"Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:4
Idolatry.
You cannot understand the prophets of the Old Testament or the apostles of the New Testament without understanding it. In the OT these were literal statues and images people bought and worshiped. In the NT some of this continued (as we’ll see in Acts 19), but the emphasis shifted to idolatry of the heart.
"For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Eph. 5:5
Notice how the ten commandments anticipated this deeper reality of idolatry of the heart.
#1 "You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3
The very first law from God was to put Him first. The Hebrew could also read “have no other gods besides me.” God never allowed or tolerated idols in addition to the worship of Him. Israel was always supposed to be in an exclusive relationship with Him as their only God – like the relationship between a husband and wife. No wife I know would accept an arrangement where her husband said, “Of all the women I love, you’re my favorite.”
#2 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God." Exodus 20:4-5
The immediate application of the first commandment is the second: don’t worship and serve idols. What is an idol for us today? Anything you love, trust and serve more than God.
- Deep in your heart, what do you most love? What are you most devoted to? What are you most passionate about?
- What do you trust in? What gives you confidence and security and peace?
- What are you most committed to? What gets the majority of your time, talent and treasure?
That is your functional god. That is your idol.
Another way to find an idol is to think about the thing you most fear to lose. What, if you lost it, would make it seem like life was not worth living? A relationship. A career path. Your appearance. Your reputation. Your retirement fund. Your investment portfolio. Your family.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Deuteronomy 6:5
This is the central command of the Jewish Law. Jesus restated it as the first and greatest commandment for His followers as well. Look at what it demands: everything. 100%. All of your heart, soul, mind and strength. That leaves nothing out.
We will see this Sunday (May 30, 2021) that there are three layers to idolatry:
- Practices – what you do
- Values – what you prioritize
- Beliefs – what you trust in
In other words, Trust > Love > Serve. The deepest layer, the source of idolatry is belief. At the root, we believe certain things will make us happy, give life meaning and fulfillment. Either we are deeply convinced that GOD will give us those things, or we turn to something or someone else (an idol). Those convictions produce values. Because we believe in something, we come to love it. We value it above other things. And what we believe in and value, we serve.
For more resources to help reflect on the condition of your heart, click here. The video at the top of this page (Broken at the Cross) has narration from the Calvary Road (Hession).
“The first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of revival. It is painful, it is humiliating, but it is the only way… The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God’s will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory – that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all.”
The Calvary Road, Roy Hession
To prepare for Sunday (or any day), read over Jeremiah 17 and ask the Lord to search your heart and break through your hardness, resistance and pride, to transform your idolatry into wholehearted worship.
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:5-10