Graven Image

We don’t have idols in our culture. At least, we tell ourselves we don’t have idols. We think we know what an idol is. We have seen them. They are little dolls with funny or scary looks on the faces. Or they are animals or grotesque representations of animals. We have seen pictures of them with candles burning. Sometimes we overly holy evangelicals look down upon certain Christian denominations with their statuary and icons saying to ourselves "they are worshiping idols" as we religiously go home to our favorite TV program that teaches us vile behavior. Or we carry our big Bible with great respect showing others and proudly declaring how it is the correct translation authorized by our Elizabethan Peter and Paul.

One TV favorite has been the "American Idol" where supposedly new talent is presented and voted upon with the ultimate winner being declared the new American Idol. And worship is given with the purchase or their recording. Of course the winners are the advertisers. But what is the "idol."

Really now, "graven image" doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us today. It is said by some theologians that Israel never again had trouble with idolatry after the Babylonian captivity. If that is true, I have trouble believing that God would bother taking up one of the Ten with a "Thou shalt not." If it was temporary, maybe all that was needed was the Nine Commandments. But it must be a continuing problem in all of human society including our American society today. Maybe it is not just carving a funny looking doll.

Isaiah points some realities with sarcasm at its best.

Isaiah 44:9-20 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. 10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? 11 He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.

12 The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. 13 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. 14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. 15 It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says,"Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." 17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says,"Save me; you are my god." 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,"Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" 20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say,"Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"

Maybe an idol is simply something made by you that you think will magically provide your needs. And you make it out of something that you could not make in the first place. God provided it to you. You do not acknowledge the Sabbath of Creation. Instead, you presumptuously take what has been provided by God, use some of it as God had intended, and then take some of the rest of it and set it up to worship. You expect the "human creation" to provide for you the rest of the provision you actually need.

Follow the path again.

God caused a tree to grow. Man cannot yet make a seed that will grow into a tree -- maybe later -- but not now. And even if man could clone a tree, man cannot create matter without energy or energy without matter. Man can’t do it. Man cannot create space or time. So far, he can only change it. So it is safe to say that God made the tree. There is a poem like that.

Man comes along and cuts the tree down. Out of some of the tree he builds some things: maybe a table and chair. Out of some other parts, he burns it to make heat to make some bread. In the evening this man takes a log from the tree and puts it in the fireplace to keep warm. Because of the tree God made, man has a table and chair, some fresh bread, and warmth in the evening. Then this man takes a portion of the tree that God caused to grow, and this man carves for himself an image and declares, "This is my god and will provide all my needs." He made a graven image.

Man worshiped the created. Man believed a lie.

EXAMPLE

Someplace a few years ago, God caused a tree to grow -- probably a poplar or some other quick growing tree. This tree, after about 6 years, was harvested and taken to a pulp mill. Eventually with the processing of man, cardboard occurred. It just kind of came out of the mill. Then some men and women took that paper and started further processing and out came a box. This box was a practical box because it held things and protected them until they were delivered to the end-user -- the consumer.

Someplace else, God had made some chemicals -- a long time ago. Some of us believe He spoke these things into existence out of nothingness. The emphasis is on "believe." Anyway, some clever people took these elements and noticed certain attributes that could result in color and ink was made -- in at least four colors.

The box people discovered ink and figured out how to put images on their boxes. It didn’t make the box any more practical other than identification. But it was prettier. Maybe it sold better.

You and I have brought many of these boxes into our homes. Originally created by God, man processed what God made and we used it. We worked with it. I use some of this inked cardboard to start fires, so I am warmed by this cardboard that God made the raw materials for.

One day, a clever marketing manager noticed that cardboard is self-supporting and can be inked. He said, "Why not make an image to promote our product?" He took cardboard, made from a tree, added ink in a specific form, and out of the process an image of Santa Claus holding a Coke appeared. We all love -- or hate -- Santa Claus: an image made out of ink and cardboard.

Do we worship Santa? Probably not. However, the example is the same as what Isaiah was talking about.

Look at Aaron’s situation. Moses is up on a burning mountain getting the Ten and he has some people complaining.

Exodus 32:2-6 Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

Exodus 32:22-24 "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' 24 So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"

"DO NOT BE ANGRY, IT CAME OUT OF THE PROCESS"

There is the assumed, it just happened by itself.

God told us to work. That was the first job given to Adam before Eve fed him the fruit. Work is good. But since the fall, there can be some unforeseen results of the work process. God called them "graven images." We call "graven images" idols, and we sophisticated western Evangelical Christians don’t have idols. Some holy people are so "imageless" that they insist on no pictures or even stained glass in their drab beige sanctuary of worship. If it isn’t austere, it isn’t holy. And their dress of worship might be the same - ugly. But that seems to be missing the Isaiah point. "Believing a lie" gives a cross-reference point to understanding what a "graven image" actually is.

