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Natural Idolatry – Rewind

Monday, June 10th, 2013 | Author:

You shall not make for yourself an image  Deuteronomy 5:8 NASB

Image – What is an idol?  We certainly recognize the idols of ancient religions.  The Hebrew word here (pesel from pasal, meaning “to cut or hew”) makes it clear that the initial emphasis of the commandment deals with all those sacred objects men make in the pursuit of gods.  But a little investigation shows us that there is more at stake here than wood and stone.  Deuteronomy tells us that idols are an abomination to God, lumped into the category with devious and evil acts, stealing, evil thoughts, lying and pride.  All are abominations to God (and, of course, we have never done any of these, have we?).  The issue of idolatry is so important that Hebrew has fourteen different words for “idol.”  Some apply to external objects of worship.  Some apply to internal objects of worship.  All fit that same prohibition.  Anything that demands absolute devotion in attitude or action other than the Lord is the subject of this commandment.

Of course, we have all heard the exhortations against placing our devotion in money, power, other people or causes.  I am quite sure we have all endured the declarations of those who challenge our commitment by pointing to the inherent idolatry in materialism, nationalism or some other “ism.”  What we might not acknowledge is how perfectly natural it is for men to turn to idols.  After all, God is invisible.  His actions are mysterious;  His methods inscrutable;  His plans unimaginable.  The Bible readily admits that His ways are not our ways.  We, on the other hand, are all about “show me” devotion.  We want proof before we commit.  We want something we can touch or see or taste before we are ready to turn our lives over.

God knows this.  How could He not know it?  He made us!  So, God provides the proof.  He acts on our behalf.  Our problem is not that God is absent from life.  Our problem is that we want a God Who acts right now!  We have stopped looking in the appropriate direction to see the trustworthiness of God because we have stopped looking into the past to find the meaning of our lives.  We have been seduced by the culture of significance into looking toward the future, and since we can’t see the future, we’re afraid.  So, we make something solid that we can hang on to.  As a result of not looking back at God’s acts, we see nothing that we can be sure of in the future.  Therefore, we make up some substitute for devotion.  We put our trust in what we have now;  those things that make us feel secure.  We devote ourselves to what we think will serve us best right now.  In the process, we slander God.

God leaves plenty of markers to establish His reliability.  There’s a pile of stones where the children crossed the Jordan.  There are altars scattered across the land.  There is a rainbow in the sky.  And there’s an empty tomb.  But unless we gather our courage from God’s past acts, we will find the future so threatening that worshipping what we have right in front of us will be the natural thing to do.  Turn around!  Ignore the culture that tells you your safety lies in planning for tomorrow.  Look where God has already been.  That’s what sets the course of your life.  Tomorrow never comes.  What you have is what God has already done and what you are going to do with it today.

Is it any wonder that the Hebrew word for the future is a word that gives us an image of a man in a rowboat, looking back at where he came from while he rows toward a place he cannot see?  Once aligned with the markers he can see (where he has already been), his future is secure.  He can’t row while straining his neck to look where he is going.  So, God leaves markers, lots of them, in order that we can get aligned with where He has been, and be confident that the alignment will take us where He wants us to go.

Natural idolatry is the attempt to row forward without looking back at God’s handiwork.

And, by the way, once we divest ourselves of the history of God with Israel, or the history of God with our own family trees, we are set adrift without markers.  No wonder we flounder in the sea of idolatry.

Want to read more about the Hebrew view of the future?  Click here.

Topical Index:  idolatry, future, Deuteronomy 5:8, pesel

LOGISTICS NOTE:  Today I will board the Celebrity cruise ship for the Greek Islands.  I will be lecturing on the influence of Greek thought on the West and the debt the Greeks have to the cultures of the Middle East.  I will have virtually NO internet for the next two weeks so don’t expect much in the way of comments.  See you on June 24.

Michael will be gone for a few days so if you order something please be patient.  We will send it out as soon as we can.

