idols

We have certain ideas of what constitutes an idol. We usually connect idol worship with a kind of paganism, and the worship of a god or gods other than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who is the God of all creation. Sometimes we view an idol as anything that we make more important than God in our lives. This week's sabbath reading portion from Exodus chapters 31 through 34 titled Ki Tissa, meaning "when you elevate", includes the familiar account of the golden calf. However, I began to think about what constitutes the worship of idols, and began to see some unexpected things. It made me think about what we may be "elevating", as stated in the reading portion title, that we may not usually associate with idolatry. As this week's sabbath reading begins, Moses had been on the mountain receiving detailed instructions regarding the construction of the tabernacle and everything connected with it. It is at this time that Moses also received what we call The Ten Commandments: "And when He (the LORD) had made an end of speaking/communing with him (Moses) on Mount Sinai (meaning "thorny"), He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony (edut - testimony, witness, precept of God, revelation), written with the finger (espa/seba - forefinger particularly as in the finger of the priest applying blood or oil/dip into divers colors, colored cloth) of God." (Ex. 31:18). The word "speaking/communing" used in the above verse is the Hebrew word dabar, which includes the meanings "to speak, say, commune, to speak together, to arrange in order, to lead flocks to pasture, to direct people, to subdue, to lay snares, to plot against, to destroy). From this we learn that the words spoken by God not only lead His flock, or people, to safe pasture, but at the same time, sets up plots and snares to destroy the enemy. This dabar Word that leads us is a type of exodus, or "the way or road out of" for God's people who heed it, and the way or road into trouble for those who do not. For me, it was also interesting to see that as God gave many detailed instructions for the building of His tabernacle to Moses, a tabernacle which would play a huge role in the spiritual lives of His people, the LORD immediately followed those instructions with a warning: "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My sabbaths shall you keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you...keep the Sabbath...observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested (sabat - rest, celebrate, sit down and be still, to cease, put an end to, exterminate, destroy, leave, take away, remove, restrain) and was refreshed (napas - take a breath, to be breathed upon, refreshed by a current of air)." (Ex. 31:13, 16-17). The consequences of not keeping the Sabbath holy, as the LORD views it as holy, was death (v. 15). Here is a warning against the first idol presented in this reading portion: the tabernacle. Does that surprise you? It surprised me! The tabernacle was to be a work of the finest craftsmen, who were appointed by God and called by name, who were filled with the Spirit of God, and gifted by God in wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship (Ex. 31:1-6). The tabernacle itself was to be constructed of the finest elements including gold, jewels, and expensive dyes and fabrics. The tabernacle would be a prophetic image of the Messiah, the Savior to come. It would be the setting for the priesthood and the atoning and sacrificial power and presence of God, even the throne of God upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. However, in doing this appointed work, they were not to forget the Sabbath, and the holiness and power of the Sabbath for rest and refreshing, the power of the Sabbath as a sign (ot - a token, a distinguishing mark, miracles, proof, flag, beacon, a memorial sign of the past and a sign pointing to the future, a sign of the covenant) between the children of Israel and God. The tabernacle tent, and later, the temple building, became an idol to the Israelites. They wrongly felt that they were safe from attack as long as the temple of God, containing the Ark of the Covenant, was in their midst (see Jer. 7:1-2, 4). Creating an idol of the tabernacle/temple was a deception that weakened them, and kept them from seeking the LORD in repentance. Jesus corrected this attitude: "Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice', you would not have condemned the guiltless..." (Mt. 12:6-7). Jesus also shocked His disciples when He said regarding the magnificent temple in Jerusalem that they were admiring: "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Mt. 24:1-2). Jesus was zealous for the temple fulfilling prophecy (Isa. 56:7, Jer. 7:11), not for the building's sake, but for what it represented - a house of prayer for all nations, a representation of the spiritual place where a soul could speak to God, and know that he is