GOD REMAINS GOD WITHOUT YOU OR ME!
IDENTIFYING AND DEALING WITH THE IDOLS OF OUR HEARTS.(EZE14:1-8) [PART ONE]
What comes to our mind when we hear the word *idol*? Do we imagine an idol to be a statue that we bow down or give offerings and sacrifices to? Or do we imagine idols to be famous people in our culture...actors, actresses, K-pop stars, singers, etc?
The Bible has much to say about idolatry,and It is full of warnings against the sin of idolatry. And not just in the Old Testament. In one of the last letters of the New Testament to be written, John writes at the close of the letter, *Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.* (1 John 5:21)
But perhaps you may wonder, what relevance has this to do with me today? Is idolatry still an issue for us? As Christians, most of us don’t bow before physical statues or worship idols! But does that mean we don’t have trouble with idols? Are there other idols that we fall prey to?
To contemporary people (especially this so-called Gen Z generation,) the word idolatry conjures up pictures of primitive people bowing down before statues.
But in reality, our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from these ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. Each has its "priesthoods," its totems and rituals. Each one has its shrines...be it office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums...where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster.
What are the gods of beauty, power, money, and achievement but these same things that have assumed mythic proportions in our individual lives and in our society?
So, YES...idolatry is still a huge problem for Christians, and many of us can fall into the sin of idolatry without even realising it. There’s more to idols than meets the eye, there are what we call *IDOLS OF THE HEART*
Firstly,what is Idolatry and Why is it so Serious?
The first mention of the sin of idolatry in the Bible is found in the book of Exodus in the Ten Commandments given by God to the Israelite people. Let’s have a look at Exodus 20:3-5,
“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”
The sin of idolatry is addressed immediately in the first two Commandments. God desires that we recognise that He alone is God, and that we worship Him alone. Nothing else in the whole of Creation should be worshipped, or is deserving of first place in our lives except God. THIS IS TO SAY THAT, WHATEVER TAKES *FIRST PLACE IN OUR HEARTS IS OUR IDOL!*
Furthermore, there is nothing that can be crafted by human hands that can accurately represent the infinite nature of God...the Eternal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient and invisible God. That is why God commanded us to not make any image...any idol...to represent God, because all these things do not even come close to representing who God truly is!
In Deuteronomy 4:15-18, hear what Moses says about the sin of idolatry:
15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude
(FORM OR SHAPE) on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude(FORM OR SHAPE) of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17. The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18. The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: (Deu 4: 15-18)
God is invisible and for good reason. No idol can ever capture Who God is...the Timeless, All-Powerful Creator of the Universe, who spoke everything into being just by speaking!
The God who brought human beings to life by breathing into the dust of the earth. How could we then reduce God to a lifeless idol and worship an idol? Thus, God hates idolatry...He demands that we worship Him, not an idol.
God often uses the description of marriage to picture His relationship with His people. God is the Husband, and His people as his Bride...linked in a covenantal relationship. That's why the sin of idolatry...worship of other gods, is often described in the Old Testament in the vivid and shocking language of prostitution or adultery.
Nevertheless, in spite of all these warnings against idolatry, we know from Israel’s history that they committed the sin of idolatry (or spiritual prostitution/adultery) time and time again. We also know that Israel’s downward spiral into rampant idolatry was so terrible in God’s eyes, He had to punish Israel by allowing them to be conquered by foreign nations and forced to live in exile in a foreign land. The exile was God’s punishment for the sin of idolatry.
Because of the sin of idolatry... Israel’s and Judah’s refusal to worship Jehovah, the LORD their God, they were punished, their nation destroyed, and their people sent into exile. Israel ignored the warnings of prophets like Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Ezekiel's Mandate;
Though Ezekiel was in Babylon, God gave him supernatural vision of the things happening in Jerusalem, hundreds of miles away. Ezekiel was commanded by God to prophesy regarding the impending Fall and Destruction of Jerusalem.
And why was Jerusalem to fall? Because of their sin of idolatry!
In Ezekiel 8,God told Ezekiel, *Son of man, do you see what they are doing...the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary?*(8:6)
What Ezekiel saw shocked him.
(Vs 3-16) There was:
The sin of idolatry was being committed right in the Temple... the place where God’s name rested. Because of God’s Holiness, and the Holiness of His Name, He will never allow anyone to profane His Name and His Glory, especially through the sin He detests so much, hates so much... that of idolatry.
