Christian Idolatry??

By Steve Highlander

The idea of idolatry would make most Christians shutter. Yet we find many Christians who have a perception of God that is more like idolatry than Christianity. Consider the following passage:
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusts in them.” Psalm 115:4-8

Keep in mind idolaters where very religious. Many people believe in God, but the god they believe in is relatively powerless. They really don’t believe that God will speak to them today, even though Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” They pray for God to intervene in the affairs of men but deny the reality of miracles. They don’t really believe that God can touch their lives in a powerful way, even though God Himself, in a time of trial, poses the rhetorical question to Moses, “is the Lord’s hand grown short?” We say things like, “God don’t you see what I am going through?” Or “Why don’t you hear my prayers?” Or “God I need a touch from you.” All the while our core belief system doesn’t really allow for a God that can work supernaturally on our behalf.

The key thought in the verse above is: “… the works of men’s hands.” We cannot afford to create our own scaled-down version of God and expect it to work.

God is not like the idols – powerless, sightless, speechless and unable to work directly and miraculously in our lives if need be. Perhaps this is one key reason why the 1st commandment was not to have any gods (manmade concepts of God) or idols before Him.

When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush and Moses asked His name, God said, “I am that I am,” or more correctly in Hebrew, “I will be that which I will be.” In other words God revealed Himself as being unaffected by man’s opinions of Him. To put it in modern terminology God said, “I will be who and what I am, not what you want me to be, deal with it.”

God who created the universe and stands outside of time and space is not bound by the same restrictions we humans face. We all need to take our faith up a notch and stop limiting God.