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Torah Alignment

Saturday, March 26th, 2011 | Author:

“Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.” Acts 15:19-20  NASB

Contaminated – What’s in your refrigerator?  That might be the appropriate modern-day question to introduce James’ pronouncement.  Far too often Christian theologians have suggested that this passage eliminates all Torah requirements except the rules given to Noah.  That’s probably because most interpreters in the last millennium have ignored the context of this announcement.  We will not.  Let’s take a longer look at what James has to say.

James is Jewish (despite the Anglicized name).  He is Ya’aqob, recognized leader of the Jerusalem assembly (qehillah) of the followers of the Way.  Everything about him stems from his Jewish roots and his understanding and worship of Yeshua Ha-Mashiach.   When he speaks, he speaks from the authority of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures).  His concern is not about how his fellow countrymen become “Christians.”  His concern is about all the Gentiles who are joining the Jewish qehillah.  After listening to the discussion, he determines that only four things are really required of these Gentile converts.  He agrees with Sha’ul that outward circumcision is not a requirement.  A Gentile does not have to become a Jew (the ritual process of becoming a Jew included circumcision) in order to be a participant in the fellowship of the qehillah.  That is settled.  What a Gentile must do, however, is meet four specific requirements.  These requirements begin with the idea of pagan contamination (in Greek, alisgema, a word occurring only here in the New Testament).  Of course, Ya’aqob wasn’t speaking Greek.  So whatever he said must be related to a Jewish-Hebrew perspective.  And once we begin to look there, we find something very interesting, not found in the Genesis account of Noah.

Whoever participates in table fellowship in the qehillah has fellowship with YHWH.  The Tanakh makes it clear that table fellowship incorporates “clean” food and specific kosher rituals.[1] Gentiles who are entering the qehillah fellowship are required to participate in the table fellowship according to Tanakh practice.  They may not participate in sacrificial meals to pagan deities because table fellowship was a symbol of worship.  In other words, a person could not participate in pagan rituals and, at the same time, participate in table fellowship with YHWH.  This requirement has nothing to do with “earning” salvation.  Salvation is God’s gift.  But it has everything to do with living a life in honor of YHWH and participating in the community called apart by YWHW.  James effectively says, “You can’t keep on doing those things associated with pagan table fellowship.  You have to leave all those behind.”

Now look at the four requirements.  In the context of the first century, Jewish culture in Jerusalem, each of these four actions would have been considered signs of pagan worship (offerings to idols, sexual worship rituals, strangulation rather than kosher slaughter, drinking blood or using blood in ways other than those prescribed by God).  So James says, “None of these can be allowed,” not because he is making a pronouncement about food but because these fellowship-related behaviors are associated with idolatry.

If you are going to participate at God’s table, you need to give up your idolatrous ways.  Today, James might have a different list, a list that includes our symbols of serving other gods.  Table fellowship with YHWH comes in only one flavor – His.

So, what’s in your refrigerator?  And what’s in your heart?  Have you put aside all those actions and elements that signal idolatry in any form?  Have you determined that you will sit at God’s table according to His directions?  Or are you trying to eat from your own menu?

Topical Index:  table fellowship, pollution, alisgema, food, idolatry, Acts 15:19-20

[1] cf. 1 Samuel 9:13, Jeremiah 11:15, Haggai 2:12, Zechariah 14:21

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A Culture Of Idolatry

Saturday, September 25th, 2010 | Author:

Here is a lecture on the decline of the civilization and its relation to a culture of idolatry.  There are powerpoints that go with this, so if you want them, just email me and ask.

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Political Idolatry

Monday, August 09th, 2010 | Author:

For you have said in your heart, “I will go up to the heavens. I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit in the mount of meeting, in the side of the north.  I will rise over the heights of the clouds; I will be compared to the Most High.” Isaiah 14:13-14

Compared – Isaiah speaks about the attitudes of Babylon.  Isaiah’s condemnation reveals the hubris of Babylon and Babylon’s attempt to usurp the place of God in the affairs of men.  Don’t read this too quickly.  There is something here that is very familiar, perhaps far too familiar.  But we need to take a step backward in order to see the application of Isaiah’s proclamation.

