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This Sunday, November 30 I plan to preach a sermon in the morning services of College Church titled Humanity’s Prophet. Following is a segment of the message which explicates the attractions of idolatry from the Ancient Near Eastern context. It doesn’t take much reflection to recognize how the same attractions apply today.

1. Selfish
a. Expected something in return for one’s offering. It was motivated by materialism, things like fertility (of animals, crops, etc).
b. Israelites were to give their offering simply out of love for God

2. Accessible
a. Statue or painting of a god was supposed to reflect the presence of that god.
b. Likeness connects to the real thing (e.g. voodoo)
c. You could have an idol in your home
d. Yahweh required worship as a nation at one location, Temple in Jerusalem

3. Easy
a. In all other religions there was no ethical connection with the worship and sacrificial system (no covenant obligations like what you see in the Mosaic Law)
b. In pagan idolatry your only obligation was to bring food. WHY? Human beings were inferior to the gods in every way, except that the gods could not feed themselves.
c. Old Testament was full-blown ethical, ritual, civil system requiring obedience to God.

4. Normal
a.Common without exceptions in the ancient world—only righteous Israelites avoided idols.
b. And, furthermore, it seemed to be effective for the economically successful states and superpowers (nations like Tyre, Egypt, Babylon, Hittites)

5. Logical
a. Connection between idolatry and “polytheism”
b. Allowed the individual to pick what special need he/she had and worship that one particular deity.
c. One invisible God that reigned over all of life was foreign to the thinking of the ancient mind

The divine good news that emanates from the Old and New Testaments however is that the LORD turns the attractions of idolatry upside down, presenting himself as the true answer to human longing. Notice the ironic manner in which Jesus does this:

1. Selfish // You must become unselfish to really find yourself: “Lose your life for my sake and you’ll find it” (Matt 10:39).

2. Accessible // You can’t see Jesus with the naked eye, but he is always within reach. “I am always with you…” (Matt 28:20).

3. Easy // Hardest thing in the world— “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48): (Jesus makes us perfect by his atoning sacrifice and resurrection). And Jesus says, With man [salvation] is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26).

4. Normal // Countercultural, and yet people around the world, from every nation, tribe and tongue are in Christ (Rev 5:9).

5. Logical // Most illogical thing in the world, and yet it’s absolutely true (John 14:6).

Besides serving as the second President of the United States (1797-1801), John Adams was in many other ways a pivotal figure in the founding of his nation. As a delegate to the Continental Congress and the author of the Massachusetts Constitution (on which the national one was later modeled), Adams understood the American experiment at least as well as any other person of his time. As Adams saw it, the American people faced a stark choice: esteem and embrace godly virtue and thrive or cast it away and decline.

Several years ago my wife and I read David McCullough’s best seller, John Adams. It ranks as one of our all-time favorites. This was followed by the HBO film series which in our humble opinion couldn’t compare with the book. While the film portrayed Adams as a crotchety throw back to the puritans, it failed to develop his biblically informed conviction and insight. The following quote is one such example.

“While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation [that is, hypocrisy] towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practicing iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.1″

Footnotes:

1 “Adams to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, October 11, 1798,” in Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), 228-229.