Thursday, November 14, 2024

Idolatry is all too easy.


Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire…
Deuteronomy 4:15

God warned Israel that precisely because He did not appear in a visible form to the nation, they would be tempted to want a god with form. They wanted to “fill in” the details that He purposefully left vague so that His glory would be their mental picture of Him. God demands we worship Him in transcendence.

They would be tempted to carve images in human form (Deuteronomy 4:16). They would be tempted to make animal idols (Deuteronomy 4:17-18). They would make the moon and stars objects of worship if left unchecked (Deuteronomy 4:19). Idolatry would whisper to them from every corner of their lives. And God’s voice that thundered from Sinai demanded their undivided hearts and attention. Worship only the God of the Covenant! Never worship an idol!

Yet how like Israel we still are. We may not carve pagan deities to bow to. We may not have shrines and offerings and rituals to idols per se. Be we do replace the glory of God with a worship of the world around us way too much. We do so when we believe wealth will satisfy and provide for us. We do so when we think human government is the key to our security. We do so when we demand that other people meet our needs. We do so when we enshrine animals with sentience, rights, and familial status. We do so when we think the natural universe is all there is and make our creation the result of random chance and an accident of the cosmos. How idolatrous our world still is!

Lord,
Purge me from my looking away from Your glory to the stuff around me. Forgive me for the worship of form and not glory! I will watch my heart. I want to see Your glory, hear only Your voice, and worship the mystery of the Almighty!
Amen

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