Thus, God said his punishment would come upon Judah. We then read one of the saddest incidents in all the Bible...found in Ezekiel Chapter 10. Remember what God said, idolatry "drives me far from My Sanctuary?" that was fulfilled... Ezekiel 10:18 says, "Then the glory of the Lord departed." God’s presence then was physically seen in the cloud... this left the Temple!
Back to Ezekiel 14, where we read that the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord. Let's look at three things we need in order to deal with the idols of our hearts.
In Dealing With the Idols of Our Heart,we need to;
A: Recognise
First, we need to recognize the reality of idols of our heart.
Let’s look at Ezekiel 14:1-3,
1.Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me.
2.Then the word of the Lord came to me:
3 "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?"
Like we began with, for many of us, *idols*in our minds are statues. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places of the world, INTERNAL IDOL WORSHIP, WITHIN THE HEART, IS UNIVERSAL.
In Ezekiel 14:3, God says about the elders of Israel, "These men have set up their idols in their hearts." Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, *Idols? What idols? I don’t see any idols.*
God was(and is) saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.
Besides physical, outward idols, there are invisible, inward idols of the hearts. Though we may not worship a foreign god, or bow down to an idol statue, there are many things that can still serve as idols in our lives, and we need to recognize these idols of the heart.
Again,"An idol is anything more important to us than God, anything that absorbs our hearts and imagination more than God, and anything that we seek to give us what only God can give."
An idol can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement or popularity. An idol can be a romantic relationship, friendship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry.
An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart, *If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.*
We really do need to recognize the serious consequences (God’s silence, judgment) when we have idols in our hearts. What happens when a person has an idol in his/her heart? Though you try to seek God, pray, and inquire of Him. He may not answer you!(Eze.14:3)
In essence,God is saying, *What right do they have to seek me, when they have idols in their hearts?* And God chose not to answer these men. FOR ME, THIS IS THE GREATEST TRAGEDY THAT CAN BEFALL A MAN... GOD SAYING, I DON'T KNOW YOU! HE TOLD JEREMIAH;
Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. (Jer 15: 1)
When we return,we shall be looking at someways we can identify idols in our hearts...Shalom!
GOD REMAINS GOD WITHOUT YOU OR ME!
🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥
IDENTIFYING AND DEALING WITH THE IDOLS OF OUR HEARTS.(EZE14:1-8) [PART ONE]
🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥
What comes to our mind when we hear the word *idol*? Do we imagine an idol to be a statue that we bow down or give offerings and sacrifices to? Or do we imagine idols to be famous people in our culture...actors, actresses, K-pop stars, singers, etc?
The Bible has much to say about idolatry,and It is full of warnings against the sin of idolatry. And not just in the Old Testament. In one of the last letters of the New Testament to be written, John writes at the close of the letter, *Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.* (1 John 5:21)
But perhaps you may wonder, what relevance has this to do with me today? Is idolatry still an issue for us? As Christians, most of us don’t bow before physical statues or worship idols! But does that mean we don’t have trouble with idols? Are there other idols that we fall prey to?
To contemporary people (especially this so-called Gen Z generation,) the word idolatry conjures up pictures of primitive people bowing down before statues.
But in reality, our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from these ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. Each has its "priesthoods," its totems and rituals. Each one has its shrines...be it office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums...where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster.
What are the gods of beauty, power, money, and achievement but these same things that have assumed mythic proportions in our individual lives and in our society?
So, YES...idolatry is still a huge problem for Christians, and many of us can fall into the sin of idolatry without even realising it. There’s more to idols than meets the eye, there are what we call *IDOLS OF THE HEART*
👉 Firstly,what is Idolatry and Why is it so Serious?
The first mention of the sin of idolatry in the Bible is found in the book of Exodus in the Ten Commandments given by God to the Israelite people. Let’s have a look at Exodus 20:3-5,
“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”
The sin of idolatry is addressed immediately in the first two Commandments. God desires that we recognise that He alone is God, and that we worship Him alone. Nothing else in the whole of Creation should be worshipped, or is deserving of first place in our lives except God. THIS IS TO SAY THAT, WHATEVER TAKES *FIRST PLACE IN OUR HEARTS IS OUR IDOL!*
Furthermore, there is nothing that can be crafted by human hands that can accurately represent the infinite nature of God...the Eternal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient and invisible God. That is why God commanded us to not make any image...any idol...to represent God, because all these things do not even come close to representing who God truly is!
