Idols!

December 9, 2024 Monday Message:

Deuteronomy 5:8 NLT, Moses quoting God who spoke from within the fire: “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.”

We opened up the “Commandments” can-of-worms yesterday, so let’s continue down that path. Our God Yahweh claims the title of “God,” and no other entity can claim that title. We are to have no others, which works out well since there really are no others!

Anything other than the real God is a figment of our imagination, simply a pretend, made-up god. We are forbidden from worshiping anything other than the one true God.

What is an idol? 2,000 years ago, silversmiths would craft statuettes, figurines that people could purchase, put up on their mantles and then worship and pray. Other than the silver, these objects were worthless. Nowadays an idol can be anything that diverts our attention from worshiping the real God. Ending a worship service sooner so that we can get to our football game? That qualifies. Jobs that require working Sunday morning get in the way of worship. When my children were younger, they played sports. A tournament would be scheduled over a weekend, with the finals being played on Sunday mornings. I never understood that, or why there wasn’t a larger outcry against that. To me, choosing between a soccer match and honoring our creator doesn’t require much thinking. God wins every time!

Think about it – erecting an idol to a non-god makes no sense! What the Bible teaches us about the super-natural world is all true. There are devils and demons, there are angels and God’s angel-army, but there is only one Supreme Being, our Creator, Almighty God! The commandments, like the Bible, are about truth!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship