In the Old Testament God chose a people out of His grace, Israel, to display Himself. They were to be a light among the nations, but they fell into sorrow.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply…. Psalm 16:4

God sent prophets to warn them. Leaders to lead them in paths of righteousness, but they chose sorrow.

So, the Lord says through Ezekiel, At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, offering your body with increasing promiscuity. So I stretched out my hand against you…. Maybe one reason that the sin of idolatry multiplies sorrow is because idolatry only ever increases, leading you to more and more and more false god worship. One sorrow easily spills into another, and this is how you come to lead a really sorrowful life.

When you read the Old Testament it can seem that God is scathing in His indictments of Israel, but a closer look reveals that He loves them, that His grace was upon them as it is upon us. What Father doesn’t discipline the son He loves? He chastises Israel for the sake of His great name, yes, but also to save them out of their sorrow…He disciplines them to save them.

It can be easy to not see ourselves when we read about Israel so God had the Apostle Paul pen these New Testament words…

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 1 Corinthians 10:11

Idol worshiping Israel reflects idol worshiping us.

We don’t like to think of it that way. It sounds awful! We think that we are perhaps less prone to worshiping false gods. After all there no shrines we are we are bowing down to…we don’t craft idols of wood in our spare time, but our idol worshiping is far less apparent, well-hidden, and maybe a little more dangerous. Cloaked under guises of human invention.

Scripture exposes us…lays us bare…and my eyes read Behold, this is the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. Now, that could be us. The question is can we put the sin of American idolatry to death? Can we crush the overwhelming pull toward another god that exists in us?

John Calvin said The human heart is an idol factory. And it is. How do we shut it down? Can we bold enough to admit that sometimes we are wholly like Israel chasing after other gods searching for happiness but only gaining sorrow?

Idolatry pulls, like materialism, it’s subtle isn’t it…buy a little here and there, and a little more. The craving though is never satisfied. Contentment never comes from just buying one more thing, never! Do you feel idolatry pulling? Well, if I can just get to the next season of life then I will be happy…if I can just get married or have kids or live there or….Do you feel the sorrow mounting? A person, be it husband or child, such a beautiful a gift they are, but they do not a good god make. A zip code to that house you’d like to have, may be really nice, but it is not to be worshiped, pursued, meditated upon, sought after eagerly. We are to worship God. God alone.

If you love Jesus you don’t want to worship other gods, but if you don’t mortify your flesh you inevitably will. We are fallen and living free is the gracious work of the Holy Spirit…but we can quench Him.

The cure for idolatry isn’t appeasing our flesh or satisfying it’s desires whatever they may be. The cure, the anecdote, is delighting in God, being satisfied by the only source that quenches thirst… This week, let us consider how we satisfy the soul in Jesus and escape the lures of bowing down before something that can’t even breathe….