ALL IN Part Three
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Diagnostic Questions to Define Idols
Huge concern for idolatry in OT and Scriptures. We skip over but still relevant today.
If you want to identify an idol in your life ask yourself what things if they were taken away from me would cause me to not want to live? You take away this possession, this person, and I die. Where are you finding your identity?
What do you worry about the most
What is your greatest fear
What makes you the most angry
That leads you to your idols
Calvin said our hearts are idol making factories.
Video games can be idols.
PACMAN AND FORTNIGHT
Fornight.
Talking to son about it…we had ATARI.
What’s an ATARI?
Horrible graphics. Got bored.
Went outside and played.
Not the way graphics are now.
Highly engaging.
Play with their friends
Not the ones in the room with them—the ones in Japan.
Hear them talking over the speaker. Who’s kid is that?
Negotiate to get off the computer. Negotiations break down.
Long process to turn off the game.
This is an idol.
Not one you bow down to but pretty close.
It has physical properties.
Amazing how effective it is to just yank the cord.
And it is effective but it isn’t.
It doesn’t deal with the heart.
Makes him mad. Hardens the heart. Effective in changing behavior immediately and getting him to do what I want him to do. And sometimes that is the merciful thing and necessary thing to do.
I want him to see that there are other things.
That this can become an idol.
I’ve dealt with the surface problem but not the deeper problem.
I’ve dealt with the branches but not with the root.
I’ve dealt with the idol, but not the idol behind the idol.
Jehosophat and a King Addressing Idols
Jehosophat was the king of Judah, we looked at his story the past two Sundays. And one of the main ways the historians would judge a king was how they dealt with the idols of the people…we tend to stop reading when we see idols mentioned in Scripture but those passages are crucial…how a king addressed the idols of the people were the whole ball game for how a king was graded in the OT…whether he removed the idols, made up new idols…and idols are a big aspect of our lives today…
BEFORE AND AFTER SUMMARY STATEMENTS
ESV
He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had captured. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals,
He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had captured. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals,
--at the start of his reign, he was such a great king that he was characterized as following the ways of David, that’s the highest compliment a king can receive, followed the ways of Ronald Reagan…didn’t consult Baal…outward blatant idolatry…northern and southern kingdoms…northern had no good kings, southern had just a few….wasn’t like the obviously evil people in the northern kingdom of Israel. The king reigning during that time in the north was ahab….worshiped baals wife jezebel worshiped the wife…
But that was at the start of his reign…throughout his reign recorded in the next few chapters, he made some mistakes, but also had this amazing victory that we unpacked last week.
So how would he be judged….we have these bookend statements about the king…
AFTER (ALL IN? BE LIKE HIM?)
So here is the verdict on Jehosophat…
ES
Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. He walked in the way of Asa his father and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.
Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. He walked in the way of Asa his father and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.
He was ALL IN. Be like Jehosophat. Pray like Jehosophat. Have courage like Jehsophat. Trust the Lord like Jehosophat. Tear down the idols like Jehsophat. The end. Do that. Everyone can go home. Oh yean…In Jesus’ name amen.
Not quite…
You have to read further.
ESV
The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.
The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.
Oh snap.
Asa Issue
If you were astute you would already know from verse 32 that something was off when the historian said he followed in the ways of his father Asa. Before he said he followed in ways of David. Now he has been severely downgraded to having followed in ways of Asa who was good but really messed things up towards the end of his life. (shows older people have worst struggles—don’t take it for granted)
So Jehosophat was good…did good…loved the Lord…is in Heaven for sure…but
Verse 33…the high places were not removed. What are high places?
High Places Defined From Heart Perspective
Have a lot to do with the idol behind the idol. The high places aren’t unplugging the game system and dealing with the immediate outward visible idol. High places are the deep stuff, the foundational stuff, the soul idols, the issue behind the issue.
There are two different kinds of High Places…he removed one type of High Places but not the other.
High Places Technically Defined
High places were actual locations in the community….places of worship build into the fabric of the community. They were usually on the top of hills, even on the top of mountains, they were usually visible in the community. They weren’t always physically high, as Jeremiah spoke of a high place that was actually in a valley. But they were usually in the high places. They were make shift temples. They weren’t usually built for any one God…they were built as places of sacrifice, worship….
SLIDES
Pictures
You can see in these pictures that:
First Picture:
You can see they were built into the mountain itself.
Second Picture:
-this is where they would sacrifice the animals and the blood would drain into the middle. Smoke sacrifice rises to the gods…
Third Picture:
-they had their own altars.
High Places were the foundation of idolatry.
High Places were a visible temptation for idolatry.
High Places beckoned the people to come.
High Places were close to the gods because they were closer to the sky.
What does this have to do with idolatry? What does this have to do with you, with me? Everything.
The Baal idols were the outward, blatant idols.
HP were more discreet. They were the platform for idolatry.
They were the breeding ground for idolatry.
They were the cesspools of idolatry.
They were the idol, the framework, the way of thinking, behind the actual idols.
And we have to get that. Jehosophat removed the idols, but not the foundation for the idols.
