Then [Aaron] made a metal image of a bull calf, and the people declared, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” — Exodus 32:4
I think we have it backwards when we think of idolatry. The Hebrews, scared that Moses wasn’t coming back, made a golden idol. And then they pretended that it had delivered them from Egypt.
Idolatry is always a pretend type of thing. It seems like they just wanted a god that looked pretty and that they could control. Make up things and say that Bull Calf did it. Create prayers and rituals and pretend that the Bull Calf will grant wishes. And above all, do things that please you, regardless of values and morality, and say that the Bull Calf condones them. (That’s why Baal, the Canaanite fertility god, was very popular back then.)
In other words, an idol is an imaginary authority invented by us to serve us.
And this is what makes God so scary. God has the audacity to ask us for service and obedience. Such devotion is expressed clearly throughout the Bible: love kindness, do justice, be humble…love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself…do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
When we dare believe the gospel and live in service to God, we become different people–deeper, kinder, more patient, joyful..all those things Paul described as “fruits of the spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23).
And when people persist in idolatry, they regress into a toddler type of living where “Mine!” is the most used word in their vocabulary. The real tragedy is when they turn God into an idol of their own wishful thinking. Perhaps that is the worst idolatry of all. To imagine that the God Jesus called Father is manipulatable by us, so we can get what we want and obtain divine approval for what we do, goes beyond idolatry. It’s blasphemy.
In the rampant idolatry that permeates our culture, Isaiah’s words are timely: Doom to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter. (Isaiah 5:20)
God is always countercultural. And to serve such a Lord, we have to be, too.
We do have lots of idols whether we acknowledge them or not. I think it is very important that we acknowledge the things that we turn into idols. Then remember from whence our power comes.
Happy Easter to you and yours.
Yes we all have many idols, too bad they don’t include the bible, and its teachings.
Hopefully the Risen Christ will touch all our hearts.
Happy Easter to everyone
Thank you, Greg.