We need to notice that Isaiah condemns the political idolatry of Babylon.  What is political idolatry?  It is the assumption of roles and rituals by the State that rightly belong only to God.  In the Hebrew worldview, only God is King.  He may grant others the permission to act as His representatives (earthly kings), but He is Lord of all creation.  Any attempt by any person or power to displace His ultimate authority over all the affairs of men is a despicable sin because it is war against God’s reign and rule.  Babylon epitomizes this arrogant attempted coup d’etat by claiming that it is entitled to the highest throne.  What does that mean for Babylon’s citizenry?

When the State commits idolatry, it generally assumes roles that stretch beyond the political bounds.  In other words, the State begins to think and act like it is God.  It begins telling its citizens how they should conduct their ordinary affairs.  It starts regulating all economic transactions.  It takes control of education.  It provides alternative “religious” practices designed to glorify the State.  It demands deification of the nation and the leaders of the nation.  It grasps for more and more power.  It seeks control wherever possible.  It determines what is justice.  It decides what is good.  Each of these behaviors are direct confrontations with the authority of God, for He alone is the Lawgiver over life.  Whenever the State ceases to act as the Lord’s servant, whenever the State rejects or ignores the strict limitations placed upon it by biblical authority, it acts idolatrously.  Babylon is but one historical example of a constant threat to the sovereignty of YHWH by men who believe themselves worthy of worship.  A State that assumes the role of regulator, economic engine, educator, judge, jury, provider, protector and possessor is a political entity at war with God.

In this kind of war, there are no non-combatants.  As citizens of the State, we become endorsers of its unholy program whenever we adopt its offer to replace the roles rightfully belonging to God.  The State is not my mother, father and brother.  It is not my provider, promoter or priest.  It must never become my hope, my only help or my highest good.  If I allow any of these roles to become functions of the State, I mount the tower of Babel with the rest of the insurgents.

The Hebrew verb damah means “to make oneself like, to resemble.”  The pictograph, “behold, the door of chaos,” is an apt image.  It is possible to make an image of God without producing a single artifact.  All that is needed is to usurp His role.  All that is necessary is to attempt to replace Him.

Topical Index: idolatry, Isaiah 14:13-14, State, politics, damah

BACKORDERED: The inventory of Jesus Said To Her is sold out.  Thank you all for ordering.  I will have more books to ship in about a week, so don’t worry, you will get your copy.  I am traveling to Honduras but as soon as I return, the books will be mailed to you.

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Greed In Disguise

Friday, July 30th, 2010 | Author:

saying, “Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;” Revelation 18:16

Clothed – You’re reading John’s apocalyptic revelation.  You know that apocalyptic literature is filled with symbols and literary allusions.  You’re Jewish.  You know your own Scriptures because you have heard them read to you since you were a child.  Then you come across this verse.  What do you think about it?

For most of us, this is just a description of the royal clothing, the luxury, of the symbol of idolatry and disobedience – Babylon.  We don’t connect this with other passages in Scripture because we don’t have that rich history of the Jewish culture.  But John did.  He wasn’t writing to Western Europeans or Americans.  He was writing to Messianic Jews.  When he used the words ‘ei peribebliemenei bussinon kai porphuroun kai kokkinon (clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet), his reading audience would think of Exodus 28:5 (and 15-17), ve-et- hatchelet ve-et-haargaman ve-et-tolaat.  Fine linen, purple and scarlet had a very special use in Exodus.  These were the material of the robes of the High Priest.

Suddenly we see that John’s revelation connects disobedience and idolatry to an imitation of true worship.  Every reader in John’s culture would have recognized that the clothing of Babylon was a mockery of God’s adornment of His priest.  The Great Whore mimics God’s anointed.  The characteristics of Babylon might appear to be religious, but the truth is quite the opposite.