It was like he mowed over tall weeds…mowed down the weeds, but didn’t get to the root of the weeds, so they would just grow back.
Surface and Deep Idols, Branch and Root
There are two aspects to idolatry. There are surface idols and there are heart idols. There is the obvious and outward idol and there is the not so obvious idol behind the idol. Think of it this way…there are branches and there is the root. The branches are the visible idol, the root is the idol motivating the visible idol.
Jehsophat got rid of the obvious branch type idols. But he didn’t get rid of the root. He didn’t get rid of the idolatrous heart. I said earlier that our hearts are idol making factories. Jehsophat didn’t get rid of the foundation.
The High Places are the foundation…the root of the idol…the breeding ground for the idol. The cesspool for the idol. Jehsophat didn’t close those High Places down and paid dearly as a result.
Examples of Idols Behind the Idol
You may think you have made an idol out of food. And you may have. But the real idol isn’t the food. Food is good. The idol behind the idol could be you are looking for comfort. You idolize pleasure.
You may think you have made an idol out of sex. But sex was created by God and is beautiful. Having that affair may have more to do with your own comfort. Or power, or control.
Making money is good. Neglecting your family to make money isn’t. It isn’t the money that is the real issue, it is control, it is doubting God to be faithful to provide, it is worry.
Jimmy Fallon
made a vow and he said this. “I remember saying to myself, ‘If I don’t make it on Saturday Night Live before I’m 25, I’m going to kill myself,’ It’s crazy. I had no other plan. I didn’t have friends, I didn’t have a girlfriend, I didn’t have anything going on. I had my career, that was it.” And of course, it’s easy to look at this and say, “This man obviously idolizes his work. He has a work idol.” But if you keep reading the article and ask yourself the question, “What is driving this? What’s driving him to have this sense of looking to this job as savior?” We don’t have to guess. He tells us. It says, “Fallon’s not so sure what drew him so fiercely to comedy, to making people laugh. He said, ‘I never went to a therapist. I don’t want to know.’ But he does maybe venture a guess. ‘It was a rush. I think it was the rush of getting a reaction. Maybe it’s acceptance. Maybe it’s a thing where you’re pleasing somebody. I want to be friends with everybody, and if you make a joke and everyone laughs, you’re like, ‘That’s it. I scored.’ And that’s what I thought making a friend was. You just feel like people liked you, so maybe it was that, acceptance.”
Jehosophat rid the country of the obvious outward idols, but he didn’t deal with the high places.
ESV
The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.
The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.
Dung, Kindling, Spark
First, we have to see them for what they are…ugly. Gross.
Ezekiel used a word that means dung, or manure to describe idols. This word was used 48 times in the OT and 39 of them were by Ezekiel the prophet. We have to see these idols for what they are.
Second, they amount to nothing.
They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!
ESV
They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!
Jeremiah called idols vain. Vain idols. He used the same word to describe idols that the writer of Ecclesiastes used to describe life…vanity of vanities. That idols are fleeting. Empty. That they seem to offer something, but they don’t.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
ESV
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
In other words, your idols are kindling. Fire starters. Imagine a pile of kindling used to start a fire. Imagine your idols on that fire…
Your House…kindling.
Your Car…kindling.
Your relationships…kindling.
Your reputation….kindling.
Your money…kindling.
Your legacy…kindling.
It’s all going to burn. Even science confirms that. It will all burn. That is why Jeremiah said idols are vain. Here today, gone tomorrow.
First, see them as dung, second, see them as nothing, as kindling, third, see them as something even though they are nothing.
Because while we see them as nothing, they are also something. Idols have no power but then they have incredible power. We have to know that so that we can be violent in the way we deal with them.
James says that the tongue is a small organ of the body. That we can idolize the tongue by using too many words. That our words are vain words. Nothing words. But he also says that the tongue is powerful, he said it is like a little spark in the woods…a little spark of fire is nothing…but it’s something…because James says that little spark can light the whole forest on fire, and in the same way our little tongue, with our nothing words, can set the whole course of our lives on fire. Our little nothing idol tongue is so powerful that it can ruin our lives.
So we have to deal with these idols violently.
SLIDES
When Jehu had finished with the sacrificial solemnities, he signaled to the officers and guards, “Enter and kill! No survivors!” And the bloody slaughter began. The officers and guards threw the corpses outside and cleared the way to enter the inner shrine of Baal. They hauled out the sacred phallic stone from the temple of Baal and pulverized it. They smashed the Baal altars and tore down the Baal temple. It’s been a public toilet ever since. And that’s the story of Jehu’s wasting of Baal in Israel.
Archeological Dig (Toilet)
There was an archeological dig that was dated to his time and they found the cultic high places were destroyed. They found pieces where they had cut off the horns from the high places altar. They found a toilet installed in the pagan “holy of holies”…Jehu had done this to signify the abolition of worship and the ultimate desecration of the place. The toilet was a chair-shaped stone with a hole in the middle.
So How Do We Get Rid of Them?
