We, as created human beings, make things
and accomplish things that we come to adore. We set these things before us and pay homage
to them whether they are the songs or novels we write, the athletes we create, the gardens
we plant, the businesses we build, the trophies we win, the children we sire, the rockets
we orbit, the cures we invent, the sermons we preach, or the churches we
institute. We live vicariously through the idols we have made of movie stars, music stars,
and sports stars. We want the power that we imagine fame and fortune would bestow upon us.
We want to be god, especially over our own lives.
Though we are greater than the images we make, we still bow down and
pay obeisance to them. We take such pride in our works. We allow them to control our
lives, our emotions, and our relationships. We love them. We look at them, and our hearts
swell with pride. They are idolatrous extensions of ourselves.
IDOLATRY: THE WORSHIP OF SELF
All idolatry is the worship of Self. It is an extension of ourselves:
our adored opinions, speculations, plans, programs, and projects; it is the self-exalted
work of our hands and the imaginations of our minds--all the things we do in our old man
nature of flesh and sin that causes us to esteem ourselves more highly than we ought to.
It is the attitude of the wicked stepmother in the story of Snow White who asks,
"Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?" fully expecting for
the mirror to answer, "You are the fairest one of all."
Idolatrous, fallen man is self-centered by nature. To be any different,
we have to be transformed into a new creature. We need a new nature that gives us the
desire to surrender Self for a higher good, namely, the life of Christ in us. Only Christ
through His Spirit can implant that new nature within us.
Whatever appeals to Self is not of God. Self is in love with Self. It
seeks its own. It is vain, prideful, arrogant, self-exalting, self-indulging,
self-absorbed, power-hungry, and lustful. It strives for independence, self-reliance, and
self-management. It uses and abuses others, if necessary, to achieve its own ambitions. It
lies, steals, cheats, murders, covets, blames, justifies, and does whatever seems
necessary to save itself. It goes to any end to protect itself. It is addicted to more. It
can never be satisfied.
The flesh nature of Self generally looks to its own
inventions--science, government, military, religion, education, sports, and other human
institutions and inventions--to save us, feed us, protect us, make us happy, give us our
identity, and provide us with a better lifestyle. We create institutions to serve us, and
we get angry when they fail us.
Because Self is centered upon itself, it is a black hole upon the space
where it stands, forever suctioning itself inward as a vacuum. Self consumes itself, is
self-destructive, and has death as its final reward. Self lives and dies for Self.
IDOLATRY: SELF-STRENGTH
The idolatry of Self is seen in our drivenness to accomplish things in
our own strength. We see things to do, and we must do them. We are constantly distracted
by the busyness we create for ourselves. Busyness is a distraction from intimacy with God.
We would rather be doing something for God than spending time with Him. Yet, He
did not create us to do for Him, but to be as He is that we might have
fellowship with Him and with one another in Him.
We enslave ourselves to the works we require of ourselves. Moreover, we
enslave others to our works when others allow us to do so. We adore our accomplishments.
Consequently, we have even made idols out of our quiet time, Bible study, intercessory
prayer, street witnessing, and other works that seem "good" to us. These are not
wrong. They are wonderful when they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. They become
idolatrous to us when we use them to make ourselves feel like we have done something for
God.
IDOLATRY: THINGS THAT POSSESS US
Our idols have to do with those things that possess our hearts.
Whatever we own, owns a part of us. In the Old Testament, Jacob served his father-in-law,
Laban, for twenty years to earn his wives, Leah and Rachel, and to earn his flock so he
could return to the land of his father. Because Laban restrained him from going, Jacob
left Laban by stealth with his wives and animals. As she went out, Rachel stole her
father's household idols to take with her. Gen. 31. These idols may have been valuable
heirlooms and that could have played a part in her motives to carry them away, but more
likely it was because her heart had already been carried away by them.
The things we go after usually overtake us. I lived in Nashville,
Tennessee, the country music capital of the world, where there is a saying about many of
those musical hopefuls who live there that they are "chasing the beast." This
beast is an imaginary quest for significance through the fame many of them hope
"making it in music" will bring them. It appears to me, though, that the beast
is chasing them. The beast can be any of those things we seek for Self to possess. These
things we seek often possess us. We can be possessed by quest.
A JEALOUS GOD
God created us for Himself. He wants intimate relationship with us. He
wants us to know Him, love Him, trust Him, depend upon Him, and obey Him. He is a loving
and faithful Father to us who believe and requires of us that we return love and
faithfulness to Him. He is profoundly jealous of anything we put between Him and us. Allow
yourself to feel God's passionate disdain for our idolatry as you carefully read the text
below. You who truly love the Lord should be impacted forever by the quotes from
scripture.
