Comfort: Idolatry, Part 4

I’ve been reading through Isaiah’s prophecies in preparation for Advent, which starts in just a few weeks. One of his biggest gripes against his nation is about their idolatry, but not just carved figures (like in 40:19-20, 41:21-24, and 44:6-20, where Isaiah writes about God makes insulting comments about the stupidity of worshipping idols). We may have thought that the idol
worship was Israel’s problem, but one underlying problem was simply putting themselves ahead of worshipping the Lord, in many different ways. Even when they went through the routines of temple sacrifices, their hearts were not in it (1:12-15). Over and over, what he asked them for was a change of heart (1:16-17).

Certainly, comfort is not spoken against in the Bible, so long as it is in the right context. God promised Israel a place of “milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8,17) and “where no one will make you afraid” (Lev. 26:6). His promises of rain in due season, plenteous crops and good things to eat were all promised as part of their inheritance in the Promised Land, on the one hand, and blessings for obedience, on the other. And those appealed to basic human desires, just like the Garden of Eden did with the Creator’s exhortations to “eat just about anything, and be sure to keep the place up.” But the Lord was also quick to remind Israel not to forget him when they came into that lovely land of promise (Deut. 4:9,23 and 9:4-8). That forgetting, in a time of comfort, seems to be basic to human nature also.

Ashley Hale writes in Christianity Today, “Our souls can suffer when we sleep on featherbeds, eat rich food, and always have the financial means to fill our needs. As people on the Way, we must practice the discipline of being curious about our small hunger pains. Not until we feel our hunger can we be propelled toward repentance, vulnerability, welcome, and belonging.” Comfort can, indeed, be an idol. Being idle can be an idol. Being in a routine we like, shopping at the same stores and seeing the same friends, is comfortable — but its comfort can dull those ‘hunger pains’ leading us to the call of God, to move toward what he wants his children to be about every day. Ashley continues, “All places can be holy ground when we choose to pay close attention to the ways God is already at work.” But our attention to those ways is dulled by too much comfort in our own ways, as Isaiah wrote.

I experience this myself in my continuation of studies on how to reach non-believers with the good news, but still not finding a way to start a small group that could accomplish that. I love my own comfort by studying what I find interesting and not the more difficult topics that will help me grow, and by disdaining the opinions of those whose social views (even as believers) are different from mine instead of exploring how I can grow by hearing them out. Though God is at work all around me, for me to see what he is doing, I have to get uncomfortable — out of my comfort zone — and follow Jesus into the world.

Well, that’s me on a Wednesday, at least. What’s this like for you? I pray you will find your comfort in Jesus alone (Mt. 11:28-30) and not in anything else.