Serving idols

22 Kings 17:41a (NIV) Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols.

Don't we all do this? We don't want to. It isn't our goal. But we all do it sometime or another. I have a friend who bought a new vehicle. Every day for what seemed like months and months, this friend washed this new vehicle. Every single day. At one point the friend made a comment about "having" to wash it. I said, "you don't have to wash it." The response was about it being a new vehicle. To me, that is serving an idol. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with washing your car. But it seems like the car owns the owner if it demands to be washed! If you HAVE to wash it, you are not in charge. The car is.

I think we look at the idols in the Old Testament and think of wooden carved pieces, or golden calves, and somehow become trapped into thinking those are the only things that are idols. We think it is silly praying to an Asherah pole (2 Chronicles 33:18-20) or terrible sacrificing our children to Baal (See Jeremiah 32:30-35). It is something that only the uneducated of the Old Testament would do. But if we really look at idols, we find that we stumble all the time, even as we worship the Lord.

When we look at the Bible, we find that we are not so different. The setting is different. The stresses are different. But we are so much the same. We worship God and sacrifice to idols. We spend too much time at work to sacrifice for the idols of the house, or car, or both. We sacrifice money to buy the latest gadget or the biggest whatever. We sacrifice time to keep up with whatever we've bought. Frequently, we worship the idol of self and sacrifice to ourselves. We sacrifice time with family for time with the people of higher status. We sacrifice our beliefs to keep a job that we might have considered unjust, or unfair, or unworthy just a few years before we bought the new house and car and now can't quit.

Worship of idols sneaks up on us. We don't intentionally look for idols to worship. They just appear before we know it. Frequently, it is our reaction to the new thing that makes it an idol. We just must take time to examine our relationship to the new thing to understand if we are worshiping and sacrificing for it. It might be like alcohol, drugs or food. Ask yourself do you have an unhealthy relationship with it? If so, it might be your idol.

The Bible gives us guidance about the snares in the world. They are not just snares for OT times but are also snares (in different form) for us in the 21st century. We need to heed the warnings in the Bible. We need to examine them to see how they apply to us right now....ok, how they apply to ME right now. I have to examine what I worship and sacrifice to in order to recognize what my idols are. I am not better than the Israelites of the OT. I probably have some I don't recognize. But I better start!

God, Father, please forgive my ignorance of the idols in my life. Expose those to me, then help me tear them down from the high places in my life. Thank you for your grace on both counts. Amen.

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