Idols
of the Mind
The First and Second Commandments
Isaiah 44:9-17, Acts 17:22-25
September 28, 2014
Grace Presbyterian Church
Rev. Dr. Richard E. Miller
Review
Last Sunday we directed our attention upon the background and meaning of
the Ten Commandments and found, much to our delight, that these commandment
were, and are today, gifts and blessings from God. Why? Because they are
expressions of God’s love and his desire to protect us. They are guides for out
pathway through life.
This
morning This morning, we’re
going to look more closely at the first and second commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me”
and “You shall not make for yourself an
idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow
down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”
Theses two are quite similar and often combined.
Idols
in Biblical Times
To understand these two commandments more clearly, we must remember that
in biblical times, it was very common for the people to worship many gods.
There could be gods of the harvest, gods to protect, gods of fertility, gods of
war, and gods of healing. And since
human beings like to worship a god they can see and feel, idols were created
out of such elements as wood, gold, silver or bronze. And God is jealous simply
because our worship, praise, honor and greatest love rightly belong to God and
no one else for only God is truly worthy of it.
Moses One example of idol worship took place with
Moses and the Israelites. After 430 years of slavery, Moses led them to freedom
and across the wilderness to Mt. Sinai. Upon arrival, Moses ascended the
mountain to talk with God. The Israelites waited for him to return, but the
days and weeks went by and no Moses.
They
got tired of waiting and asked Joshua to make them a god they could worship. So
Joshua took all the gold from the bracelets, earrings and jewelry of the
people, melted it down, and fashioned the gold into a golden calf. The golden
calf was the god Apis, the same god the Egyptians worshiped while they were in
bondage for over 400 years. When Joshua finished the calf, the people rejoiced
and bowed down to it. They had a god familiar to them that they could see,
touch, and worship.
Meanwhile,
God had given Moses the Ten Commandments written on two tablets of stone. When
he returned from the mountain carrying the commandments, he saw them bowing
down to the golden calf and was furious! to seeing the Israelites worshipping the
Apis, the golden calf? He threw the tablets on the ground breaking them in
pieces. He then grabbed the golden calf, burned it with fire, ground it to
powder, mixed it with water and made the Israelites drink it. By so doing, he
demonstrated vividly their golden calf could do nothing to save itself.
Isaiah
The worthlessness and impotence of idols was illustrated the prophet Isaiah to
tell of a man who split a piece of wood in half. With one half he made a fire
to warm himself and cook his meal. With the other half, he carved a wooden
image of a god. However, his little wooden god couldn’t do a thing. It just sat
there staring into space, incapable of movement. It had to be dusted like
furniture. If it fell over, he had to set it back up. Yet the man bowed down to
this piece of wood morning and night. And if his home was threatened by fire or
enemies, he had to save his god by carrying it to safety. [Isaiah 44:9-20]
St. Boniface and Wotan Worshiping idols continued through the years.
An
example occurred in the year 724 when Saint Boniface was preaching the gospel
to the Germans. He found some who were worshiping a huge oak tree in a
clearing. They would pray to the tree, bow down to the tree, and do everything
they could to protect the tree. They even gave it a name - Wotan the Tree God.
Nothing Boniface could preach swayed their minds. So Boniface decided to
demonstrate how worthless their worship of this tree was. He took an axe and
simply chopped the tree down. The Germans did nothing to stop him for they were
sure that Wotan would strike Boniface dead.
When
nothing happened, and Boniface was unharmed, they listened to the Gospel and
became Christians.
The
worthlessness of idols is spelled out by the prophet Habakkuk when he wrote:
"Of what value is an idol, since a
man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in
his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to
wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It
is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in
his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him." [Habakkuk
2:18-20]
Paul
Our New Testament scripture for the morning tells of the time when Paul
was in Athens. One day he took a walk around the city and saw one shrine after
another, each containing an idol of a different god before which people would
bow and pray. He noticed that one of their idols was labeled “To an unknown god.” So he said to the
people, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you
are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the
objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To
an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and
earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human
hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life
and breath and all things. Notice his psychology.
He first of all compliments them on being very religious. Everyone likes to
hear something like that. Then he says that the God of creation who is Lord of all does not live in shrines or is he
served by human hands since he needs nothing.
