AMERICAN IDOLS: OLD TESTAMENT SOUTHERN PROPHETS’ WARNINGS
This week, as a continuation of the series entitled “Between Two Mountains.” Pastor Harry covered the period of 700 to 500 B.C., and prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Jeremiah, Joel, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Harry’s sermon focused on Ezekiel Chapter 16, “The Lord’s Faithless Bride.” An exceedingly high number of the slides were emblazoned with the word “prostitution” in the form of an adulterated wife who’s squandering God’s (Husband’s) love by giving herself away to others, casting us sinners in the roles of both Adulteress and Idolater, deafened to the warnings of “Turn Away! Return to God! Repent!”
Harry supplied us with the “Process of Idolatry.” The repetitive cycle of rescue, blessings, self-belief, disobedience, forgetting, and all-consuming effort to sustain sin, our deceived and distracted pursuits destroy us, and we cry out to be delivered again. Harry’s handout/homework is reminiscent of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, a powerful reminder that devils and demons survey for chinks in our Armor of God. Everyone has their vice, that specific something that begins innocently, then swells to obsession and immorality. The sermon cited the John Calvin quote, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” As Harry referenced other countries still worshiping physical items as idols, like India, China, and Thailand, I questioned if Americans were that different.
The American Dream is inundated with idolatry. The belief that anyone, through hard work and determination, can achieve success and upward mobility, regardless of their background, reveals what we idealize: accomplishments, comfort, fame, and fortune. Harry’s Identifying Idols list is substantial, 20 scenarios, but not all-encompassing, as we each face our bugaboos. As I read page two of the handout, the LOX, “Money, Power, & Respect (clean version),” played in my head. That mentality can get ingrained in our hearts, the lustful cravings of a corrupt and fallen world. So how do we fight it? The thought of us being entirely responsible and self-reliant is overwhelming. How do we avoid the inclination to say, “Thanks God, but I got it from here!”
My takeaway was not to turn away. To keep God involved. We can do this by consciously wanting God to remain present. Brag on God, give God the glory. As tempted as we may be to claim adoration, influence, freedom, or certainty for ourselves, we must remember that we only go from disgrace to grace by the blood of Jesus. One of Harry’s last slides was an edited version of Ezekiel 16:60 with New Testament information superimposed in red letters. It was a beautiful visual prompt that God’s covenant with us is still binding because Jesus took God’s wrath for us. We get grace we don’t deserve because Jesus paid debts he didn’t owe. With that type of unequivocal love and sacrifice, why wouldn’t we want Him ever-present in our lives? When we turn to God, we turn away from our sins.