idols: delusion and death

Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
and there is no breath in them.
Jeremiah 10:14

Our idols make us stupid. They betray to the world our lack of real wisdom and knowledge. Idols will shame us for they are ultimately unsustainable. They will let us down... hard... in a ruinous crash of lies and the death of our dreams. Such is our lot when we abandon God for the delusions we make with our own hands and worship with all our hearts.

Jeremiah had to watch the citizens of Jerusalem neglect the worship of God. In a rush to try the "latest and the greatest" they turned to the worship of every false god and goddess of the pagan nations around them. Now Jerusalem was filled with idols while God's temple was abandoned. Families invested their worship energies on the maintenance of household Baals. But very soon the impending curses of the covenant that they had forsaken would bring their lives all to a collapsing heap of rubble. And when the dust settled, all that would be left would be the numbing experience of death and delusion.

This is still the end of anything we put in the place of God. We may deceive ourselves with a false sense of pride or the appearance of joy, but when the lies catch up to us, our idols will fall. You cannot live a life of delusion and find any kind of blessing. In mercy, God crashes through our paper deities and brings us to an awareness of Him. And in that frightful moment, hope also can come. Worship can be found coming out of the ashes of our burned idols as we walk away from the lies and embrace the grace and truth found in Jesus.