The First Commandment
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The Ugly Reality of Idolatry
The Ugly Reality of Idolatry
John Calvin said, “Our hearts are idol making factories.” Or, to put it another way, our hearts are always finding new things to latch onto in the place of God. Why do you think we are so committed to worshipping idols?
Doug Stuart, in his commentary on Exodus, gives several reasons that the Israelites were so drawn to idolatry. A few of them are:
The 10 Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them (Shun All Idolatry)
1. It was guaranteed. If they did the right incantation, it worked. If they said the right words, God showed up. Who wouldn’t want a religion with guaranteed results?
2. It was selfish. In the ancient world, the gods (though they were powerful) needed the humans for one very important thing: food. It was understood that people needed to bring sacrifices because the gods were hungry. The people needed the gods for favors; the gods needed the people if they were to eat. It was a tit-for-tat relationship. You scratch their backs; they’ll scratch yours.
3. It was easy. Sure, one had to bring offerings and oblations, but there was little in the way of ethical standards or personal sacrifice. A good Canaanite didn’t need an elaborate moral code or a rigorous pursuit of personal holiness. He just had to show up and present a drink or a dead animal. That’s what Israel fell into, time and time again: “It doesn’t really matter what I do. I just have to show up and go through the religious rituals.”
4. It was convenient. Ancient worship worked on a franchise model. There were many places one could go to take care of his religious obligations. Again, this was part of the allure of idolatry for the Israelites. Why not build a few high places? Why not make worship a little more convenient? But Yahweh has prescribed ritual worship in one place: at the tabernacle, and later in the temple.
5. It was normal. Everyone else—though their gods had different names and did different things—did religion the same way. The Israelites were unique among the people of the ancient Near East. God’s people didn’t just have a few special rules; their conception of the divine and how to worship him was fundamentally different. It’s hard to be a religious minority.
6. It was logical. It made sense that there were many gods and goddesses, each one specializing in an area of blessing and an area of the cosmos. One god brought the wind, another one summoned the rain, and another helped the animals breed. Religion in the ancient world seemed to make sense of the world around them.
Now, the Bible has a lot to say about idols. And in case we fool ourselves into thinking that idols are nothing more than little statues or trees that ancient people use to worship and don’t exist anymore, we need to remember what the Bible says about idols that many of us struggle with today.
Money
Money
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Desire
Desire
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Comfort
Comfort
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
Family
Family
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
Now, this last one might surprise you, or even sting a little bit. But that’s Jesus’s goal. He wants us to see how heavy the Law is and how much we break it. If we do not love God more than absolutely everything, we have broken the law of God. And it’s much more than just liking things. It’s deeper and darker than that. I want you to notice the word, “gods” in the text. What’s interesting about that is that it is the word, “Elohim” which is often the word used for “God” in the Bible. What is interesting here is that I believe that God is leading us in to understand the darkness of idol worship. You see, in Psalm 82:1 we read,
1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.
What mind blowing here is that the Psalm reads, “Elohim stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the elohim.”
What I believe this is speaking of is that God calls together these Elohim and is going to judge them for governing wrongly. But what are they? Are they God’s like Jehovah God? No, they are not like God, there is only one. But these elohim are spiritual beings that God created to rule in some capacity and that they are being judged because they are wicked rulers. I believe that Deut 32:17 will give some clarity here. It reads:
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
So, to clarify. These elohim are demons. The idols of this world that we worship are demonic and God, our loving and gracious God shouts out to us all, “DO NOT WORSHIP THEM!” These demons cannot help you, they can’t even help themselves and so God calls us to flee from them and to worship Him alone.
Illustration: Small quarter covers greater picture when it is all you see.
When we latch onto the idols of this world, we become like Adam and Eve. They fell to the idol of pride and what happened? They didn’t desire the face of God. Genesis 3:8
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
The word, “Presence” could also be translated as “face.”
Calvin said that to bring our idols before the face of our gracious God would be like a shameless woman who brings in an adulterer before her husbands very eyes, only to vex his mind the more.” God delivered Israel, but they ran to idols. God is their God, but they look for others. He loves us and is faithful to us, but we are always bringing idols to flaunt in front of His face.
The Unbelievable Grace of God
The Unbelievable Grace of God
Well, our idolatry turns the gracious face of God away from us as we were lost sinners outside of His grace. We were so consumed with our idolatry that we were happy without Him. But what did He do for us when we didn’t even want Him? He came to dwell among us that we might see Him face to face.
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And what did He do for us? Romans 8:3-4
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
We broke the law and because of that we were under the judgment of God. But God sent Jesus to come down among us, to obey the law where we constantly failed and He died for us that we might be forgiven and become the righteous sons and daughters of God. What is beautiful about this story is that one day, we will see Jesus face to face and will enjoy the full glory of God forever and we won’t sin anymore. We won’t go chasing after idols, but will obey Him fully. 1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Taking Inventory
Taking Inventory
God has told us today that there is great danger in worshipping idols, but that we can find safe keeping in Him. Before we close, I want us to go through four questions that Kevin DeYoung listed in his book on the ten commandments.
Who do you praise?
Who receives the highest praise from your lips? Is it your team, your favorite athletes or musicians, is it your best friends or who you’re dating? Or is it God?
Who do you count on or trust?
God works through means in our lives. He’s given us doctors and teachers, but at the end of the day, who do you trust in the most to come through for you?
Who do you call on?
Where do you look for joy and purpose? Is it food, or sports, or your phone or PlayStation, or is it in God?
Who do you thank?
Who gave you the good days you’ve had? And how often do we enjoy them without ever thinking to thank Him for it?
Now, these are hard questions and we probably all struggled to answer some of them. What that teaches us is just how easily our hearts find idols to hold on to and how much we need to rest in the work of Jesus for us to free us from our sin.
William Cowper wrote,
The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.