When Patriotism becomes Idolatry

Yesterday we celebrated the 244th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Many of the founding fathers and mothers had a Christian faith and used the Bible as a foundation for the great experimental country they helped to establish. George Washington once said “It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.” John Adams, “We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!” Thomas Jefferson, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Whether or not each of these and others of the Founding Fathers and Mothers of our nation had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, only God knows, they had a deep rooted history and life in the Bible, Christianity, and the God of the Bible in the starting of this nation. Yet, as believers in Jesus Christ we must be careful not to equate patriotism with true Christianity. Nationalism and Patriotism if not kept in check can become a form of idolatry. The more I look at the church in America today the more I fear this creeping in. Today, we will look at a couple of examples in Israel’s history where this happened and its effect. As we look to the future, we as believers in Jesus Christ need be able to separate being an American with being a Christian, they are not synonymous. The first two commandments of the 10 commandments are:

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:3-6).

In the United States we have many symbols that identify us as Americans and our freedom. One such symbol is the flag, the stars and stripes. It represents the 13 colonies that started this nation, the 50 current states in the union, and the blood of those brave men and women who died to protect the freedoms outlined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Yet, symbols of national pride can be deified and become idolatry. Three such symbols in the Old Testament were the Ark of Covenant and the Bronze Serpent.

1. The Ark of the Covenant

· The God box that God had the people of Israel make while in the wilderness. It would go into the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place in the Tent of Meeting (ToM) or Tabernacle where the High Priest would go in on the Day of Atonement and make sacrifices for the sins committed by the nation that past year.

· Exodus 37:1-9 describe what it will look like. Here is the description in the NLT:

· Next Bezalel (artisan) made the Ark of acacia wood—a sacred chest 45 inches long (3.75), 27 inches wide (2.25 ft), and 27 inches (2.25 ft). high. He overlaid it inside and outside with pure gold, and he ran a molding of gold all around it. He cast four gold rings and attached them to its four feet, two rings on each side. Then he made poles from acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. He inserted the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it.

· Then he made the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—from pure gold. It was 45 inches long (3.75 ft) and 27 inches wide (2.25 ft). He made two cherubim from hammered gold and placed them on the two ends of the atonement cover. He molded the cherubim on each end of the atonement cover, making it all of one piece of gold. The cherubim faced each other and looked down on the atonement cover. With their wings spread above it, they protected it. (NLT)

· Most likely you have seen pictures of it either in books or in Indiana Jones.

· In Exodus 25 God tells Moses to put in Tablets, a pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded in Numbers 17:10).

· Yet, the ark itself instead of pointing people to the one true God and being used for sacrifice, was itself deified.

· In 1 Samuel 4:1-11 we read about Israel being defeated by the Philistines once and then sending for the God box from the Tent of Meeting.

· The people thought that the reason they lost the first battle was because the God box was not in their midst and surely they would win when it was in their midst.

· To the people it no more than a good luck charm. They were not worshipping the one true God, but a box. It was a rabbit’s foot, a four leaf clover, or horseshoe. Their faith was not in the LORD, but in an object.

· They had taken an object God had commissioned and worshipped it instead of God. It had become an idol.

2. The Bronze Serpent

· Many people (unless they have read the Pentateuch lately) are not familiar with the bronze serpent. In fact it is brought up in the New Testament only 2 verses before the famous John 3:16. Jesus mentions it in John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up”

· This goes back to Numbers 21:4-9 (read)

· The people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness began to complain so in verse 6 “the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died.” Literally poisonous or venomous snakes were sent by God.

· The people go to Moses and say we have sinned, “Moses prayed for the people.”

· Verses 8-9 “Make a fiery serpent” (like the one that bit the people) put it on a pole and if a person looks it who has been bitten will live.

· They had to believe that this salvation from God would heal them.

· And it did (this is where the medical symbol of a snake on rod comes from).

· Yet, like so many symbols and objects that had a meaning (like we have seen with the Ark) it became worshipped by the people of Israel. In 2 Kings 18 we learn of King Hezekiah’s reign.

· He removes high places

· Breaks sacred pillars

· Cuts down the Asherahs (wooden poles/trees)

· Breaks into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made

· “This was done at a time when the people of Israel who had rebelled against Yahweh were eventually saved from punishment by looking up at the bronze serpent that Moses made following instructions from the LORD. Apparently it later became an object of worship rather than a reminder of God’s forgiveness. Therefore, it apparently needed to be destroyed along with the other pagan objects and images… The words until those days indicate that the burning of incense had become a customary practice. For burned incense, see 1 Kgs 3:3. Although the text does not say so directly, it seems to suggest that the Israelites worshiped the bronze serpent. The Hebrew says simply that they burned incense to it, but the sense seems to be “the people of Israel had begun to worship it by burning incense to it” (NLT)” (Handbook USB). Nehushtan (bronze thing)

· The symbol of God’s forgiveness had been made into an idol. It had become this for centuries. People worshipping the bronze serpent, instead of worshipping the One True God who had forgiven them and saved them.

· With both the Ark of the Covenant and the Bronze Serpent these objects which were commissioned by God, yet the objects themselves had become deified and worshipped.

In the United States, we often see the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights looked upon as almost sacred documents. The words like “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the intertestamental time and New Testament time, the very words of God had become worshipped, rather than the Word of God pointing to the God of the Word. This is something that Jesus would confront with the Pharisees and scribes.

1. In Matthew 23:5 as Jesus is pronouncing woes on Pharisees and Scribes.

· Using Exodus 13:9/16 and Deuteronomy 6:8 / 11:28 where it says, “commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.” They took it quite literally. Making physical objects.

· phylacteries (Heb. tephillin), a pair of small black boxes containing passages from Scripture written on parchment. According to ancient Jewish tradition, the tephillin are fastened by black straps to the upper left arm and above the forehead.” (Harper Bible Dictionary).

· This gave them a sense of pride and nationalism and maybe more spiritual.

· Yet, they made them larger and had longer tassels or fringes. They were more “religious” than others because of it.

· Jesus saw through it all.

· He calls them hypocrites (two faced). Comes from the Greek word meaning actor. Greek theater would have masks on to pretend. The Pharisees instead of having a real spiritual walk with God, were merely pretending.

· They knew the Word, but did not recognize the Word made flesh when He walked around. Or maybe they did, but knew that it would change their world.

· The Word had become deified and became an object of worship, instead of pointing people to the God of the Word. To the Word made flesh and dwelt among us.

· Today there are churches that will worship a translation of the Bible. The Word of God is inspired, but worship the book, worship the Author! Treasure the words written in this book in your heart so that You can know the One who wrote this love letter to you!

Here in America with our patriotism and our love for the words of the pledge, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, let us not deify them. Let us not worship the First Amendment or the Second Amendment. They are great documents, but don’t put them above who you are in Christ.

As believers in Jesus Christ we need to be cautious just as the people of Israel deified objects and worshipped objects that were part of their history and their religion. Let us be people who are Christians first and foremost. The United States is not our home. As Peter would write in his first epistle we are “sojourners and pilgrims” in this world. We are just passing through here on our way to our eternal home. As I wrote our on Facebook page yesterday, “We live in a nation that does not know, much less read the Bible. To many Jesus Christ, God, and Hell are merely curse words.” We are on a mission field right here, right now. Don’t allow unchecked Patriotism and Nationalism become an idol in your life or mine.