What Is an Idol?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome to 2022, into the first episode
00:00:08.020 | in our 10th full year on the podcast now.
00:00:10.920 | It's amazing, I had no idea we were launching something
00:00:13.300 | that would last a decade, but here we are Pastor John.
00:00:16.780 | And the year begins with a question
00:00:19.020 | over idolatry of all things.
00:00:21.140 | It's a good one too, it's from an anonymous man.
00:00:23.060 | Hello Pastor John.
00:00:24.460 | What exactly is an idol?
00:00:27.020 | Christians use the term all the time,
00:00:28.660 | especially in sermons, so I go to my Bible.
00:00:31.140 | There I find that idols were statues or figurines,
00:00:34.700 | worshipers bending down to quote,
00:00:37.140 | "Gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone."
00:00:41.180 | That's Daniel 5.4.
00:00:43.460 | Sometimes it seems idols were talisman like items
00:00:46.340 | to ward off bad things,
00:00:48.340 | trinkets in the form of golden tumors or golden mice.
00:00:52.220 | I'm thinking here of 1 Samuel 5,
00:00:54.300 | verse six to 1 Samuel 7, verse two.
00:00:58.100 | But today's idols are very different.
00:01:00.220 | They seem to be desires of the heart for money,
00:01:02.140 | sex, power, and things like that.
00:01:03.900 | How did this come to be?
00:01:06.380 | Idols used to be carved things,
00:01:08.700 | now they are heart obsessions.
00:01:11.500 | I don't understand the link between statues and heart idols.
00:01:14.660 | In fact, when I look at the Old Testament idols
00:01:16.340 | of tumors and mice, I don't really understand those either.
00:01:19.960 | Can you explain both forms of idolatry
00:01:22.620 | and how they are connected?
00:01:25.140 | Yeah, well, I'll try.
00:01:26.700 | Let's start with the definition.
00:01:28.500 | I think to cover all the cases,
00:01:32.740 | we should probably define an idol,
00:01:35.900 | and I think this is a biblical definition,
00:01:39.020 | as anything that we come to rely on
00:01:44.020 | for some blessing or help or guidance
00:01:49.460 | in the place of a wholehearted reliance
00:01:53.420 | on the true and living God.
00:01:56.380 | So that's my working definition of idol.
00:02:01.260 | So you can see that would cover, for example,
00:02:04.020 | a rabbit's foot in your pocket
00:02:06.380 | or a picture of a saint hanging on your wall
00:02:10.140 | or a relic from some sacred shrine sitting on your mantle
00:02:14.300 | or the more forthright images taken
00:02:16.940 | from Hindu or Buddhist temples
00:02:19.460 | or the golden calf that Aaron made
00:02:23.220 | while Moses was on the mountain.
00:02:25.620 | And what makes all of those idols
00:02:29.100 | is that we are looking away
00:02:32.300 | from a wholehearted reliance upon the true and living God
00:02:36.700 | through Jesus Christ,
00:02:38.180 | and we are looking at the rabbit's foot
00:02:42.180 | or the relic or the picture
00:02:44.600 | for some special protection or blessing or guidance or help
00:02:49.420 | that we don't think we could get by just looking to God.
00:02:53.700 | Now, our friend who sent this question in is right,
00:02:57.960 | I think, that in the Bible,
00:03:01.300 | the word idol is uniformly used
00:03:06.140 | for an actual object from nature
00:03:10.260 | or more often made by human hands.
00:03:14.300 | You don't find the word idolatry used
00:03:18.900 | to describe excessive love for your wife
00:03:22.540 | or your lands or your money or your pocketbook.
00:03:27.180 | And so I think he's right that in the Bible,
00:03:30.220 | there's this distinct focus on a man-made object
00:03:34.600 | or something from nature
00:03:36.520 | rather than just this strong craving and desire for stuff.
00:03:41.520 | Now, behind that is correctly the second commandment,
00:03:48.860 | you shall not make for yourself a carved image
00:03:52.540 | or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above
00:03:55.980 | or that is in the earth beneath
00:03:57.740 | or that is in the water under the earth,
00:03:59.880 | you shall not bow down to them or serve them
00:04:04.740 | for the Lord your God is a jealous God.
00:04:08.980 | In other words, God is so jealous
00:04:11.940 | for our direct personal dependence on him
00:04:17.340 | and reverence for him and adoration of him
00:04:21.780 | that he not only disapproves
00:04:24.340 | of competing so-called gods represented with idols,
00:04:28.940 | but even the creation of idols presuming to represent him,
00:04:33.940 | not just false gods being turned into statues,
00:04:38.000 | but himself being represented
00:04:41.500 | with some man-made object that we look to.