God spoke through Moses to the children of Israel, saying: "I am
the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make unto you any graven image, or
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth." You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve
them." Exod. 20:1-5; Deut. 5:1-10.
Jesus answered the Pharisee saying, "You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first
and great commandment." Matt. 22:37. This kind of love is agape, which has to do with
surrendering your life for the well-being of others. In this case, it has to do with
wanting only what God wants, wanting nothing for Self.
Idolatry breaks the heart of God who jealously wants our undivided
love, worship, and faithfulness. God is jealous of our idols. He is jealous when we glory
in ourselves and our achievements rather than recognizing that "every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." James
1:17. God said, "You shall not bow down yourself to them [other gods], nor serve
them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God." Exod. 20:1-5. His name is Jealous.
Exod. 34:14.
Moses charged the people to keep God's ordinances and warned them not
to commit idolatry saying, "The LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous
God." Deut. 4:24. Joshua reaffirmed to the people that God "is a holy God. He is
a jealous God." Josh. 24:19.
Elijah expressed jealousy on God's behalf: "I have been very
jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken Your
covenant, thrown down Your altars, and slain Your prophets with the sword; and I, even I
only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." 1 Kings 19:14. [Also read:
Ezek. 8:3; 16:38-42; 23:25; 36:5-6; 38:19; 39:25.]
Asaph lamented: "How long, LORD? Will You be angry forever? Shall
Your jealousy burn like fire?" Ps. 79:5.
The prophet, Nahum, feeling the pulse of God, declared that "God
is jealous, and the LORD revenges and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his
adversaries, and He reserves wrath for his enemies." Nah. 1:2.
Joel, looking to a day of renewal, prophesied, "Then will the LORD
be jealous for his land, and pity His people." Joel 2:18.
Zephaniah spoke, "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be
able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured
by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them who
dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:18. He continued to speak for God saying, "Therefore
wait upon Me, says the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My
determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon
them My indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with
the fire of My jealousy." Zeph. 3:8.
Zechariah wrote, "The angel that communed with me said unto me,
You cry, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with
a great jealousy." Zech. 1:14. And again, he wrote, "Thus says the LORD of
hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great
fury." Zech. 8:2.
The apostle Paul asked the Corinthians, "Do we provoke the Lord to
jealousy?" 1 Cor. 10:22. As did Elijah, Paul felt the fire of God's jealousy in his
belly and wrote again later, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I
have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ." 2 Cor. 11:2.
ISRAEL: CHOSEN FOR A PURPOSE
Israel was chosen by God that He might have a people who were called by
His name. Deut. 28:10; 2 Chron. 7:14; Dan. 9:19; Acts 15:14. They were to be a people
through whom God would make a name for Himself. 2 Sam. 7:23; 1 Chron. 17:21. They would be
to Him a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. Jer. 13:11.
Israel was to be a holy (separated) nation of people unto the Lord. It
was three months after they left Egypt and were encamped in the Wilderness of Sinai that
Moses went up on the mountain to talk to God. God told Moses to tell the people "You
have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought
you unto Myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant,
then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all peoples: for all the earth is
Mine: And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Exod.
19:4-6.
The followers of Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, are the fulfillment of
divine expectation. Peter wrote regarding those who believe in Jesus Christ, "But you
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you
should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light." 1 Pet. 2:9.
The Lord was to be their God and they were to be His people. They were
not to have other gods before them. They were not to call upon the name of any other god
and give that god the glory for the things that God had done for them. That would have
been a great insult to God, to His name, and to those who were called by His name. God is
zealously jealous of those things in which we put more confidence, comfort, and pleasure
than in Him.
THE BAN
God knew that the only way to ensure that the Israelites would remain
faithful to Him was to ban them from mingling with the heathens of the land. He made a
covenant with them while they were in the wilderness. He told them that He would do
marvels among them by driving out the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite,
the Hivite, and the Jebusite from before them when they entered Canaan.
God warned them, however, to be careful not to make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land where they were going. Failure to destroy the idolatrous altars of
the heathens, to break their images, and cut down their groves (places of idol worship)
would be a snare in the midst of them. The Israelites would "take their daughters
unto their sons, and their daughters [would] go a whoring after their gods, and make their
sons go a whoring after their gods." Exod. 34:10-17.
The worship of other gods is idolatry, and idolatry is playing the
harlot so far as God is concerned. God also calls it fornication and adultery. The King
James version of the Bible translates it "a whoring." This radical language
portrays the heart of God in the matter of idolatry. It should cause us to fall on our
faces, quickly repent of our idolatries, and turn to Him with a pure, unadulterated heart.