What do we learn from John’s deliberate connection between God’s adornment and the false counterpart?  What we learn is that the other characteristics of Babylon are also imitations of God’s Kingdom.  The copy looks right but it is corrupt to the core.  And what does that copy look like?  Well, we might start with Babylon’s promotion of luxury.  In a word, this is the idolatry of greed.  Heschel helps us see the compelling power of this god.  “Judaism is spiritual effrontery.  The tragedy is that there is disease and starvation all over the world, and we are building more luxurious hotels in Las Vegas.  Social dynamics are no substitute for moral responsibility.  The most urgent task is to destroy the myth that accumulation of wealth and the achievement of comfort are the chief vocations of man.”[1]

Babylon didn’t disappear in the 7th Century BC.  Babylon is here today.  Greed is the god of this age, and of many ages in the history of Man.  Greed isn’t limited to the millionaire who wants “just one more.”  Greed is the desire to have according to my expectations, without consideration for God’s purposes.

So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the LORD.  Joshua 9:14

“Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” John 6:27

Topical Index:  clothed, ‘ei peribebliemenei, greed, idolatry, Revelation 18:16, Exodus 28:5

[1] Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 31.

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Decision Tree

Saturday, July 17th, 2010 | Author:

For you trusted in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.”  Your wisdom and your knowledge, it leads you away, and you said in your heart, “I am and none else is.” Isaiah 47:10

Leads You Away – In characteristic Hebrew style, the verb used here for “leading away” is the same verb that could offer hope to the blind idolater.  That verb is shuv.  In this verse, shovevatach really means “turning away.”  But shuv is used hundreds of times for turning back to God.  The paramount cry of the Scripture is “Return to Me.”  It is God’s plea for us to come back to His grace and lovingkindness.  But the man who believes he is hidden from God is the man who turns away.  He does not miss God’s goodness because of ignorance.  He misses it because of idolatry.  It is his unfaithfulness that he wishes to hide.

Did you notice that this man falls because of his wisdom and his knowledge?  The phrase is alliterative (hohmatech veda’atech hi shovevatech) – “your wisdom and your knowledge they lead you.”  What kind of wisdom and knowledge leads a man away from the Lord?  Certainly it cannot be God’s wisdom or God’s knowledge.  The kind of wisdom and knowledge that lead away from God must be the mistaken wisdom and rebellious knowledge associated with false gods.  This wisdom and knowledge is a parody of the real thing.  It appears as insight and understanding, but it is in fact deception and destruction.  It leads to death, not life.

Idolatry is the fundamental sin of the Bible.  No, it’s not bowing down to little wooden statues or offering sacrifices before stone faces.  Idolatry is unfaithfulness to God’s claim on our lives.  In other words, it is a moral act, not a cognitive error.  I commit the sin of idolatry not when I mistakenly worship a false god (a mental error), but when I deliberately remove my commitment of fidelity to the One who loves me and made me.  God places a claim of ownership on me.  This is the impact of the first commandment.  I belong to Him.  It is my lust for another way of life, for another offer of apparent liberty that permits me to leave the covenant relationship I have sworn with Him.  This is why idolatry is described in terms of sexual infidelity.  It is spiritual adultery.

What is the false wisdom and the rebellious knowledge that leads me away from my King?  It is the appeal of the serpent.  “Just determine for yourself what is good for you and what is bad for you.”  Idolatry is me deciding what is good for me.  God alone can determine what is good.  When I enter into the moral equation, I introduce my own desires on par with the desires of my King and Master.  My knowledge of good and evil is precisely that, my knowledge.  As such, it denies my oath of fidelity to live by His determination of the good.  It is spiritual sexual sin.

The only question we need to ask of ourselves when it comes to idolatry is this:  Who decides?