00:04:45.700 | And I think if we ask why,
00:04:48.300 | that is why is he so jealous
00:04:51.160 | for that kind of direct personal dependence
00:04:55.740 | of reverence and adoration,
00:04:57.980 | part of the answer is found in Psalm 96, five.
00:05:02.100 | It goes like this, this is verse five of Psalm 96.
00:05:06.160 | For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
00:05:11.080 | but the Lord made the heavens.
00:05:15.380 | In other words, one of the problems with idols
00:05:19.220 | is that they contradict the transcendent nature
00:05:23.240 | of God as creator.
00:05:25.860 | Any representation of God made with human hands
00:05:29.500 | leads to the misunderstanding of God's transcendence.
00:05:34.220 | It gives the impression, if not the direct assertion,
00:05:38.820 | that God is somehow in our power.
00:05:42.500 | We can carve him or paint him or put him in our pocket
00:05:46.780 | or on our shelf or carry him on a cart.
00:05:50.460 | And so the psalmist says, no, the Lord made the heavens.
00:05:55.460 | In other words, he's absolutely transcendent.
00:05:59.380 | You can't carve him or control him in any way.
00:06:02.880 | Another reason why God is so averse to images,
00:06:07.880 | either of so-called gods or of his very self,
00:06:12.340 | is found in, I think, Psalm 115, four through eight.
00:06:17.220 | Goes like this, their idols are silver and gold,
00:06:22.020 | the work of human hands.
00:06:24.500 | They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes, but do not see.
00:06:28.980 | They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell.
00:06:33.420 | They have hands, but do not feel, feet, but do not walk.
00:06:37.740 | And they do not make a sound in their throat.
00:06:40.980 | And here comes the key verse.
00:06:42.500 | Those who make them become like them.
00:06:45.220 | So do all who trust in them.
00:06:48.500 | In other words, not only do images
00:06:51.900 | misrepresent the nature of God,
00:06:54.940 | they destroy the nature of man.
00:06:57.500 | They turn human beings into mindless, powerless clumps
00:07:02.500 | of unspiritual flesh.
00:07:06.060 | We become like those statues.
00:07:09.260 | The nothingness of idols turns human beings
00:07:13.580 | into nothingness.
00:07:16.060 | So now we come to our friend's question.
00:07:19.300 | Okay, if that's what the Bible treated as idols,
00:07:24.140 | today's idols, he says, are very different.
00:07:27.420 | They seem to be desires of the heart,
00:07:30.180 | or for money, sex, power, things like that.
00:07:33.100 | How did this come to be?
00:07:35.200 | Idols used to be statues, not just heart obsessions.
00:07:39.480 | And I say, very good question.
00:07:43.180 | How did that come to be?
00:07:45.180 | Here's the first thing I would say,
00:07:47.140 | namely, that this change of focus in defining idolatry
00:07:52.140 | is owing to the fact that we live in the West,
00:07:58.200 | in cultures where outright use of images
00:08:03.400 | for religious worship is less common
00:08:06.800 | than some other cultures.
00:08:09.560 | So the question then arises,
00:08:11.480 | well, do these biblical teachings about idolatry
00:08:16.200 | have any relevance for those of us who live in cultures
00:08:19.960 | where the use of statues,
00:08:23.320 | before which people actually bow down and worship,
00:08:27.360 | is less common?
00:08:28.880 | Is there any relevance to it at all?
00:08:32.760 | The answer is yes.
00:08:34.640 | And I don't think the use of the term idolatry
00:08:37.280 | to refer to God demeaning love of money, sex, power
00:08:42.280 | is a misuse of the term idolatry
00:08:45.720 | when one presses in to the essence
00:08:48.640 | of what is really going on with an idol in the Bible.
00:08:53.560 | Here are a couple of New Testament pointers
00:08:56.640 | in that direction to show why I think it's okay
00:09:00.160 | to use idolatry the way he says modern people
00:09:03.800 | tend to use it.
00:09:05.080 | First, Romans 1, 21 to 23, refers to people
00:09:09.240 | who don't have direct knowledge of the gospel,
00:09:12.240 | but they do have general revelation in nature
00:09:14.600 | so they can know God that way and be held responsible
00:09:18.280 | to glorify him and thank him.
00:09:20.960 | Here's what it says.
00:09:22.280 | For although they knew God,
00:09:24.160 | they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,
00:09:27.160 | but they became futile in their thinking
00:09:29.640 | and their foolish hearts were darkened.
