Take a moment to think about the products and food found in your home. Look at those labels and do a quick tally of things unreal. I think you'd find a very high percentage of your daily living has been touched by the false fairy. OK, let's not think about that too much, one could go a little batty with all the unnatural ways we get through life.
The fact is, it's a part of us. Our human nature just can't help it. I'll even go as far to say true purity is just too much for the make up of man. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself again, I better start to get to my real thoughts before the tangent monster takes me on another adventure.
I believe we all have within us an innate sense to get back to Eden. We just know that things in the world just aren't the way they should be. We start off strong in our attempts to nobly hold onto the innocence we seem to understand in childhood only to find ourselves in a tangled up mess of half-truths, deceit and compromises. Life is tough in this faux, faux world.
Pseudo Spirituality
I was reading Judges 17 and 18 and the topic of idols jutted out at me as something that needed to be added to the long list of fake things we battle in this world. As I read further I realized the times were not much different than what we experience now. It was said that the people did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6). Essentially the blind leading the blind. The story shows a man in his feeble attempts ended up choosing the fake, the dead, the non-life giving substitute in place of reality.
The story begins with (I assume a middle aged man) named Micah stealing silver from his own Mother. He over hears her anger over the trespass and decides to give it back to her. She then blesses her son and asks that the silver be made into two idols no doubt as a sign of piety. Micah even goes to the extent to try and be accurate by recreating the ephod. Micah then sets his son up as the priest of the household.
Maybe things weren't going too well with the son being the priest because along comes a 'gypsy' Levite (Levites were the tribe chosen by God to be His representatives - The priestly tribe) and Micah seeing his credentials, offers him room and board along with an annual salary for his priestly services. They get along really well and Micah thinks of him as a son.
Explorers from the Danite tribe come across Micah's house and find the idols and the priest. They figure why not ask the man of God if they will be successful in their quest to take over the land they are seeking. The priest says, 'Yes, they will accomplish their goal.'
Word travels fast. Six hundred warriors show up at Micah's house from the Danite tribe and they persuade the priest that overseeing a clan was better than a household. They secretly bagged the idols and left to raze the city of Laish, whose people were peaceful and kept to themselves. Micah pursues the warriors in order to try and retrieve his idols and his priest but went back home empty-handed. The Danites then took over the city and set up the idols that were once Micah's.
This story made me ask so many questions? Why did the Danites have to war against a peaceful city, couldn't they have built their own city especially with 600 strong warriors? It sure seems that the Levite priest was in it for the perks, why didn't he tell Micah to get rid of the idols and start worshiping God? He so willingly followed the clan and didn't even tell Micah he was leaving, he didn't seem too concerned about the spiritual welfare of Micah and his household.
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| garnetppl:Photo by: Kevin Walsh Mica |
The story of Micah just seems to go from bad to worse. Anytime I read it I always think of the sheet silicate mineral we call Mica and how easily it flakes and crumbles. Under a time of 'do whatever floats your boat' and man living on his own whims; searching for truth in anything other than the true source just causes our life to fall apart.
Micah is a great picture of man's search for God in religious traditions and focusing on the superficial outward rules. I strongly believe Micah even made his priest his idol. What Micah had was a package deal. He had pretty, expensive items along with a human figure head to make his attempts to look and feel righteous seem like a reality.
The Substitute
The word 'idol' gives off an ancient vibe as if those things don't exist anymore. They are just relics we read about, in fact, we know they are just statues. How easily we forget the word 'idol' also consists of ANYTHING that takes the place of God. With that extended definition, I think it makes the term quite modern and up-to-date. Idols now can be related in terms of: money, husbands, wives, kids, friends, careers, the self, hobbies. OUCH! Too close to home.
Idolatry and priorities when working in a symbiotic relationship cause havoc on our relationship with God and other people. The minute we get our priorities straight and keep God as our focus, the potential idols in our lives take the proper role, time and energy necessary for balanced living (John 7:38). Let's face it, anything that takes first place on our priority list other than God is a substitute, one that won't fulfill.
Idols don't offer anything and they don't deliver on any promises, or if we substitute people in the place of God our expectations of them will never measure up and cause us to be disappointed and angry.
Our substitutes are dead ends, yet we create them, we hold on to them, we spend our time, effort and money on them. We become emotionally attached to these dead icons and end up empty handed and not understanding why, just like Micah.
Quintessence
This is where I get a little teary eyed and my heart finds that small sliver of Eden staring back at my soul in the form of hope. Hope in the reality of God extending himself through all the universe and time to be the purity we search for while we live out the life sentence of a fallen world full of distracting substitutes.
The inerrant Word of God tells the story of God's intervention in mans' mistakes with the end result of good thwarting harm, God's name being glorified and man coming out smelling like a rose when he probably should smell a little more like a titan arum flower (corpse flower). He offers that to all of us through the pages of time. We just have to make Him our priority. Every day!
My struggle to try to be close to God, please Him and allow Him to make my life straight has been a journey I can relate to 'a camel passing through a needle'. (Mat. 19:24). It is a narrow road (Mat. 7:14) that I can only stay on by relying on My savior, Jesus. I can truly say, because of His purity and His sacrifice, I am lucky enough to be washed clean and experience what real life is. I have not arrived and still experience encounters with the 'fake' but know that when that occurs, I've got the pure source for what is right, good and beneficial for my growth, JESUS!
Thank you Lord for your example of Purity, only found in Your Son! (John 14:6)
This Sermon SAYS IT ALL
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