How many of us have idols in our lives? That’s a crazy question isn’t it? After all, we know that idolatry is wrong. Therefore, if we knowingly had an idol, we would confess it, and turn from it, wouldn’t we? There is where the deception comes in. I’m not 100% sure which pastor I heard say it, I believe it was J.D. Greear, but he defined idolatry in this way, “An idol is a good thing from God which we have made a god-thing, which makes it a bad thing.” I love that definition, because it reveals how easy it is to take something that is good from God, and turn it into an idol. There are so many things that can fall into this description of an idol. It could be work, marriage, family, money, possessions, church attendance, Bible reading, Scripture memorization, and the list goes on and on. The deceptiveness of idolatry is that we never set out to make things and idol, they simply become an idol over time because we give them too high of a place and priority in our life.
In today’s text, there is a new king in the southern kingdom of Judah. His name is Hezekiah. He is going to enact some reforms in Judah, and God is going to bless Hezekiah and the nation for it. In Hezekiah’s opinion, the reforms had to begin with Judah’s religious system. Hezekiah knew that Judah’s sins were a matter of their hearts. 2 Kings 18:4 says, “He (Hezekiah) removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.” Besides the obvious idols of the high places used for sacrifices to the false gods, and the sacred pillars, and the wooden image; there was an idol in Judah that has a tie back to their history under Moses. The bronze serpent of Moses came into being in Numbers 21, when Israel complained against God and His leaders. God sent poisonous snakes to Israel to bite them, and many Israelites were dying from the bites. Then, they begged Moses to go ask the Lord to remove the snakes. They promised they learned their lesson and wouldn’t do it again. By the way, they did it again and again and again, but that is another story for another day. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent wrapped around a pole, and put it high in the camp of Israel. Then, when a person was bit by a snake, they could look at that pole, and they would be healed. The amazing thing about that story in Numbers 21, is how it pointed Israel to their coming Messiah, Jesus. Jesus actually references the story, and says that it was pointing people to Him in John 3. However, over time the people had started to worship the bronze serpent instead of the One who gave them the remedy for the death bite of the snake.
This is where we must understand the danger and deception of idols. God had given Israel a good thing in the bronze serpent. When they looked to it, they were demonstrating faith that they would be healed. It wasn’t the bronze serpent that healed the people, it was God who healed them as they demonstrated faith by obeying what God told them to do. However, they thought the power was in the serpent itself. You and I must guard our hearts, and to help us keep our eyes on Him. The good things that He gives us, such as money, clothes, cars, food, housing, etc., are to remind us of how good of a God He is. They are to remind us that God is faithful to keep His promises to provide for His children. All the things we have are meant to draw us closer to God, and for us to bow down in worship Him. But, when we start putting our trust in those things, we have perverted a good thing and made it into a god-thing, an idol. Idols aren’t just about the things that we have, they can also be the things that we do. This is why we must ask God not only to examine our actions, but also to examine our motives. Am I doing things as a way to get something, or because I want to demonstrate my love and gratitude for what God has done for me, and how He has blessed me? It is the age-old debate, why are good works important in the life of a believer? We do good works not so that God will love us and save us; instead, we do good works because God loves us and has saved us.
So, let me end where I began this post, are there any idols in your life? Is there anything that is meant to draw you closer to God that you are treating like a god? If so, take time right now to confess them to the Lord. If you aren’t sure, spend time in prayer asking God to reveal if there are any idols in your life. God is good, He loves you, and He wants to give you good things. But when those things draw us away from Him, He has the right to remove them.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Justin