We began a new series last Sunday at GP on modern day idolatry. Most people think of idolatry in terms of stone statues and golden images but idolatry is actually a matter of the heart. Idolatry is placing anything or anyone over God in our lives. And the truth of the matter is that most of the things we tend to place over God in our lives are good things. They are not bad things. Most of the counterfeit gods we encounter are good things in life that we allow to become supreme things. Most of our idols are things that we love and are a natural and healthy part of our lives. We just tend to elevate them to a status that is reserved for God alone.
Take for example our children. Kids are a good thing. Children are a gift from God. We are instructed to love our kids in a God-honoring way. We are to protect them, provide for them, make them feel secure, love them as God loves us. And yet our children can easily and quickly become false gods in the sense we can elevate them to the place in life reserved for God alone. A good thing – kids – can become the supreme thing. And when that happens, we are actually damaging them in the sense we are raising them in a way different than God intends. Our good intentions can actually create damage!
Idolatry stands at the heart of our sin. Any time we choose to sin, we choose to replace God in that moment with a false god. We choose to commit idolatry of the heart. Calvin called our hearts “idol factories” in the sense that our hearts continually seek other gods instead of the true God. That’s why we must guard our hearts and seek to prioritize God in our hearts. And as we learn to prioritize God, we find the fulfillment, peace, and contentment for which we are often searching when we construct counterfeit gods.
This weekend we are going to look at an unusual story in terms of idolatry. We are going to be examining the story of Abraham and Isaac. In this story, we have a classic example of the temptation to elevate a good thing to the place of the supreme thing. We will discover in this story that the very promise of God became a potential counterfeit god in Abraham’s life. The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is really an idol check. Was Abraham willing to trust God even when it did not make complete sense to do so or did Abraham hold so tightly to the fulfilled promise of God (a son) that he actually elevated that promise to a place reserved for God alone?
Isaac was Abraham’s ultimate idol test – his one and only son. This test prioritized God in Abraham’s life – it allowed Abraham to find the place of ultimate contentment and faith in God. It proved that Abraham ultimately trusted God and not just in God’s gift. His ultimate faith was in God alone.
This series is teaching me a lot about what idolatry looks like in my own heart and life. What I find is not always attractive for sure. Idolatry is an ongoing battle of the heart but the battle is worth fighting. It is a battle for our hearts – a place reserved for the God who declared in the first two of the ten commands: You will have no other gods before me. You will not allow any idols in your life. We were created to love, trust, and obey God. And only as we live with Him as our highest priority can we truly experience the reality of what that means.