Idolatry (Part 1)

Israel as a brand-new nation was given very clear direction by Yahweh about who was in charge: "You are not to have any other gods before me" and "You shall not make any images, and not bow down to them or serve them," found in Exodus 20:3-5. These give us much of our thinking about idolatry, and the problem wasn't unique to Israel of course; Paul talks about
all humanity worshiping the creation rather than the Creator (see Romans 1:22-32, especially v. 25). Since we don't have a Baal temple on the corner, or throw our newborn children to Molech, maybe we're good, right? Maybe...but perhaps there's more to it than that. And as you can suspect from the "Part 1" title, there could be quite a bit more!

These commands were in the context of "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of slavery" in verse 2, to remind them of the mighty miracles that he had performed just a couple of months before. They wanted something they could see (in Exodus 32, they demand that Aaron make images of "gods who can lead us," even though Yahweh was still manifesting in the cloud on Mt. Sinai).  But making something visible to remind them, actually took them away from the Lord. (Icons, which can be very helpful, can also have the same effect, so we have to be careful there too.)

For us moderns, this command stretches far beyond carved idols and some named deity we espouse besides the Lord. We might insist "I don't serve idols!" but how many weekends do some spend lovingly washing and waxing a cherished automobile, or working to make a house perfect for the neighbors to envy? Or watching a favored sports team? (Here in Rockies country, I can tell you that it doesn't help much anyway!)

Even including those, most of our idols are creations of our own minds, and many are not physical objects at all. We can put our Savior in second place, after all the other pursuits of life, in many, many ways. Τhis series will explore some of those and invite you to explore your own. After all, it's not my job to point out exactly what your personal idolatry might be, but to help you be aware of and explore "the attitudes and behaviors that are symptomatic of idolatrous attachments" as my friend Charles Fleming writes in a post called "Worldview Conversion: Symptoms of Idolatry."

In fact, as Charles writes, idolatry is "the problem behind the problem," the principle behind the object, idea or desire that we allow to be so important to us. So we're going to spend some time here in the next several weeks as we explore some examples and the principles behind them, to help us all see it better (yes, me too!). I pray it will be of some help to you.