THE DANGER IN IDOLATRY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of My wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger Me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.”

“But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.”

“‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says. ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?”

“As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”

Isaiah 10:5-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Yesterday, we looked at how the people of Israel just didn’t get it when it came to who they were in relation to the Lord God Almighty. For instead of taking a subordinate, humble, submissive, obedient attitude before the Lord, they chose to be insubordinate, prideful and arrogant, dismissive, and disobedient. These attitudes left the Lord no other choice than to harshly judge His people through sending marauding attackers who would attack, destroy, and then haul the people away into exile. One such attacker was the nation of Assyria who would overwhelm and annihilate the northern kingdom of Israel.

But Assyria shared three things with the Israel they were sent to attack.

First, they were on their own program. Although God was sending them as instruments of judgment, they felt that what they were doing was on their own accord and for their own benefit. In other words, it wasn’t about God but rather about them.

Second, Assyria worshipped false gods as well. The nation was grounded in polytheism and idol worship was embedded in the culture. And so the Israelites were being attacked by a nation who had turned from God just as much as they had.

Finally, Assyria didn’t get it anymore than Israel did and that attitude would spell their demise. For as we will look at tomorrow, the Assyrians were going to be judged by God as well for their attitudes and apostasy.

But before we get there, I want to focus in on the matter of idols here and the danger that worshipping them brings. We know it’s a risky practice because God commanded against it. You remember His words, right?

“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; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Exodus 20:3-5

Of course, we’re left to wonder in regard to the people of Israel, “What part of ‘you shall not’ did you not understand?” Maybe if they had considered it, they would have not experienced what they did.

But we know they didn’t. Ditto for the Assyrians. And so God showed them both that He means business and will not compete with any other thing of the earth fashioned and worshipped by man. Perhaps we had better remember this as we look at our lives today.

For do you worship any false idols? Be careful how you answer for Jesus said this during His Sermon on the Mount:

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

Going back to the matter of worshipping idols, our Savior asks us to ponder our hearts to see what we treasure most.

Maybe it’s money as you are always seeking to get more of it and accumulate greater wealth. If your treasure is money then your heart will be centered on money.

Maybe it’s prestige and fame as you are seeking success in all that you do. You are so hungry for distinction and recognition that it’s all you think about. You obsess over it so much that it’s the only treasure you long for and with that, your heart is centered on it as well.

Maybe your treasure is a person – a parent, partner, or child. Or possibly you are so fixated on a celebrity, whether on movies or television or in music – that you dedicate yourself to that person’s every move. It’s easy for us to worship other people and the indicator that we are worshipping people comes in how we treasure them. If they are our treasure then our heart is attached to them.

I could go on and on but you get the point. The world would offer us a lot of things that we could value as our treasure in life, thus connecting our heart to the things of the world, something Jesus called treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19). The problem with this is that we become just as much idolaters as the Old Testament Israelites and Assyrians – and we know how God reacted to that.

Friends, the only way out of the idolatry trap is to answer the question, “What is your treasure?” with only one answer: Jesus. For where our treasure is, there our heart will be also and there is no other place our heart should be as Christians than in Jesus Christ, the One from whom we draw our very identity. When we do this, when we fully make Jesus our sole treasure in life, then and only then do we begin to store up the kind of treasure Jesus called us to, the treasures of heaven, the kind of treasure that keeps us from offending the Lord and incurring His consequences, the kind of treasure that leads us to righteousness, holiness, and the other fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Where is your treasure in life?

It’s a question we had all better consider and consider carefully.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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