The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are not worthy of Him. -A.W. Tozer
I’ve been thinking about confronted with some ideas about idolatry lately. For a while I’ve been pondering the idea that how comfortable (bad word, but best I can come up with) I am with God has a lot to do with how comfortable I am being the one who is not in control. This control theme is not a new one for me – for an example of how this plays out in my life, see this post. I know I’m more comfortable being the one in the control seat. I just didn’t quite realize the extent to which I do the same thing with God. And I really didn’t realize that this control issue is at the root of almost everything I would call an idol in my life.
I came across this passage from Isaiah 44. I had read it before, but never quite caught the sarcasm dripping from Isaiah’s pen…
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
-Isaiah 44:9-20, emphasis mine
I love how Isaiah shows the detail the craftsmen put into their own creation – an act which only imitates the true Creator – contrasting with the simplicity of the statement of how primitively they use the same wood for such base tasks. They are choosing to worship (attribute worth to) something which can be used and manipulated with their own hands for their own purposes. Isaiah makes it all seem so assinine. The key is lack of knowledge and discernment, a sin which, unfortunately can be seen often in my life, and one that can easily blind me to my own folly.
Why do people choose the substitute over God himself? Probably the most important reason is that it obviates accountability to God.
We can meet idols on our own terms because they are our own creations. They are safe, predictable, and controllable; they are, in Jeremiah’s colorful language, the ’scarecrows in a cornfield’ (10:5).
They are portable and completely under the user’s control. They offer nothing like the threat of a God who thunders from Sinai and whose providence in this world so often appears to us to be incomprehensible and dangerous . . . [People] need face only themselves. That is the appeal of idolatry.
- David F. Wells (found on the Thinklings banner today, again with my emphasis)
So today, I humbly confess that I am guilty of idolatry and also of a lack of discernment in identifying those idols in my life. I seek the God who thunders from Sinai and ask Him to help me find those things so that I can proceed as David did when he was confronted with his sin. May my heart cry these words in earnest to the only One worthy of my adoration.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
-Psalm 51:1-17