Idols

What exactly is an idol? Why are they dangerous?

Over the last couple months, it seems like the subject has come at me from many different directions, several of them including some historical insights that I was grateful to receive. And then, as I wrote A Storm to Still, which is set during the reign of King David but takes place largely in Philistia, I got to explore those lessons and themes in ways I hadn’t done before.

If you look idol up in the dictionary, you get these definitions:

1: an object of extreme devotion
2: a representation or symbol of an object of worship
     broadly : a false god
3: a likeness of something
4: a false conception
5: a form or appearance visible but without substance

But there’s more to it, historically, than that.

You see, part of the ancient practice of creating an idol involved ceremony. It was not just carving a figure. It was saying words meant to attach the god to that figure. (Which means that not every carved figure was an idol–ONLY those that supposedly had the god attached, and hence were worthy of worship.)

In our modern world, where overt idol-worship has gone out of style, we tend to think of it only with those metaphorical, broad definitions. Idols, we’ve all heard pastors and teachers say, are the things we put above God. The things that come between us and God. And there is definitely truth to that

But it wasn’t until I learned about that “attaching” thing that I began to understand something deeper, more fundamental about idols…and how we fall into idol-worship today. Because, you see, one of the biggest differences between God and the gods of the rest of the world, is that He cannot be contained–not by a figure made with human hands…and not by the boxes we try to put Him in.

To us, this might sound like an “of course.” But it is, in fact, HUGE.

It means that, unlike every other god, the Lord is not just the God of one city or place, bound to those lands.

It means that, unlike every other god, the Lord cannot be forced to act in a given way because we say given words.

It means that, unlike every other god, His power is not shackled to an object, and so praying to that object does not do anything.

Now, that is NOT to say that God doesn’t have sacred objects! He was pretty specific about the creation of the arc of the covenant and the tabernacle, down to the most minute detail. They were important. They mattered. But not because He was contained by them or in them–rather, because they are meant to be a reminder of His glory.

This is a crucial difference. Our sacred objects should never make us limit God–they should only ever make us remember how limitless He is.

So how do we actually create idols today? 

Yes, I think they are the things we put before God: money, power, fame, influence, success, even things like our families or people we, ahem, idolize.

But I’ve recently come to understand it’s other things too.

It’s expecting to make God move by doing certain things.

It’s putting God into a box, creating Him in our image.

It’s trying to contain Him.

It’s telling Him how to do His job, or what He does or does not like, or limiting His movement.

How many times in the Gospels did Jesus rebuke the Pharisees with words like “You say…but I say…”? Those strict adherents to the Law would have been indignant if anyone called them idol-worshipers–it was the very thing they made all those rules to prevent! But it is, in fact, what they’d fallen into. Because they worshiped the Law above the Giver of the Law. They worshiped the Words instead of the Heart behind the Words. And in so doing, they tried to bind God to their understanding of God.

I daresay none of us have physical idols in our houses. But have we done the same? Have we tried to limit Him to our own understanding?

In A Storm to Still, my heroine, Shaala, finds herself before an idol-seller’s stall in a Philistine market. She sees all those carved and cast and shaped idols, along with amulet necklaces. She, too, wears a necklace–a silver pendant with the Shema (“Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is One”) inscribed on it. At a glance, her necklace looks exactly like some of those amulets.

But with that key difference: hers is meant to remind her to turn to the Lord. It, in itself, has no power; it can do nothing. She has to do something, to communicate with God–humble herself, call upon Him, remove whatever is between them, ask forgiveness for her sins.

It’s not the words of a prayer that matter–it’s the heart of the one who prays.

It’s not the words in our Bible that save us–it’s the Word who became flesh.

It’s not anything we do or make or say that makes God act–it’s His love for us that made Him condescend to us.

Lord, help us not to limit you. And never stop reminding us of your glory.