Idols will not lead you to God — only back toward bondage

An idol is anything (attitude, person, thing) that we allow to pre-empt our worship of God.  An idol is anything we chase for our satisfaction and purpose in life more than God.  So we need to ruthlessly and completely tear down and eliminate any idols that are in our lives or that we are tempted to erect.  Some might say, but I have been gloriously saved by Jesus, so I cannot have idols in my life.  Listen to what God tells the people of Israel in Exodus 20:2-7 tells – “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 for yourself a carved image—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 to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

For those delivered from Egypt, their entire life up to that point had been in bondage and slavery.  And yet, God’s commands and caution is for them to worship HIM alone and not take up idols of any sort.  In Exodus 24:3 we find the response of the people to these words of the Lord: “So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgment.  And all the people answered with one voice, ‘All the world which the Lord has said we will do.'”  It is only 9 verses later that God calls Moses up the mountain so He can give Moses tablets of stone with the law and commandments written on them.  Moses was on the mountain with the Lord, and the length of time led the people to fear something had happened to him, so they asked Aaron to fashion an idol for them.  This wasn’t a tremendously long time, but long enough for an idol to be turned to rather than the Lord God, who remember had caused all the recent plagues on Egypt, provided manna from heaven for them to eat, good water for them to drink in miraculous ways and, in case we forget, parted the Red Sea for them to walk across on dry land only  to have it demolish the Egyptian army pursuing them.  And what would an idol do for them?

It is easy to forget the faithfulness of God and create idols to satisfy our longings, but don’t do it!!  You were lost in sin and shame, no hope or light in life.  Then the Holy Spirit called to you, pricking your heart about your need for a Savior.  Your efforts at being good fell short.  And in repentance and confession you turned in faith to Jesus Christ to do in and for you what you couldn’t do for yourself, pay the debt of  your sin by taking the wrath of God on Himself on the cross and giving you His righteousness so you can be a child of God.  Yet, for whatever reason we want or convince ourselves that we need something that God doesn’t provide for us, and we set up an idol.  Don’t do it!

The idol will not lead you to God.  It will not provide what you desire.  It will only lead you back towards bondage.  And an idol is a dead thing, created out of the materials of God’s creation or the desires of your heart.  It is not worthy of your worship or even your consideration.  Habakkuk 2:18-20 reminds us, “What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols? Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all. But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”  Whether an idol is formed from materials or created in our hearts (the perfect family, kids, reputation, accomplishments, possessions, positions or more), let us worship our Creator and Savior alone.

Pressing on…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor