The Idiocy of Idolatry
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: Sarcasm is generally thought of as being a rather low form of communication. It bites, it stings, and it tends to destroy relationships. No wonder that Thomas Carlyle called it “the language of the devil.”[i] Strange, then, isn’t it, that God employs biting sarcasm and contemptuous ridicule in His Word, not just once, but frequently when discussing one specific subject? In view of that fact, I believe it would be wise if we were to pay special attention to that subject.
The subject is idolatry. Of what possible significance could the topic of idolatry hold for those of us living in the most civilized society of the 20th century? Oh, it can be of historical significance, or sociological significance; but idolatry is essentially irrelevant to our religion and culture. Or is it?
One fact is clear. The Word of God speaks at great length concerning idolatry, and we are going to take the time this morning to read what it has to say. The passages are lengthy, but I believe the impression we get from reading will be well worth the time spent. So, I invite you to turn first to Isaiah 44:6-20.
The Word of God speaks about idolatry.
Isaiah 44:6-20: “This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies:
‘I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no God besides Me.
7 Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it;
And, let him confront Me
Beginning with My establishing of the ancient nation.
Then let them declare to them the things that are coming
And the events that are going to take place.
8 Do not tremble and do not be afraid;
Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?
And you are My witnesses.
Is there any God besides Me,
Or is there any other Rock?
I know of none.’”
9 Those who fashion an idol are all futile, and their treasured things are of no benefit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. 10 Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no benefit? 11 Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them be put to shame together.
12 The craftsman of iron shapes a cutting tool and does his work over the coals,fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. 13 The craftsman of wood extends a measuring line; he outlines it with a marker. He works it with carving knives and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of mankind, so that it may sit in a house. 14 He will cut cedars for himself, and he takes a holm-oak or another oak and lets it grow strong for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel tree, and the rain makes it grow. 15 Then it becomes something for a person to burn, so he takes one of them and gets warm; he also makes a fire and bakes bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image and bows down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat, he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17 Yet the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He bows down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”
18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19 No one remembers, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I bow down before a block of wood!” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has misled him. And he cannot save himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Isaiah 46:5-9: “To whom would you liken Me
And make Me equal, and compare Me,
That we would be alike?
6 Those who lavish gold from the bag
And weigh silver on the scale,
Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
They bow down, indeed they worship it.
7 They lift it on the shoulder, carry it,
And set it in its place, and it stands there.
It does not move from its place.
Though one may shout to it, it cannot answer;
It cannot save him from his distress.
8 “Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you wrongdoers.
9 Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Isaiah 40:18-20:
18 To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it,
A goldsmith plates it with gold,
And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.
20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering
Selects a tree that does not rot;
He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman
To prepare an idol that will not totter.
Jeremiah 10:1-10: Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, house of Israel. 2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the way of the nations,
And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens,
Although the nations are terrified by them;
3 For the customs of the peoples are futile;
For it is wood cut from the forest,
The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.
4 They decorate the idol with silver and gold;
They fasten it with nails and hammers
So that it will not totter.
5 They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,
And they cannot speak;
They must be carried,
Because they cannot walk!
Do not fear them,
For they can do no harm,
Nor can they do any good.”
6 There is none like You, Lord;
You are great, and Your name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?
For it is Your due!
For among all the wise men of the nations
And in all their kingdoms,
There is none like You.
8 But they are altogether stupid and foolish;
The instruction from idols is nothing but wood!
9 Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,
And gold from Uphaz,
The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith;
Their clothing is of violet and purple;
They are all the work of skilled people.
10 But the Lord is the true God;
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
The earth quakes at His wrath,
And the nations cannot endure His indignation.
Psalm 115:1-9: Not to us, Lord, not to us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy, because of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where, then, is their God?”
3 But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
7 They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.
9 Israel, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
1 Kings 18:25-39: So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose the one ox for yourselves and prepare it first, since there are many of you, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under the ox.” 26 Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it, and they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah ridiculed them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, since he is a god; undoubtedly he is attending to business, or is on the way, or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will awaken.” 28 So they cried out with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until blood gushed out on them. 29 When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.
Exodus 20:1-6: Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Why the Word of God says so much about idolatry
The fact of the matter is idolatry was so widespread in Old Testament times that it is hardly an exaggeration to call it universal. The frequency with which the prophet had to denounce it, even among the monotheistic Jews, demonstrates what an incredible spiritual hold idolatry had on people.
I would say that there are three easily identifiable reasons why so much attention is given to idolatry in the Scripture.
Its effect upon religion is deadly. Again and again in the passages we read the point is made that idolatry has a deadening effect upon religion. How could it be otherwise? The idols can’t see, can’t hear, can’t smell, can’t feel, can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t answer prayer, can’t protect anyone, can’t even protect themselves, can’t even pick themselves up if they happen to fall over. So, what can they possibly do for the religious needs of the people who worship them? Yet countless people are enslaved to them and have been down through the centuries.
Its effect upon morality is devastating. There is virtually no arguing with the fact that wherever idolatry is practiced, ethics and morality take a dive. Child sacrifice, bride burning, sacred prostitution, frenzied orgies, are all the legacy of idolatry. The gods fight among themselves, love and hate without reason, demand unspeakable bribes and meaningless flatteries. While they are worshipped, morality is impossible, for what pleases one deity offends another. If your wife runs away from you, it is not because you beat her, but because you forgot the monthly sacrifice to Ishtar; now just offer a double sacrifice, and you’ll get two new wives prettier than the old one.
Its effect on culture and civilization is degenerative. My brother went to India last year, and the tale he brought home would shock the most seasoned analyst of world religions. He brought home the account of a religion, namely Hinduism, whose blatant idolatry has had enormous negative impact upon the culture and civilization of the country. Hinduism has approximately 350,000,000 gods, about one for every two people. The gods are filthy, and not surprisingly, the people are filthy, for a person tends to assume the character of his god. Cows and rats are worshipped, to the point that rats every year, according to National Geographic, eat enough grain to fill a train of grain cars stretching from San Diego to New York. But no one will exterminate them because they are sacred.
My brother saw a beautiful bird hospital in New Delhi, where winged creatures, also worshipped, received expensive medical care while human beings starve to death on the streets outside the hospital. True science is impossible in such a society, for you can’t worship an animal and dissect it at the same time. Therefore, there is virtually no advancement in biology or medicine in the country of India. That, friends, is the modern legacy of idolatry—no different from its ancient legacy, only more startling because of its contrast with societies not built on idolatry.
What the Word of God teaches about idolatry
The first and most obvious truth we learn from the Scriptures concerning idolatry is the simple fact that…
The worship of all false gods is wrong. There are many, of course, in our day who are trying to tell us that all religious people essentially worship the same God—some in one way, some in another; some call him by one name, some another. But that is absurdity at its worst. Our God is a very exclusive God, a very jealous and intolerant God, who doesn’t take kindly to such palaver. Why did He frequently bring judgment upon His chosen people for idolatry, sometimes taking lives by the thousands, if all they were doing is worshipping Him in a different way?
Our Scripture passages today reveal at least three reasons why the worship of all false gods is wrong.
1. It is foolish. In other words, it’s dumb, stupid, idiotic. There isn’t a single intelligent thing about idol worship. Isaiah 44 relays how an idol worshipper cuts down a tree, uses part of it to make a fire to warm himself and bake his bread, but the rest of it he uses to make a god. Isaiah 40 talks about how the idol must be made out of hardwood, because no one would want his god to rot on him. And it must be made wider at the bottom than at the top so that it won’t totter in the wind. It would be a shame for your god to fall over on you.
One of the most pathetic descriptions of the idol worshipper in all of literature comes from the apocryphal book called The Letter of Jeremiah. This letter is not inspired Scripture, but it is as quotable as Shakespeare or C.S. Lewis. In one particularly telling tirade against idols, the letter says, “Sometimes the priests secretly take gold and silver from their gods and spend it upon themselves, and even give some of it to the harlots in the brothel.”
Later the book says that when an idol does eventually rot, the priests claim that its heart has melted. When a fire breaks out in a temple, the priests manage to flee, but the gods are burned in two like a wooden beam. Still further we read this description:
“Whether one does evil to them or good, they will not be able to repay it. They cannot set up a king or depose one. Likewise, they are not able to give either wealth or money; if one makes a vow to them and does not keep it, they will not require it. They cannot save a man from death or rescue the weak from the strong. They cannot restore sight to a blind man; they cannot rescue a man who is in distress. They cannot take pity on a widow or do good to an orphan.”
But, you say, we today are not in any danger of setting up a totem pole in the courtyard of our church or erecting a bronze statue of Billy Graham or Charles Swindoll in the place of our communion table! No, probably not, but there is nevertheless a very real danger of the infiltration of idolatry in the church today. After all, idols are not all the same shape, are they?
Listen as I read from Smoke on the Mountain, by Joy Davidman:
“I worship a Porsch sports car, brother. All my days I give it offerings of oil and polish. Hours of my time are devoted to its ritual; and it brings me luck in all my undertakings; and it establishes me among my friends as a success in life. What model is your idol, brother?
I worship my house beautiful, sister. Long and loving meditation have I spent on it; the chairs contrast with the rug, the curtains harmonize with the woodwork, all of it is perfect and holy. The ash trays are in exactly the right place, and should some blasphemer drop ashes on the floor, I nearly die of shock. I live only for the service of my house, and it rewards me with the envy of my sisters, who must rise up and call me blessed. Lest my children profane the holiness of my house with dirt and noise, I drive them out of doors. What shape is your idol, sister?
Is it your house, or your clothes, or perhaps even your worth-while and cultural club?”
“I worship the pictures I paint.… I worship my job; I’m the best darn publicity expert this side of Hollywood…. I worship my golf game, my bridge game…. I worship my comfort; after all, isn’t enjoyment the goal of life?… I worship my church; I want to tell you, the work we’ve done in missions beats all other denominations in this city, and next year we can afford that new organ, and you won’t find a better choir anywhere…. I worship myself….”
“What shape is your idol?”
I think that’s a good question to ask.
2. It is sinful. It is sinful because it denies to God the allegiance He deserves as the infinite, eternal, unchangeable, sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent creator and sustainer of this universe. All idolatry is a slap in His face.
3. It is contemptible. I think something can be foolish without being contemptible, but idol worship is both foolish and contemptible. It is so foolish that the prophet has nothing but sardonic epithets for those who will worship these false gods. There is probably no passage that demonstrates that better than 1 Kings 18. In the fascinating story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal, the prophet works overtime to show his utter contempt for the idol-gods of Ahab and Jezebel. He mocks them by urging them to “call out with a loud voice, for Baal is a god.”
Then Elijah tweaks them by suggesting that Gods are busy; they aren’t just sitting on clouds strumming guitars. Why, your god may be on a journey, or maybe he’s just returned from one and is taking a nap, or perhaps he has stepped off the trail to “find a bathroom.” That’s a euphemistic way of expressing the actual Hebrew—the actual language would offend our sensitivities. But it didn’t bother Elijah to use it because he wants to offend their sensitivities. He wants to awaken them to the utter ridiculousness of their worship of false gods.
But to come a little closer to home, I would like to suggest that the Word of God teaches not only that the worship of all false gods is wrong, including the materialistic idols we have, but also that
The worship of the true God by means of images is wrong. There are branches of Christianity that today make extensive use of icons relics, crucifixes, and other such religious objects in worship. The reasoning behind them is that they serve to remind the worshipper of the spiritual realities they represent. I went into a church once where there was a picture of a saint in the foyer. As the worshippers filed in, many would stop at the picture, cross themselves, or even kiss the picture. Afterwards I asked my friend who attended that church to explain why they worshipped icons, and his answer was, “We don’t worship the icons, we revere them; we worship what the icon represents.” But I suggest there is a very fine line in many people’s thinking between what they revere and what they worship. Visual aids for learning are a great asset, but visual aids for worship can be very dangerous. Why? J. I. Packer has very ably communicated this in his classic, Knowing God.[ii]
1. Images dishonor God for they obscure His glory. The likeness of things in heaven, on earth or in the sea is precisely not a likeness of the Creator. As John Calvin wrote, “A true image of God is not to be found in all the world; and hence His glory is defiled, and His truth corrupted by the lie, whenever He is set before our eyes in a visible form.” The heart of the objection about images is twofold: they represent God as having body and parts, whereas He has neither; and, on the other hand, they inevitably conceal most, if not all, of the truth about the personal nature and character of God. In other words, they impart to Him that which He doesn’t have and take away from Him what He does have.
To illustrate: Aaron made a golden calf, which was meant to be a visible symbol of Yahweh, the mighty God who had brought Israel out of Egypt. No doubt the image was thought to honor Him, a fitting symbol of His great strength. But it is not hard to see that such a symbol in fact insults Him, for a bull’s image wrongly communicates brute strength, not loving power, and, on the other hand, a bull’s image has no way of communicating God’s moral character, His righteousness, goodness and patience. Thus, Aaron’s image hid God’s glory. In a similar way, the crucifix obscures the glory of Christ, for it hides the fact of His deity and His victory on the cross. It displays His human weakness, but it conceals His divine strength.
2. Images mislead men for they convey false ideas about God. Aaron, by making an image of God in the form of a bull-calf, led the Israelites to think of Him as a Being who could be worshipped acceptably by frenzied debauchery. And I believe it is a matter of historical fact that the use of the crucifix as an aid to prayer has encouraged people to equate devotion with brooding over Christ’s bodily sufferings, it has made them morbid about the spiritual value of physical pain, and it has kept them from appreciation of the risen Savior.
Psychologically it is certain that if you habitually focus your thoughts on an image or picture of the One to whom you are going to pray, you will come to think of Him, and pray to Him, as the image represents Him. Thus, you will in this sense “bow down” and “worship” your image; and to the extent to which the image fails to tell the truth about God, to that extent you will fail to worship God in truth.
There is a third fact which the Word of God teaches about idolatry, though perhaps it would be better termed an implication:
The worship of the true God in a merely localized manner is wrong. By this I mean that it is wrong to think that God can be worshipped in one place only. The use of carved images, icons, or relics in worship tends to cause men to localize their worship. Having bowed down and worshipped in one particular place before a particular image, men have a tendency to think of God as residing in that place and to ignore God in the marketplace and in the home. Of course, this can become a temptation even for us who do not use images and representations. For the very church building itself can become the symbol of God which triggers worship when entered, but also allows the worshipper to turn worship off when he exits. We need to realize that no location can contain Him because of His infinite greatness.
What the Word of God demands in place of idolatry
This, of course, is the crux of our message today. One can denounce idolatry until blue in the face; one can use sarcasm and ridicule against those who are so ignorant, sinful and contemptible as to worship idols. But the bottom line is, “What does God demand of us instead?” You see, it is quite possible that some of us are listening, smugly conceited because we would never be involved in such false worship, but all the while being guilty of the equally inexcusable error of ignoring God in our daily life.
I find it very interesting that almost every one of the passages on idolatry we read earlier this morning includes positive affirmations about the nature and character of God, plus exhortations on how we should worship Him. For example, the Word of God demands
Respect and awe of the one true God (Isa. 40:16, Hab. 2:20). We read a good portion of Isaiah 40 earlier, and you will recall that just before heaping ridicule upon the idol worshippers, the prophet gave an extended treatise on the greatness of God. I would like to focus your attention upon just one verse, the 16th: “Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.” Of course, the country of Lebanon was known in that day for its great cedar trees. Solomon imported them for the building of the great temple. But the prophet says that even if nature were a temple, the country of Lebanon an altar, the cedars of Lebanon a woodpile, and the beasts of the forest a sacrifice, still that would not provide a sufficient offering for our God. The prophet then immediately launches into a tirade against idol worship, showing the incredible contrast between our great God and the totally helpless gods of wood and stone.
In the book of Habakkuk, we see another contrast, which again instructs us about the idiocy of idolatry and the awe and respect due the true God. Listen as I read beginning in Hab. 2:18: “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a dumb stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” No respect whatever is due the idols, but all respect and awe are due the Lord.
A second thing the Word of God demands in place of idolatry is …
Faith in the salvation provided by the one true God. (Isa. 44:21-22) Earlier we read Isa. 44:6-20, which ridicules the fact that wood from the same tree is used both to light a fire to bake bread and to make a god. But the next two verses we did not read. Here is the conclusion to the lengthy denunciation of idolatry, as found in verses 21,22: “Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you. You are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
In other words, the truth about idols should drive us to remember that the true God is able to save us, to forgive our sins and to redeem us from slavery.
Still a third demand the Word of God makes in place of idolatry is …
Trust in the plan of the one true God. (Isa. 46:10-11, Ps. 115:9-13) Once again we will not reread the entire section from Isaiah 46, but will simply draw to your attention the fact that immediately following the strong censure of idol worship, the Lord says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is no one like Me…. My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure….. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.” While idols can’t do anything at all, our God has a plan for us that we can trust and which will come about.
And the final and most encompassing demand the Word of God makes in place of idolatry is …
Single-hearted loyalty to the one true God (Ex. 20:5-6). Attached to the second of the Ten Commandments is a most interesting phrase: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Our God is an exclusive God; He is a jealous God; He will not share His glory with idols of any kind. He wants single-hearted loyalty from His people.
I feel relatively sure that no one here this morning has a wooden or stone idol set up in your house. Probably few if any employ icons in your family worship. Even crucifixes would be rather rare in our circles. But we have not cleared ourselves of the sin of idolatry until we have demonstrated whole-hearted loyalty to the one true God, for something surely has the priority in our lives, and if it’s not God, it’s some kind of idol.
Of course, before we can demonstrate loyalty to God, we must be part of His family. That happens when a person recognizes that sin in his life has alienated him from God, but that Jesus Christ has solved his sin problem by dying in his place on the cross. Won’t you acknowledge Him today and receive the salvation He freely offers?
DATE: August 19, 1984
Tags:
Idolatry
Idolatry, effects of
Images
Icons
Loyalty to God
[i] https://www.pinterest.com/pin/697354323569932720/.
[ii] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, chapter 4, “The Only True God.”