THE VIOLATION OF GOD'S BAN
God told Israel not to mingle with the inhabitants of the land and go
after their gods, but they did it anyway. God knew that they would do it. He told Moses
that after he died "this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the
strangers of the land where they are going and will forsake Me, and break My covenant
which I had made with them.
Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will
forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many
evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these
evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide My face in
that day for all the evils which they shall have brought, in that they are turned unto
other gods." Deut. 31:16-18.
Israel's failure in the wilderness
The Israelites violated God's ban while they were still in the
wilderness. They were in a place called Shittim when they committed whoredom with the
daughters of Moab. The Moabites seduced the Israelites to make sacrifices and bow down to
their gods. Israel joined itself to Baal-peor, the idol god of Moab, and the anger of the
LORD was kindled against Israel.
The LORD instructed Moses to take all the heads of those who had broken
the ban, "and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of
the LORD may be turned away from Israel." Moses, in turn, commanded the judges of
Israel to kill their men who were bowing down to Baal-peor.
One of the Israelites shamelessly brought a Midianite woman to his
brothers in full view of Moses and the people. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of
Aaron the priest, saw it, rose up from among the people, and took a javelin in his hand.
He went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them
through. This brought an end to the plague upon the children of Israel that day. His
jealousy for God turned away God's wrath. Twenty-four thousand people died in that plague.
Num. 25:1-11.
Deuteronomy 32:16-17, and 21 tells us that the Israelites provoked God
to jealousy with strange gods, and that these were abominations to Him. "They
sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not"...to new gods whom
their fathers had not even feared. "They have moved Me to jealousy," God said,
"with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and
I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger
with a foolish nation."
Israel's failure during the judges
God brought Israel out of Egypt with attesting signs and wonders. They
miraculously crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground. They were given the manna, water,
and quail. They heard God on the mountain and saw His glory on Moses' face. They wandered
for forty years, and their sandals did not wear out. They experienced the jealousy of God
at Shittim. They entered the land of God's promise under the leadership of Joshua,
miraculously crossing the Jordan river and taking Jericho with marching, the blowing of
horns, and shouting.
They were supposed to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land lest
they mingle with them and bow down to their gods. Many of the tribes of Israel did not do
that. They did not utterly drive out the inhabitants of the land and were, thereby,
disobedient to God.
An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and told the people
of Israel, "I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land
which I swore unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break My covenant with you. And
you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; you shall throw down their
altars, but you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Wherefore I also said, I
will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your sides and
their gods shall be a snare unto you." The people lifted up their voice and wept at
the words of the angel. Judg. 2:1-4.
Nevertheless, a new generation grew up after Joshua, and they also did
the very thing that was evil in the sight of the Lord: they abandoned the Lord and served
the idolatrous god and goddess, Baal and Ashtoreth. Judg. 2:13.
And so it happened, over and over again. God raised up individuals like
Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and other judges in Israel. The Israelites would not listen
to their judges but went "a whoring" after other gods. After they fell under the
oppressive hand of their enemies in the land, they repented and cried out to God, and He
changed His mind and delivered them. (Read Judges 2:17-20.)
The period of the judges ended with this tragic commentary: "In
those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own
eyes." Judg. 21:25. Anarchy is the ultimate idolatry of Self.
Israel's failure during the kings
The Israelites wanted their own king like all of the other nations,
thus rejecting God from reigning over them. So, God told Samuel to give them what they
were asking for. 1 Sam. 8:5-7. How frightening that God might really give us what we think
we need and want!
Nothing changed. They had harlot hearts. 1 Chronicles 5:25 reports that
"they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the
gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them."
The Psalmist laments: "They did not destroy the nations,
concerning whom the LORD commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned
their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yes, they
sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the
blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan:
and the land was polluted with blood. Thus, they were defiled with their own works, and
went a whoring with their own inventions." Ps. 106:34-39. This entire Psalm is a
powerful recantation of Israel's forgetfulness.
GODS OF THE FLESH
The Israelites set up their own high places and made altars to Baal.
They carved out Ashtoreths and bowed down to them. They sacrificed their children to
Molech by making them walk through fire.
The chronicler of 1 Kings 14:22-23 wrote, "And Judah did evil in
the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they had
committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places,
and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree."
Asaph, the Psalmist, lamented the sins of the people against a jealous
God singing, "For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to
jealousy with their graven images." Ps. 78:58.
Baal
means "master" or "lord" and has also
been translated "husband." Baal was the farm god believed to be responsible for
the increase of flocks, crops, and families.
"The worship of Baal, as it existed when Israel began to filter
into Canaan, was conducted by priests in fields and on mountain 'high places' where
communities brought 'taxes' to their favorite deity, in the form of wine,
oil, first fruits, and firstlings of flocks. The cult included joyous, licentious dances
and ritualistic meals."
