In my daily devotions, I am reading through the books of Kings and Chronicles. I am always amazed when I read this history part of the Bible that the people turned so easily to idol worship. I know this was written in a different time and place, so it is easy for me to initially think that this has nothing to do with me. I don't know anyone that worships idols made of wood or stone. I really can't relate. But I need to stop a minute and think about that.
In American culture, idol worship isn't easy to spot. I know in other cultures there are obvious statues and shrines, evidence of the worship of a pantheon of gods, but not so in America. Here, the prevailing thought seems to be that educated people don't worship any god. We've evolved beyond that. But to what? Where is our heart? Where are our thoughts? My first thought is that in place of the worship of God, we turn to materialism. We use all of our time and talent to amass more and more stuff. Bigger, better, and more. So much stuff that we need to rent storage facilities to house it all. That is what we live for. Now, maybe we don't worship the big screen LED tv, but we spend our time and energy on it. I could see this as idol worship in a broad sense.
Then I thought a little further. Maybe our idol worship is even more than that. There is a line in a song by Michael Card that says, "we have made You in our image, so our faith's idolatry." That's heavy. We want to worship God, but not the powerful God of the Bible that spoke the world into existence and gave us the Ten Commandments. That God holds us accountable. That God has rules and standards. We want a God that is more like, well, Barney. Happy all the time. Easy going. No committments. No rules. He is just there to make sure we are happy and healthy and have everything we want and need. A god that serves us! Wait a minute!!! That, then, makes us God!
So, when I read the struggles of the people in the time of the Kings and Chronicles, I can see that they are not just turning from worshipping the true God, they are turning to the current culture. They don't want to be different, to stand out and worship a different God. They just want to be like everybody else. When I put it that way, it sounds a little too familiar. Something to think about.
In American culture, idol worship isn't easy to spot. I know in other cultures there are obvious statues and shrines, evidence of the worship of a pantheon of gods, but not so in America. Here, the prevailing thought seems to be that educated people don't worship any god. We've evolved beyond that. But to what? Where is our heart? Where are our thoughts? My first thought is that in place of the worship of God, we turn to materialism. We use all of our time and talent to amass more and more stuff. Bigger, better, and more. So much stuff that we need to rent storage facilities to house it all. That is what we live for. Now, maybe we don't worship the big screen LED tv, but we spend our time and energy on it. I could see this as idol worship in a broad sense.
Then I thought a little further. Maybe our idol worship is even more than that. There is a line in a song by Michael Card that says, "we have made You in our image, so our faith's idolatry." That's heavy. We want to worship God, but not the powerful God of the Bible that spoke the world into existence and gave us the Ten Commandments. That God holds us accountable. That God has rules and standards. We want a God that is more like, well, Barney. Happy all the time. Easy going. No committments. No rules. He is just there to make sure we are happy and healthy and have everything we want and need. A god that serves us! Wait a minute!!! That, then, makes us God!
So, when I read the struggles of the people in the time of the Kings and Chronicles, I can see that they are not just turning from worshipping the true God, they are turning to the current culture. They don't want to be different, to stand out and worship a different God. They just want to be like everybody else. When I put it that way, it sounds a little too familiar. Something to think about.