Idols of our Minds Now since none of us go home from worship and
bow down before idols of wood, plaster or gold, we’re off the hook, right?
We’ve escaped the first two commandments and now all we have to worry about are
eight instead of ten! Now if this was true, I now could say
“Amen” and go into the morning prayer. But of course, you know I’m not going to
do that, right?
That
being the case, let’s look at a different kind of idol - not
fashioned out of gold, silver or wood, but rather fashioned in our minds. One
man introduces this concept in this way: “What
other gods could we have besides the Lord? Plenty. For Israel there were the
Canaanite Baals, those jolly nature gods whose worship was a rampage of
gluttony, drunkenness, and ritual prostitution. For us there are still the
great gods Sex, Shekels, and Stomach (an unholy trinity constituting one god:
self), and the other enslaving trio, Pleasure, Possessions, and Position, whose
worship is described as "The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). Football, the Firm, and Family are
also gods for some. Indeed the list of other gods is endless, for anything that
anyone allows to run his life becomes his god and the claimants for this prerogative
are legion. In the matter of life's basic loyalty, temptation is a many-headed
monster.” [James Packer, Your Father Loves
You , Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986].
Martin Luther
Martin Luther put it this way. “Whatever
your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional
savior.”
Augustine
said, “Idolatry is worshiping anything
that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshiped.”
Love God More So where does that leave us? It’s really very
clear. Anything or anyone that we allow to rule our life becomes our god. If it
is God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, that’s fine. But if we love anyone
or anything more than God, we are worshiping an idol. Jesus put it quite
clearly when he said, “Whoever loves
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” [Matthew 10:32-42 NRSV] Jesus
isn’t saying that we shouldn’t love our parents or children. He’s not saying we
shouldn’t love sports, or our job, or Grace Presbyterian. He’s just saying that
we must love God more than any of these.
Identifying Idols
The idols of our mind are quickly identified by simply looking at how we spend
our time, talent and treasure. This includes looking at our checkbook, our
appointment calendar, the television programs we watch, the movies we go see,
and the ways we spend our leisure time. Whatever dominates our lives has become
our idol.
Holy
of Holies In Jewish Temples, there is a sacred
room called the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest may enter this room and
then, only once a year on the Day of Atonement. Inside the Holy of Holies sits
the Ark of the Covenant. This is a chest of wood layered with gold inside and
out. In the chest are two stone tablets representing the Ten Commandments. The
lid of the ark serves as a portable throne, a seat for God. On that throne is absolutely nothing.
No statue or image. Just the invisible presence of God who is so mighty that
there is no way to represent him.
In
our sanctuary we have a communion table, baptismal fount, and Cross. We have
Bibles, hymnals, and stained glass windows. They are all aids to worship but
not objects of our worship.
So
again, we hear the first two commandments saying “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make for
yourself an idol.”
The Scots Confession echoes these commandments when it says: We confess and acknowledge one God alone,
to whom alone we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must
worship, and in whom alone we put our trust.
As
we leave here this morning to live out another week as the children of God, let
us keep reminding ourselves that the greatest commandment of the Law is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.” [Matthew 22:37] If we do
that, the idols of our mind will slowly fade away! Remember, the Lord is in his holy temple; let all
the earth be silent before him. Amen!
Isaiah
44:9-17 NRSV
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in
do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know. And so they will be put to
shame. Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good? Look, all
its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans too are merely human. Let them
all assemble, let them stand up; they shall be terrified, they shall all be put
to shame.
The blacksmith fashions it and works it over the coals,
shaping it with hammers, and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry
and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter
stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and
marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be
set up in a shrine. He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and
lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the
rain nourishes it. Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms
himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships
it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it. Half of it he burns in the
fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it, and is satisfied. He also warms
himself and says, ‘Ah, I am warm, I can feel the fire!’ The rest of it he makes
into a god, his idol, bows down to it, and worships it; he prays to it and
says, ‘Save me, for you are my god!’
Acts 17:22-25 NRSV
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said,
‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went
through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found
among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore
you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and
everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines
made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed
anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.
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