In Deuteronomy 4:15-18, hear what Moses says about the sin of idolatry:
15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude
(FORM OR SHAPE) on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude(FORM OR SHAPE) of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17. The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18. The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: (Deu 4: 15-18)
God is invisible and for good reason. No idol can ever capture Who God is...the Timeless, All-Powerful Creator of the Universe, who spoke everything into being just by speaking!
The God who brought human beings to life by breathing into the dust of the earth. How could we then reduce God to a lifeless idol and worship an idol? Thus, God hates idolatry...He demands that we worship Him, not an idol.
God often uses the description of marriage to picture His relationship with His people. God is the Husband, and His people as his Bride...linked in a covenantal relationship. That's why the sin of idolatry...worship of other gods, is often described in the Old Testament in the vivid and shocking language of prostitution or adultery.
Nevertheless, in spite of all these warnings against idolatry, we know from Israel’s history that they committed the sin of idolatry (or spiritual prostitution/adultery) time and time again. We also know that Israel’s downward spiral into rampant idolatry was so terrible in God’s eyes, He had to punish Israel by allowing them to be conquered by foreign nations and forced to live in exile in a foreign land. The exile was God’s punishment for the sin of idolatry.
Because of the sin of idolatry... Israel’s and Judah’s refusal to worship Jehovah, the LORD their God, they were punished, their nation destroyed, and their people sent into exile. Israel ignored the warnings of prophets like Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
👉 Ezekiel's Mandate;
Though Ezekiel was in Babylon, God gave him supernatural vision of the things happening in Jerusalem, hundreds of miles away. Ezekiel was commanded by God to prophesy regarding the impending Fall and Destruction of Jerusalem.
And why was Jerusalem to fall? Because of their sin of idolatry!
In Ezekiel 8,God told Ezekiel, *Son of man, do you see what they are doing...the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary?*(8:6)
What Ezekiel saw shocked him.
(Vs 3-16) There was:
The sin of idolatry was being committed right in the Temple... the place where God’s name rested. Because of God’s Holiness, and the Holiness of His Name, He will never allow anyone to profane His Name and His Glory, especially through the sin He detests so much, hates so much... that of idolatry.
Thus, God said his punishment would come upon Judah. We then read one of the saddest incidents in all the Bible...found in Ezekiel Chapter 10. Remember what God said, idolatry "drives me far from My Sanctuary?" that was fulfilled... Ezekiel 10:18 says, "Then the glory of the Lord departed." God’s presence then was physically seen in the cloud... this left the Temple!
Back to Ezekiel 14, where we read that the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord. Let's look at three things we need in order to deal with the idols of our hearts.
👉In Dealing With the Idols of Our Heart,we need to;
A: Recognise
First, we need to recognize the reality of idols of our heart.
Let’s look at Ezekiel 14:1-3,
1.Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me.
2.Then the word of the Lord came to me:
3 "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?"
Like we began with, for many of us, *idols*in our minds are statues. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places of the world, INTERNAL IDOL WORSHIP, WITHIN THE HEART, IS UNIVERSAL.
In Ezekiel 14:3, God says about the elders of Israel, "These men have set up their idols in their hearts." Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, *Idols? What idols? I don’t see any idols.*
God was(and is) saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.
Besides physical, outward idols, there are invisible, inward idols of the hearts. Though we may not worship a foreign god, or bow down to an idol statue, there are many things that can still serve as idols in our lives, and we need to recognize these idols of the heart.
Again,"An idol is anything more important to us than God, anything that absorbs our hearts and imagination more than God, and anything that we seek to give us what only God can give."
An idol can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement or popularity. An idol can be a romantic relationship, friendship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry.
An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart, *If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.*
We really do need to recognize the serious consequences (God’s silence, judgment) when we have idols in our hearts. What happens when a person has an idol in his/her heart? Though you try to seek God, pray, and inquire of Him. He may not answer you!(Eze.14:3)
In essence,God is saying, *What right do they have to seek me, when they have idols in their hearts?* And God chose not to answer these men. FOR ME, THIS IS THE GREATEST TRAGEDY THAT CAN BEFALL A MAN... GOD SAYING, I DON'T KNOW YOU! HE TOLD JEREMIAH;
Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. (Jer 15: 1)
When we return,we shall be looking at someways we can identify idols in our hearts...Shalom🙇🙏!
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