Topical Index:  idolatry, shuv, leads you away, return to me, Isaiah 47:10

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Sight Unseen

Friday, July 16th, 2010 | Author:

For you trusted in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.”  Your wisdom and your knowledge, it leads you away, and you said in your heart, “I am and none else is.” Isaiah 47:10

Wickedness – How could anyone trust in wickedness?  Does that make any sense at all?  No one actually puts their faith in evil, do they?  Yes, there are folklore stories about making a pact with the devil, but for the most part we all know that these are fictitious.  So what can Isaiah mean?  The explanation is found in the elaboration.  To trust in ra’a’ (evil) is to say to yourself, “No one sees me.”  In other words, it is the presumption that I will not get caught.  To trust in wickedness is to assume that unobserved behavior avoids moral consequences. It doesn’t mean that I don’t acknowledge the behavior is evil.  It just means that I don’t think I will have to pay any consequences for doing it.

Why is this assumption about life so foolish?  It is foolish because it denies the sovereignty of God.  He always sees.  The man who thinks that getting away with it is the man thinks he is his own god.  Such a man is not only guilty of the moral infraction of his behavior, he is also guilty of idolatry.  He has put himself in God’s place.  He is a sinner twice over with a single act.

Of course, none of us is like this foolish man, are we?  We never take action that depends on secrecy in order to avoid consequences.  We never avoid the light in order to accomplish a deed.  We never calculate the probabilities of being caught before we move ahead.  No, all of our actions are able to stand in the light, justified because they are aligned with the character of the King.  We would be mortified to even imagine that any deed of ours needed to be hidden in an effort to avoid its natural consequences.  Of course. Of course.

But sometimes we aren’t quite so righteous, are we?  Sometimes we do seek a little excuse, we do create a bit of darkness, sometimes we do scheme how not to get caught.  What we don’t realize is that no matter how small the moral infraction, each of these acts is idolatry.  Each action asserts that God is not Judge of all Mankind, that He is not sovereign and supreme and that His law is not written into the fabric of the universe.

When I volunteered in the jail, I worked with young men who routinely asserted that their only crime was being caught.  They believed their actions were entirely justifiable.  These men had no remorse, only regret that they weren’t smart enough to avoid arrest.  Next time would be different.  I often wondered if I were any different, with the one exception that I didn’t get caught.  I was certainly capable of doing what they had done.  Did I avoid those actions because of the fear of being caught or because I wished only to follow the King?  Isaiah raises the age-old question of faith:  Who do you trust?  The idolater trusts himself.  He has no other god.  The problem is that his god is blind.  My God isn’t!

Topical Index:  trust, wickedness, ra’a’, idolatry, Isaiah 47:10

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The Sex God

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 | Author:

otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice. Exodus 34:15

Play The Harlot – When Israel entered Canaan, it was surrounded by pagan fertility cults.  The sex act was central to these pagan religions.  Human fertility was seen as an imitation of divine fertility.  Sexual practices of all kinds were part of religious worship.  It’s not surprising that YHWH gives explicit instructions about avoiding and destroying any representations of these false beliefs.  But if you think this is all just ancient history, you haven’t been paying attention to the text or the culture.  It’s time to investigate.

First, the text.  Our translations tone down the actual Hebrew verb here.  Zanu means “to have sexual relations.”  The euphemism “play the harlot” isn’t quite as forceful.  The King James, “go whoring” is a bit better, but even it transfers the imagery to prostitution.  Zanu can describe acts of prostitution, but its primary meaning is sexual relations.  Of course, from a Hebrew perspective, sexual relations outside of marriage include prostitution, but obviously are not limited to sex for hire.  God’s warning in Exodus is not about the street value of a “date.”  His warning is about breaking the exclusive covenant in an act of intimacy with another.  What is important is to appreciate the direct connection between sexual fidelity and covenant commitment to God alone.

Why does this matter?  It matters because everyone can clearly identify and empathize with sexual infidelity!  There is no doubt whatsoever about the break in trust, the damage to integrity and the disregard for the well-being of another when sexual relations are extended beyond the covenant partner.  A great many of us today know exactly what this feels like.  From God’s perspective, that same feeling is how He feels when we are unfaithful to Him.  Zanu isn’t limited to temple prostitution.  It’s about the equivalence between sexual infidelity and idolatry.  Idolatry is not simply the “worship” of a false god.  We need to replace this deficient picture with a more robust (and disgusting) image.  Idolatry is having an intimate relationship with a god of my own making.

