed us. He designed a fine tuned system that would both sustain us and would
delight us. He is the source of all that we desire and need. He has provided
these things for our pleasure.
Third,
in order to avoid making these things into idols, we need to keep our focus on
God. All the good things of this world are intended to be sign posts that point
us to the Author, the Artist, the Creator. If we will intentionally,
consciously keep God on the throne of our lives, then we will not be tempted to
make other things into idols.
One
of Satan’s tactics for tripping us up is to blind us to our own idols. As long
as we trivialize idols, or see them as distant from us, we will never recognize
them in our own lives. We all need to take a personal inventory and get rid of
the idols we discover hidden in our spiritual closets.
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