Folly of Idolatry

Have you ever been to a play where one of the characters has an aside? A speech, given to the audience to tell them a bit of detail which they need, but otherwise would be unknown. As I have read and studied the woe passages in the book of Habakkuk they seem similar to an heavenly aside. Habakkuk asked God how He could use someone as wicked as the Babylonians to punish His people, and God gives him 5 woes, woes which in truth are spoked against Babylon, but serve two other purposes. First they show that Judah and Jerusalem are not as good as Habakkuk would like to believe, as they seem to mark out the same evil that Habakkuk asked God how long He would allow the leaders of Judah to persist in. Second, to show how God would deal with Judah’s sin in the same way He would eventually deal with Babylon.

The last of those ‘woes’ that God pronounces is against the sin of idolatry. G.K. Beale makes a great argument in his book We Become What We Worship that the first sin of Adam and Eve in the garden was the sin of idolatry and that to varying degrees, every sin that we commit is idolatry. This means that what God was warning would happen to Babylon is what would happen to Judah because of her idolatry and should serve as a warning to us 2500 years later about the dangers of idolatry. While we might not worship statues of people, animals and the universe, we are no less in danger or idolatry. So today, we look at the last woe from Habakkuk 2. We find that we in Habakkuk 2:18 – 20. We see here the tale of two objects of worship, and a call to make the wise choice.

I. The Woe To/Of Idolatry

Habakkuk 2:18 - 20

Habakkuk 2:18–20 NIV84

“Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

A. Value of an idol

1. Price of the materials

2. Nothing but a hunk of molded and shaped stuff

3. ʾĕlîlîm אֱלִילִ֥ים is a word meaning “nonentity” or “a nobody” ’elōhîm אֱלֹהִים is the standard word for God

4. Idols are dangerous in the same way that outside love interests are dangerous to a marriage. Adulterous liaisons inevitably pull the marriage apart at the seams. As with adulty, so idolatry is about both wrong beliefs (e.g. a belief about where satisfaction is found) but more importantly corrupted desires (e.g. the desire to get gratification on whatever terms are necessary). All idolatry involves error in belief to some extent, if the belief in question is that some creature has a worth enjoyed only by the Creator. Richard Lints Identity and Idolatry p39

5. Our Idols

a. Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll

b. Relationships

c. Money

d. Freedoms

e. Science

f. Astrology

g. Guns

h. Bible

i. Religious practices

B. Wisdom of Idolatry

1. In essence they were treating the true God as a false idol and the truly false idols as the true god. G.K. Beale We Become What We Worship

2. We also make our gods in our own image and the worst of us, then we worship our gods only increasing our immorality.

2. The more we desire control the more comfortable we become

The more comfortable we become the more self-serving we become

The more self-serving we become the more self-absorbed we are.

The more we seek God the less self-absorbed we are.

The less self-absorbed we are the less self-serving we become.

The less self-serving we are the less we are concerned about comfort and the more God can mold us into His image, rather than a poor image of who we are or are supposed to be.

3. Psalm 115:8

Psalm 115:8 NIV84

Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

4. Faith in idols is vain because nothing is behind the idol itself (1 Cor 8:4) except demons who use them to deceive. Part of the Old Testament judgment if idols is that they ironically reflect unspiritual and lifeless images of the idols. G.K. Beale We Become What We Worship p. 265

II. YHWHism

A. God Is

1. In Heaven

2. Not in Jerusalem

3. Not able to be carried

B. People are Silent

1. gods are silent

2. People are silent

3. God Speaks

C. Value

1. Idols are worthless and costly

2. God is worthy and invaluable

I have to admit, preparation for this sermon has caused me to think about many of the activities, possessions and desires of my life and ask are they things that idolize? Are they things that are becoming idols? Are they things that could become idols? If so, what must I do to put them in the proper perspective? They answer seems simple, but too often it is difficult to put into practice, and that is proper worship of YHWH. That is the work we must all do. This morning I ask you to pray that God would show you the idols or things that might take that position in your life, and then turn your worship to YHWH