Re-Examining Idolatry

Today as I read for my devotions I came across the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32. This chapter tells the story of how the Israelites and Aaron melted down all the gold jewelry of the people and carved it into a golden calf. After fashioning an idol they began to worship it. All the while Moses is up on the mountain receiving the stone tablets of the law. Isn’t it ironic that he’s receiving the law while the Israelites are breaking it? As I read Erwin Lutzer’s take on the chapter in His book “Getting Closer To God”, I found a heavy conviction setting in. I was surprised to look at this passage from the new perspective that Lutzer suggests:

“We are all idol lovers. Left to ourselves, we drift toward idolatry; we all want to create gods who are according to our liking. Let’s not read this story as if it were ancient history. This is a diagnosis of the human heart. When we see the Israelites at the base of the mountain, we see ourselves.”

Wow! I never would have compared myself to the Israelites who cried out for an idol to worship that day. After all, I’ve never crafted any little buddhas or incan faces out of stone or gold. However, an idol isn’t just a little figure that we worship. It can be anything that takes God’s rightful place in our lives. C.S. Lewis defines an idol as our “overwhelming first.” In other words, our idol is whatever or whoever overwhelms our thoughts and our desires. Though today we may be guilty of idolatry in the mind, we exhibit the same hearts as the Israelites did when they worshipped the calf.

I began to realize that I still have idolatry issues in my life! Getting past this is not just a one time deal-with-it kind of thing. It’s more like keeping the weeds off your lawn. New ones keep sprouting and you have to keep pulling them, one at a time.

Lutzer very simply states that “[i]dentifying our idols is quite easy. We must ask two questions: What do we think about in our spare time? And, whom do we wish to please?”

Yikes! After asking myself those two questions I realized that there were several answers that weren’t what they should be. I realize now that many times I have let friendships and other people become my “overwhelming first”, and even more so…myself. How many times have I played video games excessively just to entertain and please myself? How many times have I wanted to talk to or spend time with my friends just to feel better? As if they can meet my needs. Lutzer puts it beautifully saying, “[w]hen God is silent and appears indifferent to our needs, a climate is created where idolatry flourishes.” I can honestly say that I have been unfaithful many times when God has let the climate occur and as it says, idolatry has flourished in my life.

But the most important part out of all of this is how we can remove those idols and restore God to the “overwhelming first” in our lives. To do this we must repent. When God shows us our idols we need to name them to Him, one by one. We need to ask God for help to destroy idolatry as it takes root in our lives.

“The dearest idol I have known,

What e’er that idol be,

Help me to snatch it from the throne

And worship only Thee.”

“If we are repentant of our idolatry, God will help us.”