Carrying American Idols in Our Bags

Idols don’t have real eyes that actually see.   Thank you, Captain Obvious.    

Idols don’t have real ears that actually hear.   Again with the Captain Obvious.  Maybe I’ll skip her blog this week…

Okay, maybe all those “American Idols” over the years like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have real eyes and real ears, but I’m not talking about them.  I’m referring to those metal or wood statues or shrines, that come in all shapes and forms, often found today in eastern religions.  Idols:  like the ones talked about in that famous second commandment “Do not make for yourself any graven images.”  

It may not surprise you that Egypt was full of “graven images.”  From pictographs chiseled onto temple walls to gargantuan granite statues to smaller fit-on-your-shelf golden idols, graven images and idols were a deeply significant part of ancient Egyptian culture.

And it is out of this Egyptian culture of images and idols that Israel hears this second commandment for the first time.  For some of us who have heard this commandment so many times we could almost recite it by heart, we have to remember Israel is hearing this for the first time after leaving a culture where graven images was part of every day life.  It would be like an American moving to another country and then they are instructed, “By the way, no more baseball and apple pie allowed!”

So you can bet, when the people of Israel left Egypt in a hurry after all those plagues, many of them carried with them statues, idols, graven images among their belongings or in their bags.  They may have been serving God, but for many of them, the culture of Egyptian “gods”  and idols had to have infiltrated their own lives.

But the problem with these gods, these idols?  They don’t see.  They don’t hear.  The God who brought Israel out of Egypt wanted them to know that he hears, he sees, and he wants them to trust him!  A graven image can’t get you out of Egypt; an idol can’t part the Red Sea.  But a living God who sees and hears his people wants his people to put their trust in him.  Not in lifeless statues. 

No problem, right?  That no idols thing is a breeze— unless we come from an eastern religion, I have a feeling not too many of us bow down and worship any kind of statue or shrine...

But what about other things that are deeply rooted in our culture that we have let take over rather than trusting in God.  Like Israel in Egypt, what has infiltrated our lives rather than the living God who we are supposed to trust in?

Money and wealth?

Success or popularity?

Vanity or self-image?

Busyness or work?

Materialism?

Entertainment?

Alcohol or drugs?

So many of these things our culture has encouraged us to “worship,” or at least take along in our bags when we follow God.  But God wants to be first.  Our “jealous” God wants all of us.   

Does alcohol have eyes?  Does money have ears?  Does success see your tears when you’re in pain? Does entertainment hear you when you cry out?

God does.  The Living God sees you and hears you and wants all of you.  The same Living God who came down in human form and saw suffering with human eyes, heard cries with human ears, and felt nails go through his human hands.  This Living God hears and sees us and knows putting our trust in anything but him will lead to an unfulfilled life.   And make us as lifeless as the idols we serve. 

So friends, which idols do you need to throw out?  What in your life are you “worshipping” that can’t see or hear?  

      What part of Egypt are you still carrying in your bag

“Their idols are silver and gold,
    made by human hands.
⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
    eyes, but cannot see.
⁶ They have ears, but cannot hear,
    noses, but cannot smell.
⁷ They have hands, but cannot feel,
    feet, but cannot walk,
    nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
⁸ Those who make them will be like them,
    and so will all who trust in them.

⁹ All you Israelites, trust in the Lord—
    he is their help and shield.
¹⁰ House of Aaron, trust in the Lord—
    he is their help and shield.
¹¹ You who fear him, trust in the Lord—
    he is their help and shield.”

-          Psalm 115:4-11