I was watching a pastor preach on idolatry. Said a lot of good things and towards the end—application time—he went through a bunch of different idols that we all face, he said, your marriages, some of them are really bad, you need to fix that, some of you have a kid who is straying and he is an embarrassment to your testimony you need to spend more time with him…and I forwarded it because I was looking for hope. Looking for something besides what he was selling. And the sad thing is that many Christians even evangelicals would listen to that sermon that had lots of God in it lots of Lord lots of instruction and say you tell em preacher. But all he did and I have done so far is identify the problem. To say, you battle idols, stop it, doesn’t work.
Remember my earlier illustration of the video game. I can just unplug it and that fixes the external problem but it doesn’t fix the idol behind the idol.
Replacing Idol with Beauty: Fortnight Alternatives
But it doesn’t change the addiction. It doesn’t help them see why they need to stop playing. What will?
Showing them something more beautiful than Fortnight. If that is possible. Showing them something they can have, something they can do, something they can work on that is more fulfilling, that makes Fortnight look silly.
It’s amazing how quickly he will turn off the video game when I say, you are going over to a friend’s house to hang out…he’s like, I gotta go, bye. Runs upstairs. All of the sudden Fortnight isn’t so attractive. Why? Because I am offering him the real thing. For a child to say, I would rather play a video game than go over to my friend’s house and hang out there would be refusing joy and grace.
The way out of the high places of idolatry is to see something more beautiful. To go to different high places. To NBJ high places.
Our ABJ high places promise pleasure and we get the pleasure for a few seconds, a few minutes, maybe even a season of time, but sin is enjoyable for a season until it isn’t. So we come crashing down from those high places and are scarred and beaten down and wounded
But the high places God gives us leaves us satisfied. Rested.
ESV
yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Habakkuk says God makes me walk on my high places. Not the idolatrous ones, not even the religious ones, but God’s high places of blessing and Habakkuk says those are my own. Those are my high places. God leads me to them.
The high places of Jesus
Satan took Jesus to the high place to see all the city and Satan offered Jesus to rule over what he saw…Jesus said no to the temptation. We can go with Jesus to that high place when we are tempted and say no. Say it is written.
Jesus went to a high place to teach the Sermon on the Mount. Described himself. Described what freedom looks like. Go to that high place with Jesus.
Jesus went to the Mount of Transfiguration. And the disciples saw Jesus’ glory. Go to that high place.
The Upper Room was a high place. It was the place where Jesus gave himself to his disciples. God to that high place.
Jewish Book on Idolatry
There were two Jewish men who wrote a landmark book called Idolatry. And in one of the chapters they unpacked the idea that in the OT idolatry was liked to spiritual adultery. In other words, God was the husband to the people. So the people are the wife, God is the husband. So when the people worshipped idols, which they always did, God as the husband had two responses, one is anger and to bring justice to the adulterer. Adultery was punishable by death. The people had committed spiritual adultery by worshiping idols so they needed to pay. But there was a problem, because God as the husband also wanted reconciliation with his wife. He is jealous for her. He wants her back. So God both must bring justice to punish his wife for adultery but also wants to justify her and bring her back into his arms.
So the two Jewish writers basically came to a dead end. They said the metaphor is limited and they didn’t really have an explanation.
But we do. Christians do.
Because at the high place called Mount Calvary, the hill with the cross, Jesus was both the just and the justifier. He hadn’t followed the idols, yet the idols were all put on his shoulders. The prophets risked their lives to confront the idols of the people, Jesus gave his life and defeated the idols.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
ESV
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
But the high place where idols are defeated is the high place of Calvary. The hill with that cross. Go to that high place. Stare up at Jesus on the cross and then look at your idols.
What is it about God’s grace that you don’t understand that causes you to worship these idols?
As a parent I can unplug the video game quickly and sometimes that is the merciful and good thing to do. Just stop. Stop with the idol. Or I can show him something more beautiful. But many times even when we see that grace, we have the word of God right in front of us, but we don’t open it, we have opportunities for fellowship and accountability right in front of us, but we don’t partake, we are like the people Jonah described, those who cling to worthless idols turn away from the beauty of God’s love.
Once that happens we are in danger of God giving us over to the idol. He won’t unplug it, he won’t nag us to stop playing, he will let us continue down the destructive path.
Augustine said our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God.
Jehosophat went to the high place of God when he fought the battle.
I have said that the kings would have a summary statement made about them at the end of their reign. They did evil, they did good with qualifiers, they did good.
After Jesus was raised from the dead he is with his disciples. Peter had denied him three times. Peter’s idols of fear, people pleasing, position, got the best of him. He repents to Jesus. Jesus forgives him and restores him. But then they have a conversation.
Jesus asks Peter, do you love me. Yes I do.
Do you love me. You know I love you.
Do you love me. How can you keep asking me that—I love you.
That is the key to overcoming idols. Peter had dealt with the external sin the external idol of denying Jesus, but what about those internal high places? The inner most parts of his heart. Did he truly truly love Jesus. Was he truly gazing at Jesus, or at other things.
What about you…the high places are those foundations we think we need to worship God, to obey God. Instead of Jesus is Enough instead of standing on Christ alone, it’s Jesus plus something else. Jesus plus this high place.
Go to the high places of Jesus. Gaze at him, study him.