Put aside those misleading perceptions about worshipping statues or stones.  Forget the images of prostrating before golden bulls or sacred poles.  Idolatry is not about images.  It’s about an insatiable need for love from something or someone other than YHWH.  It is ego lust – the boiling desire to be affirmed by something less than my Creator.  With this in mind, my idols become whatever grants me ultimate purpose, meaning and significance.  There are a lot of contemporary candidates for the role of statues and stones.  If you find that you are infatuated, overcome or craving someone or something so much that you simply must possess them in order to feel whole, you are playing with idolatry no matter what you pretend to call it.

Topical index:  zanu, sexual relations, idolatry, Exodus 34:15

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Idolatry Is Alive and Well

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 | Author:

Most of us don’t realize that vast populations of the world still practice explicit idolatry.  On my recent trip, I can across these images.  They tell the story.

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The Worship Curse

Friday, April 10th, 2009 | Author:

There you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, that cannot see or hear or eat or smell.  Deuteronomy 4:28

You Will Serve – Israel’s occupation of the Promised Land is completely conditional.  Their election as God’s people is completely unconditional.  God chooses and obligates Himself in the election of Israel, but Israel must obey if they are to occupy the land.  Keeping these two covenant arrangements separate is the key to understanding the difference between Law and Grace.  Disobedience brings exile, not replacement.

Moses warns the people as strenuously as he can that obedience is absolutely essential for blessing.  In the middle of his warning, he suggests some of the consequences of disobedience.  One of those consequences seems quite strange to our ears.  Moses says that if God’s people disobey Him, they will be cursed into worshipping false gods.  In other words, idolatry is not only the cause of curses.  It is also the punishment for disobedience.  Idolatry is a two-edged disaster.  It removes us from God and it guarantees that we will be cursed into serving gods that can do nothing.

The Hebrew verb avad covers both work and worship.  It describes toilsome labor, joyous activity, service to others and service to God.  When work is done in alignment with the King, it is the wonderful fulfillment of honoring God with one’s unique design.  But the same word is also used to recount the frustrating toil that accompanies being out of alignment with God in both work and service to Him.  In this verse, Moses says that as a result of disobedience, God’s children will be forced to toil on behalf on idols.  They will find nothing but frustration when they pray to and serve gods of wood and stone. We all know this is true, don’t we?  But did you know that God causes idolatry among those disobedient to Him?  Why would He do such an apparently counter-productive thing?

The answer is found in the act of parenting.  Does your child have an uncontrollable appetite for cookies?  If instruction and warnings do not curb his hunger, perhaps a forced feeding frenzy will.  I have friends who will never touch Tequila again.  Why?  Because at one point in their lives, they had too much.  The results were sickening (literally).  They were cured through their over-indulgence.  If God wants His people to see the utter stupidity of idolatry, is there any better way than forcing them to serve gods who can’t do a single thing for them?  It won’t be long before the people recognize their foolishness and abandon the practice.  For Israel, it only took about 1000 years to learn this lesson.  Not too long at all, considering the eternity that God was preparing for them.

Hopefully, you and I will learn this lesson before we die.  It’s not as easy as it appears.  Disobedience is both individual and communal.  It is certainly obvious that on a national scale we no longer serve the living God.  We worship idols of paper and possessions.  When times get bad, we cry out to them.  In fact, we go on feeding frenzies, offering them more and more in hopes that they will be appeased and grant us prosperity.  But they do not hear.  Perhaps God has decided to make us serve these empty, man-made objects so that we will, at last, see our foolishness and return to Him.  Perhaps.  Of course, it could be that we just need to drink too much of the world’s version of Tequila and get really sick in order to realize that money, power and possessions are gods we can do without.

Topical Index:  idolatry, avad, curse, Deuteronomy 4:28

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