We visited the Pantheon weeks ago, yet it still sits squarely in my mind.
Tag: idolatry
The strength of a soul is determined by the source of the soul.
Honestly, most of us are not going to have an affair with a wayward man or woman. But the probability of us engaging in idolatrous behavior? That is quite high. Idols seduce us. Idols drag us away from our covenant. Idols will ultimately lead us to death.
Someone told me on Tuesday how the word ‘priority’ has been singular for hundreds of years. By it’s very meaning, a priority could only be one thing, but in the last few decades, we’ve pluralized it and in the same swoop of the pen: diluted it. Loving God cannot be one of our priorities: no, He must be the priority.
When we bow before dead things, we become dead things ourselves.
Ezekiel was living among these rebels: a holy man among an unholy people. And while we may not yet be amidst death throes in America, we can certainly relate to living amidst rebellious people. One might even ask: how do we survive? How do we serve God in a nation gone astray?
Historically, a husband would look after a home’s infrastructure and fence line, fields and lawn. When a husband went absent, by infirmity, infidelity, war declaration or death, his property quickly bore witness.
Suddenly, I see people-pleasing as the idolatrous transgression it truly is. Valuing the opinion of man over the opinion of God or obedience to Him – well, this puts us in a precarious place. Just as we may cheat on the Almighty through materialism or appetite, we equally betray our Beloved by letting the applause or dismay of others have undue influence. We allow ordinary people to rule our affections (heart), motives (soul), thoughts (mind) and actions (strength). When we seek to please mere people, we dethrone the one true King.
It seems Israel needed to brandish God as a mere idol in order to realize the sordid state of their union with Him. Like a philandering husband who comes home to his belongings strewn across the front yard, Israel needed to be confronted with the reality of their adulterous ways. God had gone out from them and His people were plunged into a functional hell: the absence of His presence.