Idolatry

Dictionary.com defines idolatry as "excessive or blind adoration, reverence, devotion, etc." (As well as a religious worship of idols)

To limit our understanding of idolatry to the latter--religious worship of idols--will limit our understanding of what God commands.

In Exodus God commands us to "have no other gods before [him]." God says in Deuteronomy that it is an abomination to him.

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take [it] unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD thy God. --Deut. 7:25

Another part of Deuteronomy testifies to God's hatred of idols. "Neither shalt thou set thee up [any] image; which the LORD thy God hateth."


Those who practice it forget God. (And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. --Deut 8:19)


It is a virtual forsaking of God to pursue idolatry. Jeremiah 2, starting in verse 9, talks about God's people turning away from Him to that which is unprofitable. God tells the heavens to be appalled, to be shocked at this fact:

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

That is an interesting, and true, picture painted. Two evils have been committed. The first one was the forsaking of God, the fountain of living waters. The other one was trying to fill the void. They created cisterns to collect water, but the cisterns were broken and hold no water, thus leaving them constantly empty, despite them pouring water into the cistern from varying sources.

Is that not so with us? Isn't it that we have forsaken God and created replacement to contain our joy and happiness and comfort and love? With God out of the picture, we then flock to different mediums for those things: friends, family, money, popularity, pursuing talents, even work. We spend long hours with whatever medium we find to fill our cisterns. We have found different springs for the same thing: memories of friends, thoughts about friends, or hanging out with friends; fantasies about money, gaining money; enhancing out talents, boasting our talents, dramatizing our talents.

The moment we find something we think is filling our cisterns, we try to drown ourselves in it. But our cistern is broken. All the joy, all the comfort, all the happiness we have been accumulating only seep out the cracks and holes. Nothing stays for very long and we feel empty; no, we are empty.


This is obsession. This is idolatry.

My youth pastor, in the devotions writes for our youth group, ended yesterday's Bible Study with this:

What is your delight? (What makes you happy? Or what is your passion?)
What/who consumes your thoughts?
For what or whom would you do anything?
This is your god!

That stuck out to me. That was the biggest thing that I've been struck with in my devotions in a while. Because every answer was the same. What made me happy, what consumed my thoughts, what I would do anything for was all the same thing. And it is my god.

And that was convicting. I don't know why it is as much as it was, but it is. I know idolatry isn't simply worshiping idols. And I know I've had other gods in my life (namely facebook as of late), but it feels different. A sharper sword, a deeper wound. Perhaps because facebook is a byproduct of my "new" god. Perhaps because this "new" god is the root of other gods in my life.


Having a god that is not God Almighty is an abomination to God. God hates it.

Having a god that is not God almighty is drawing my away from God. And when God is out of the picture, I no longer have a cistern in my heart, so I must resort to making my own. But I am finite and weak and I construct one that is broken. Regardless, I seek my "new" god and worship it, spend time with it, reverence it, all the while hoping it fills my cistern. I realize it is still empty, so I spend more and more time. I entertain imaginations(paranoia) that somehow is another form of trying to fill the cistern.

God says to flee idolatry, to have NO other gods.

I just looked up the word "flee" as far as the meaning the Greek text had. It was interesting. Apart from the obvious of quick departure, it said to seek safety by flight or to be saved by flight. So, it appears to have an even more urgent message than just running for your life, but to run as if you are flying.

Think about that. God hates idolatry so much he tells us to fly away from it.

Matthew 6:24 states that:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

I looked up the Greek word for "mammon" as well as the dictionary definition of it. The Greek word has an Aramaic origin, evidently a confidence as exemplified as the personification of wealth. The dictionary defined it as riches personified as an evil or a deity.

I think it might be referring to a security, a confidence. We are capable of personifying things to the level of a deity--a god--for the sake of security. Some choose wealth, others choose other things. While the confidence could be attributed to only the deification of wealth, let us not limit it to wealth itself. Our deified confidence can be placed in non-monetary possessions, in relationships, in personal strength, etc.

When we serve our deified confidence, we love it above God, and we cling to it while despising God.
On the other hand, when we serve God, we love him above our Mammon, and we cling to Him while despising it.


God demands our entire being. "I beseech your brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service." (Rom 12:1)

God seeks to be number one in our lives. Not 2, not 3, but one. Whatever is number 1 in our lives is our god. When it isn't God Almighty, it is an idol. And when we serve and worship idols, God is displeased. God is appalled.

When we love idols over God, we--by the word of Matthew 6:24--hate God. When we hold fast to our idols, we despise God. We are not serving God when we are serving our idols. God wants supreme devotion, not left-over crumbs of our worship.


Has something come to the forefront of your mind while reading this? Has God highlighted a god(or more) that you have placed above Him?

This is a new moment in life, a new beginning. Put off the old man. Flee,run, fly away from your god. Renew your thinking, or love, your desires. Immerse yourself in God's word, in God's love, in God's grace. And put on the love of God. Put God as the first in your life.

Nothing in life can be better accomplished, gained, controlled by having it first in your life. It is only when God is first that those other things can blossom appropriately, grow rightly. Serve God and you will have your needs met.
Serve God and you will have the void in your heart filled.
Serve and love God and you will drown in God's love.


Put God first. Seek safety from idols by flight. Focus on God. Pursue God. Worship God. Obsess over God. Love God.