received (Mt. 21:12-13). The temple Jesus prophesied about here to His disciples was indeed destroyed by the Romans within a generation of Jesus' death and resurrection. The glorious temple that Solomon had built centuries earlier was also destroyed and ransacked by a conquering king from Babylon as prophesied. In our lives, the idolization of the temple may sometimes take the form of an idolization of a church building, or of the work that God has ordained for each of us to do. In these cases, the "work" becomes more important than what the work represents, which is God Himself, and God's fellowship, reconciliation, grace and salvation towards man while there is still time to receive it. In fact, one of the greatest tabernacles ever to exist was not one of the glorious structures, but the plain, personal tent of one man, Moses, which he moved and pitched (nata - outstretched, extend, elongate, bend down, coming down, descending) outside and far away from the camp of the Israelites (Ex. 33:7). So great was this personal aleph-tav-tabernacle (as written in the Hebrew), that whenever Moses entered it to speak to the LORD, all of the Israelites watched him, and they worshipped the LORD from the doorways of their own tents (v. 8-10). To this solitary, personal tent, the LORD descended in a cloud, and spoke to Moses face to face (v. 11). In this personal tabernacle, Moses called upon the grace of the LORD five times, seeking His forgiveness for the Israelites who had sinned against the LORD by worshipping a molded golden calf. The LORD answered Moses' pleas by His grace. (v. 12-17). This tabernacle had no outer glory, but was filled inwardly with the glory and presence of God. These are the temples that we are called to be also (1 Cor. 3:16-17, 1 Cor. 6:19-20). Some of the greatest "works" of the LORD are not accomplished on grand stages, in front of crowds of thousands, but are done in private, where no human eyes can see. The greatest "work" of all was accomplished in a lonely place, also outside the gates of the city, on a cross. In the same vein, we can sometimes "elevate" and take great pride in our own salvation, as if it was the result of an accomplishment of ours! We may fall into the trap of feeling superior to others because of the work of Jesus on our behalf. This then becomes an idol to us, which God brings to our eyes in this week's Sabbath portion. We read for the first time in scripture of the Book in which our names are written as belonging to God. As Moses pleads with God to spare the Israelites, he cries: "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold (referring to the golden calf)! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin - but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." (Ex. 32:31-32). Moses was willing to give up his own eternal relationship with God if the people of God could not be spared. The apostle Paul expressed a similar thought as he desired with all his heart to see his own Jewish people accept the Savior and Messiah, Jesus: "...I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites..." (Rom. 9:2-4). Who gets removed from the Lamb's Book of Life is up to the Lord, not us, but would we ever be able to lay our own salvation on the line for the salvation of others? Do we care enough about the salvation of others to even consider doing so? It is unthinkable! The prayers of Moses and Paul were not empty religious words, but heart-felt cries that reflected the cry of God's own heart, and I believe that those prayers were heard and understood by God in that spirit. As we read above, as God gave Moses the detailed plans for the tabernacle and priestly garments, He emphasized that His Sabbath should not be neglected. Here is another idol to many - the Sabbath. What does it mean to God, and what has man decided that it means? Jesus dealt with this idol when He healed, casted out demons, and spoke the truth regarding the Sabbath in the synagogues and temple. The people had made the Sabbath into a religious idol, creating rules, and persecution surrounding it. Jesus said that God was indeed working on the Sabbath, and so He was doing the same works as His Father- works of miracles, and healing: "For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, 'My Father has been working until now, and I have been working...Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (Jn. 5:16-19). Also, as we saw in the meaning of the word "rest" above, spiritual enemies of man are being exterminated, destroyed, removed, and restrained in the Father's and the Son's "work" of the Sabbath. Jesus didn't break the Sabbath, He embodied the Sabbath, as He saw what His Father was doing on the Sabbath. God intended the Sabbath to be rest and refreshing to man, and as an eternal sign , the meaning of which includes "miracles" as discussed above. The Sabbath is holy because it is a time to stop the ordinary cares and activities of life in order to listen and hear, and look and see the works of rest, mercy and refreshing that the Father is doing, so we, like Jesus, may do the same. It is a sign of His covenant. There is a Lord of, and contained within, the Sabbath (Mt. 12:8), but the Sabbath itself is not lord over man. This is why Jesus also said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mk. 2:27-28). It is unfortunate that the marvelous, true intentions of the Sabbath are ignored, or have become subject to a form of idolatry that elevates man's own interpretations and doctrines, rather than God's. The Sabbath of man's interpretation becomes a form of godliness while denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5). A more obvious idol to our understanding, the golden calf that we heard about above, is found in this week's reading in Ex. 32. Moses had been on the mountain, communing with God for an extended period of time, and the Israelites grew fearful. They said to Aaron, Moses' brother and future high priest: "Come, make us god(s) that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." (Ex. 32:1). The first problem here is that the children o Israel so quickly lost touch with the truth that it was not Moses who brought them out of the land of Egypt, but God (Ex. 20:2, Ex. 29:45-46 and over 80 additional verses). Moses was His prophet, leader, and would become the one who delivers the Word of God to the people of God. With their eyes on Moses, they lost the knowledge of the sovereignty and salvation of God (Ex. 14:13-14). This is a type of idolatry also, isn't it? When Moses was removed from their sight, the people insisted that Aaron make them an idol to take the place of Moses and the God he served. Aaron listened to them, and fashioned a golden calf for them with an engraving tool. Then the people said: "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!" (Ex. 32:4). When Moses saw what they had done, he asked his brother, Aaron: "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" (v. 21). Aaron blamed the people as being evil, and then lied, telling Moses that he threw their gold into the fire, and the calf just came out by itself (v. 24). The voice and desires of the people became an idol to Aaron, "elevated" above the truth he knew of God. He did whatever they told him to do, even though he knew it was wrong, and called it evil. We see the same today, as churches listen to the voices of the people, even knowing it is evil, rather than the voice and Word of God which saves. Joshua described this voice of the people as "a noise of war", and not in a good way (Ex. 32:17-18). To me, the golden calf, although it may represent a specific pagan god of then and now, really represents the idolatrous worship of the fears and desires of the people. Idols, which are made by man, have no power, as was shown in another portion from our sabbath reading in 1 Kings 18. The prophet Elijah exposed the uselessness of the false gods that Israel had chosen to follow, which were Ba'al and Asherah. He confronted the King, four hundred and fifty of the false prophets who served these gods, and all the people of Israel who had turned to these gods. In the "showdown", the false prophets did all that they could to make their gods answer them, including sacrificing a bull, calling on their gods' names, leaping about, and eventually, out of desperation, cutting themselves until their own blood gushed out, but their gods did not answer (1 Kings 18:25-29). As Elijah set up a sacrifice to the true and only God of Israel, the LORD answered Elijah with fire from heaven that consumed the offering: "Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, 'The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!" ( 1 Kings 18:38-39). Establishing and elevating idols of the work of men's hands and ways, or giving way to idols to please the people, may be easy and tempting to do, but they will never testify to the saving power of God. From another of this Sabbath's readings, Psalm 96, scripture says: "For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary (miqdas/qadas - sacred, holy place, hallowed part/sanctify, dedicate, consecrate, prepare, purified)...For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth." (v. 4-6, 13). If you would like to learn more about the worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, you can join me in my prayer: "Heavenly Father, I want to give a true testimony of Who You are, or how You reign over all creation as the only God. I only want to elevate You and Your name. Cleanse me, Lord, and cleanse my nation, of all idols. There is only one name under heaven by which man may be saved, and it is the name of Jesus, Your only begotten Son. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit, Who will lead me into all truth, and guard my heart. Let my heart, my mouth and my life be a testimony of You. I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."