Her temples were centers of sacred prostitution. Ashtoreth
is mentioned some forty times in the Old Testament.
Molech
means "king." His worship was characterized
by parents who sacrificed their children, compelling them to walk through or into a
furnace of fire. Hebrew law strictly forbade this practice. The Lord had spoken to Moses
saying, "Again, you shall say to the children of Israel, Whosoever of the children of
Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives any of his seed [children]
unto Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with
stones. And I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people
because he has given of his seed unto Molech to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy
name." Lev. 20:1-3. Ezekiel spoke for God: "For when you offer your gifts, when
you make your sons to pass through the fire, you pollute yourselves with all your
idols." Ezek. 20:31.
Jeremiah 3:9 laments that they committed adultery with stones and
trees. James 4:4 teaches us that friendship with the world is adultery.
God demanded their undivided, unadulterated worship and obedience to
Him. The true worship of God requires that we lay down the wants of our old man nature of
flesh and sin--that we deny Self in total abandonment to God.
GOD DIVORCED ISRAEL
Israel was regarded by God as His betrothed. Jer. 3:14. God was
faithful to her, but she was repeatedly unfaithful to Him. She attempted fidelity,
occasionally, and there were times of repentance and restoration. The good kings purged
the temple of idolatry, but even they did not always complete the job. They consistently
kept their high places.
Of Solomon it is written, "Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the
statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places." 1
Kings 3:3. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He banished the sodomites from
the land and removed the idols of his father; he removed his mother, Maachah, from being
queen because she had made an idol in a grove; but "the high places were not
removed." 1 Kings 15:11-14. "Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of Asa his
father, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD," but did not take away
the high places. 1 Kings 22:43. Jehoash (2 Kings 12:1-3), Amaziah (2 Kings 14:1-4),
Jeroboam (2 Kings 15:1-4), Uzziah and Jotham (2 Kings 15:32-34) likewise did what was
right in the sight of the Lord except they did not take away the high places.
The scriptures tell us that Hezekiah and Josiah were the only Kings who
removed even the high places. Hezekiah "did what was right in the sight of the LORD;
according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and broke the
images, and cut down the groves." 2 Kings 18:3-4a. The record says Josiah removed the
high places "and like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD
with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the
law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him." 2 Kings 23:25. But for
these two, king after king had this one thing in common: they did not remove the high
places.
During the days that Josiah was king, the Lord asked Jeremiah if he had
seen what backsliding Israel had done. He said that she had gone up on every high mountain
and under every green tree and played the harlot; and for all the causes for which
backsliding Israel had committed adultery, God had her put away and given her a
certificate of divorce. Jer. 3:6, 8.
TAKEN CAPTIVE
Earlier in Israel's history, after Solomon's reign as king, the Kingdom
of Israel divided. The kingdom of Israel (later called Samaria) consisted of the ten
tribes to the north which split from the kingdom after the death of Solomon during the
reign of his son Rehoboam. It was ruled by Jeroboam. The Kingdom of Judah consisted of the
two remaining tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin.
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God portrayed these two kingdoms as
daughters of one mother. He gave these daughters the names Aholah and Aholibah. Aholah
means "her own tent" and Aholibah means "women of the tent" or
"the tent is in her." Aholah was the older daughter, Samaria, and Aholibah was
the younger daughter, Judah (or Jerusalem). Ezekiel says, "...they committed
whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: their breasts were pressed
there, and the teats of their virginity were bruised." Ezek. 23:3.
Though Aholah belonged to the Lord, she played the harlot and doted on
her Assyrian lovers. She committed her whoredoms with them and defiled herself. So, God
banished her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians.
Her sister, Aholibah, saw all that her older sister had done and how
she had been taken away into captivity by her Assyrian lovers; yet, she multiplied her
whoredoms more than her sister.
God sent the Babylonians to take Judah away into captivity as a
judgment against her. God said, "I will set My jealousy against you, and they shall
deal furiously with you." Ezek. 23. Therefore, because of their idolatries and
harlotries, Samaria was scattered to the nations by the Assyrians. Judah (Jerusalem) was
taken into Babylonian captivity by the Babylonians.
The scriptures make it clear that these adulterous acts of idolatry
were abominations to God. Ezekiel 16:51-52 reveals that Judah had committed twice the sins
of her sister Samaria. She had multiplied her abominations.
Of all the sins Israel and Judah committed, idolatry was the most
abominable to God. Their idolatry was the one thing that led to their downfall. They
forsook God for their high places. We are no different today. We, too, have our high
places and our high places are just as much a snare to us.