Romans 1:18-2:1 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

The short version

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised.

You see the list of vile behavior. It is the effect -- the result of -- worshiping the created rather than the Creator. Isaiah pointed out idolatry as worshiping the created image rather than He who created the tree in the first place. I have taught for years that one of the results of rejecting God as creator of all things is the rise of homosexuality in a society. With that behavior on the increase and all of the vile things listed in Romans 1, I argue that our society must be – MUST BE -- very idolatrous. But how are we Americans idolatrous. We don’t have little household gods that we bow down to and burn candles. Well -- most of us don’t.

IDOLATRY

Remember the Sabbath. This is the last day of the week set apart by God -- a sign -- a symbol -- of God completing HIS WORK. And it was very good. When we honor the Sabbath, we are reminding ourselves and showing God that we appreciate and recognize what He has done. He has done it all. There is nothing to add. It is complete and very good. Every seventh day, we turn back to God and recognize that He and only He is the source of all things. This is worship.

Remember Theft. Not tithing is theft from God. The tithe is that portion of our increase that belongs to God. He established the payment schedule. Our increase is provided by God, not by us. It is not something that we can do apart from God. Try earning your paycheck without your heart beating or you lungs breathing. What if your brain quit? How much would you earn then? Can you make it work? If you think you "own" all your increase, you are stealing from God. You have taken what God created and made an image that you worship because you feel that you have to keep the tithe to meet your needs. God said He would provide. You in effect say you must provide. Tithing is worship -- recognizing that God is the source of all things. Sabbath is worship, recognizing that God made everything and it was very good.

Idolatry is taking what God has made, doing some man-work to it, and then thinking and acting as if that doubly created thing is your source -- rather than God. Look at the commandment.

Exodus 20:4-6 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Besides telling how long the earth will exist -- thousand generations -- the commandment specifically talks about "idols in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath." Yes, waters too. And my contention is that the idolatry is when the created is recreated by man into something that is considered by man to be their provider. It is hard to see in our society idols because we don’t treat objects in that way. However, that is not the only thing in heaven, or on earth, or beneath the waters.

Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities , or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Can principalities be an idol? If we take some system of organization and declare by our action and attitude that it will provide all our needs and in effect be our god, we have created an idol. This could be our retirement plan or our welfare state. When a welfare check is received, is God thanked or do we appreciate the government and want them to increase the payment? Do we watch our IRA or pension fund as carefully as we read scripture? What is our source?

GRAPES AND GRAIN -- or bon-bons in front of the TV

God made grapes and grain. God also made the chemical process resulting in wine and beer. Man works the process. Deal with it tee-totalers and holier-than-thou abolitionists, there is a place for beer and wine in society and scripture -- if you read all of it -- tells you what it is.

Proverbs 31:6-7 Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish;

7 let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

When people drink for intoxication, they are committing idolatry. Rather than relying on God to provide comfort, rest, peace, or enjoyment of life, they are taking grapes and grain, created and grown by God, processed by man, and then have declared that God is not their joy -- the bottle is.

Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Notice the parallelism

1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

Sexually immoral (adulterer), idolater, and drunkard are listed in front of the "or." Those three are similar in type in that all three replace God as source with something created. (The last three have to do with deceit.)

Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

God has a better way all the time. Jesus told the disciples where to fish. Jesus fed the multitudes. Jesus told Peter to catch a fish with gold in its mouth. Recently I heard the a person had received a copy of Richard Sigmund’s book, A Place Called Heaven. If I got the story right, he was short of money and was given a $20 bill to get gas for his car. He put it in the book, which, by the way, was increasing his faith. In the store, he went to pull the bill out of the book to pay for the gas, and it was now a $100 bill. He found a total of three $100 bills in the book. Who was the source?

We all go to doctors. Are they our source of health? Or is it God who makes the medicine work?

We have jobs and get money. Is our employer the source of our finances or is God? What is our attitude? How do we act? Is the tithe employed? Is the Sabbath honored?

We have plans for tomorrow. Are they in the hands of God or our own brilliance?

Proverbs 16:1-9 To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.

2 All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.

3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends — even the wicked for a day of disaster.

5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil.

7 When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.

8 Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.

9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

HOW TO AVOID IDOLATRY

In all things give thanks to God. This is what the Sabbath is about. This is what tithing is about. This is what we train our children to do so that they may have a long life . This is how we don’t forsake our first love and commit adultery.

Isaiah 44:6-8 "This is what the LORD says —

Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:

I am the first and I am the last;

apart from me there is no God.

7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.

Let him declare and lay out before me

what has happened since I established my ancient people,

and what is yet to come —

yes, let him foretell what will come.

8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid.

Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago

The question is simple: Is your provision met by things God has made or things man or you have made -- without thanks to God?