The Redemption Project - Idols

There’s a wonderful passage in the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. The prophet mocks those who worship idols. Their gods, he says, are cut from the same wood that built the fire, which baked your bread. And you now bow down to it even as you eat the food you cooked upon it.

 

It’s fun and funny, and I encourage you to read it. Because, we seem to be having an issue with idols these days. And it’s killing people.

 

The obvious idols are the statues and moments to the dead leaders and soldiers of the Confederate States of America. We’ve seen a few of these come down in the past few years and, now, as a society we’re realizing that it’s time for these graven images to a racist way of life to come down.

 

But it’s not just about the statues.

 

Idolatry is forbidden again and again within Scripture. The Children of Israel are warned about it, and the early Christians warned one another (and us). It’s dangerous not because it simply diverts our worship from God, but because it’s about control. And control means someone is greater than someone else.

 

Graven images are something we create. They are static, unchanging, and as they have no life of their own, we are allowed to impose our own image upon them.

 

Every statue to Lee or Davis or Forrest is an image carved in our likeness. Yes, they look like the historical persons whose name adorns their plaques, but they don’t represent them. They represent those who made them, who defend them, and who worship them. They represent the continuation of an old American idolatry: that some are not truly human.

 

Those men behind those statues worshipped a false God, one they created and, after a manner, controlled. And as creators, they were themselves gods who made more idols, imposing images on others. On the image of those with darker skin they carved animals, creatures, things less than themselves. And those who worship at the feet of these statues and lift high their banner see the images they carved. They do this to ignore the image of the One upon them, the same that is upon us all.

 

Of idol worshippers, Isaiah concludes by saying that they have no understanding. They are blind, their eyes are shrouded and they are ignorant. They do not see nor comprehend the truth; because, they do not follow the One whose Spirit inspired another prophet to declare that there is no Jew nor Greek, no male nor female, no black nor white.

 

We stand in difficult days. Those who worship these idols are few but hold the highest offices in our land. They are seeing their idols destroyed. Their gods are nothing but wood. And they, out of fear, are willing to kill to preserve the images they worship and those they have imposed.

 

But the prophet promises, they will be shamed, dishonored, forgotten.

 

And those who follow the One will be delivered.