00:09:32.360 | Claiming to be wise, they became fools
00:09:36.240 | and exchanged, this is the key part,
00:09:38.920 | and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images,
00:09:43.920 | resembling mortal man, birds, animals, creeping things.
00:09:47.560 | Now, I think this text points to the essence
00:09:53.080 | of the problem beneath the outward display of idolatry,
00:09:58.460 | namely, we exchange the glory of God for images.
00:10:03.460 | And the first kind of image that Paul mentions
00:10:09.060 | is images resembling man.
00:10:12.860 | And I don't think it would be a stretch to say
00:10:16.520 | that the foremost image of man that threatens
00:10:21.520 | to replace God is the image we see in the mirror.
00:10:27.080 | We are lovers of self-exaltation,
00:10:31.920 | which threatens continually our love of God exaltation.
00:10:36.920 | I think it's right to call this exchange
00:10:42.880 | a form of idolatry.
00:10:45.460 | So back to my broad definition, it went like this.
00:10:48.600 | Anything that we come to rely on for some blessing
00:10:53.200 | or help or guidance in the place of wholehearted reliance
00:10:58.200 | on the true and living God,
00:11:01.360 | if we come to crave and love and depend upon
00:11:07.200 | and trust for a blessing, people's praise,
00:11:12.520 | to enhance our self-exaltation or money or power
00:11:16.720 | or sex or family or productivity or anything else
00:11:21.240 | besides God himself for the greatest blessing
00:11:25.120 | and help and guidance and satisfaction,
00:11:28.000 | then in essence, we are doing what idolatry has always done.
00:11:33.000 | Let me give you one more passage from 1 John 5, verse 21.
00:11:39.840 | It's the very last verse of John's letter.
00:11:45.080 | And it says this, "Little children,
00:11:48.160 | keep yourselves from idols."
00:11:51.480 | Why does John in his letter end that way?
00:11:56.480 | He had never even referred to idols in the whole book.
00:12:01.060 | He never referred to idols in his whole gospel.
00:12:04.300 | Out of the blue comes this closing sentence
00:12:07.640 | with the very word idol that ordinarily means a statue
00:12:11.960 | of something that we use to replace God with.
00:12:15.640 | Don't give in to idols.
00:12:18.820 | Keep yourselves from idols.
00:12:21.780 | So why did he end that way?
00:12:23.600 | Here's my closing suggestion.
00:12:26.720 | He had said in chapter two, verse 15,
00:12:30.620 | "Do not love the world or the things in the world.
00:12:35.620 | If anyone loves the world,
00:12:39.040 | the love of the Father is not in him.
00:12:42.840 | For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh,
00:12:46.140 | the desires of the eyes, the pride of life,
00:12:48.940 | is not from the Father, but is from the world."
00:12:53.940 | Now, John the apostle may have had
00:12:58.940 | literal material images in mind when he said,
00:13:03.080 | "Keep yourselves from idols."
00:13:05.420 | Maybe.
00:13:06.380 | But I think he is also thinking
00:13:10.180 | of the more general deadly problem
00:13:13.560 | that anything in the world that successfully competes
00:13:18.460 | with our love for God is an idol.
00:13:21.660 | So keep yourselves from idols.
00:13:24.760 | That is, love God and all that he is for us in Christ
00:13:29.760 | more than you love anything.
00:13:33.340 | - Very good.
00:13:34.180 | Yeah, that's a great definition.
00:13:35.380 | An idol is, quote, "Anything that we come to rely on
00:13:38.280 | for some blessing or help or guidance
00:13:41.400 | in the place of a wholehearted reliance
00:13:43.880 | on the true and living God," end quote.
00:13:47.960 | That's sharp.
00:13:48.800 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:13:49.620 | Thank you for joining us today.
00:13:50.840 | You can ask a question of your own,
00:13:52.360 | search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast.
00:13:54.720 | All at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:13:58.800 | Well, with the new year,
00:14:01.120 | it's a good time to talk about new habits.
00:14:03.720 | Specifically, how can God's word abide in me
00:14:07.000 | more deeply, more richly, more fully?
00:14:09.880 | Don't we all long for that,
00:14:11.320 | that God's word would abide in me more richly?
00:14:14.520 | Well, that's what we're gonna talk about next time.
00:14:16.200 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke,
00:14:17.280 | and we'll see you back here on Wednesday.
00:14:19.840 | See you then.
00:14:20.660 | (upbeat music)
00:14:23.240 | (upbeat music)
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