"Those Who Make Them Become Like Them"
So many people today have eyes but cannot see the complete chaos this world and this country in the midst of right now, they have ears but cannot hear the evidence that there is something seriously wrong with this man Barack Hussein Obama beyond politics or even ideologies, they have mouths but can say nothing about the intellectual and ethical corruption that has become the plague of choice today, they have noses but cannot smell the stench in our society, they have hands that can pick up nothing to read that can help them and they have feet that can go nowhere to can learn.
You may recognize that these images come from the 115th Psalm where idols of silver and gold were made by human hands but the idol itself could do nothing but sit there. Verses 8 adds:
"Those who make them become like them;
So do all who trust in them.
What else can explain nearly half of America that is as if under a spell in that the grossest distortions of America's heritage, previously unimaginable really, even beyond the pen of the most capable author of espionage thrillers or the macabre, goes undetected or ignored?
What this portion of the 115th Psalm is saying is that those who worship idols that cannot see or hear or speak or smell or feel or walk.....will become just like them. If you cannot see the absolute perfect storm bearing down upon us right now then it is because, like those idols of silver and gold, you have eyes but cannot see.
American Idols
Elvis had not been out of the army long before he made two dramatic movies in succession. In the second, Wild In The Country, he played a young man in trouble with the law and about to go to jail but the parole board saw something decent and valuable to society in him. There's a scene at his pre-trial where the pastor of his youth came up to him and asked him some very in-depth questions on verses in the Bible in which Elvis answered every on of them. There were more references to the Bible in the rest of the film, actually it was pretty amazing. I bring this up to evidence the fact that up to my generation at least, Americans had a familiarity with God's Word from their youth, from Sunday School and from many other sources. One particular theme that seemed to crop up a lot was the 'idolatry' in the Old Testament. The Israelites picked up on the customs of the pagans around them and the next thing you know was that they had idols everywhere also, even to the point of sacrificing their babies to them.
We think of idols as only being from antiquity. The Golden Calf? Interesting for sure but not something we would ever make in such an enlightened culture as ours. But we do indeed have our own idols, we worship them, and we even sacrifice our babies to them. One other thing, God's judgement on us will be the same.
The first Academy Award statuette was awarded about five months before the great Wall Street collapse of 1929. The Oscar as it is known today is 13.5 inches tall and weighs about 8.5 pounds and cost about $400 hundred dollars to make. It's supposed to be a knight holding a sword and was designed in the style of Art Deco. My wife and I were on a cruise this past summer and the grand dining room was in Art Deco with a Great Gatsby theme. It's a very symmetrical design, very modern, very 20th century. This little statuette and the honor perceived in attaining one and the celebrity of all those who own one is a perfect example of an idol that we have in our society today. Place the awards ceremonies on the Lord's Day and you might as well be at the foot of Mount Sinai.
We have other types of idols today that we worship. Young women who have bought into the lie that happiness is in all that they can acquire in power and in sexual freedom often sacrifice their babies through abortion in worship to that idol. Men who have bought into the lie worship the conquest of that same idol.
I could go on and on concerning today's idols for I consider myself somewhat of an expert because I owned so many myself. I still keep a few around and dust them off once in a while. The purpose of this post is not in condemning the Academy Awards or any such idol, rather it is in trying to demonstrate that the pagan cultures had theirs, Israel had theirs and we have ours and that God's judgement will not discriminate.
We in the church are very open in admitting to having idols in our lives. Searching out these idols and trying to remove them is good but we generally don't associate those idols with those in the Old Testament, therefore the hideousness and malignancy of them is masked to us as is the accompanying punishment. If we could see the wildly popular television show Modern Family for example as an idol very similar to those that Josiah destroyed we might meditate on what is actually transpiring here in America. Well, I've got to go for just writing on this topic is convicting me to meditate on the idols in my own life and seeking God's mercy in granting discernment and perseverance and strength in destroying them.
So many people today have eyes but cannot see the complete chaos this world and this country in the midst of right now, they have ears but cannot hear the evidence that there is something seriously wrong with this man Barack Hussein Obama beyond politics or even ideologies, they have mouths but can say nothing about the intellectual and ethical corruption that has become the plague of choice today, they have noses but cannot smell the stench in our society, they have hands that can pick up nothing to read that can help them and they have feet that can go nowhere to can learn.
You may recognize that these images come from the 115th Psalm where idols of silver and gold were made by human hands but the idol itself could do nothing but sit there. Verses 8 adds:
"Those who make them become like them;
So do all who trust in them.
What else can explain nearly half of America that is as if under a spell in that the grossest distortions of America's heritage, previously unimaginable really, even beyond the pen of the most capable author of espionage thrillers or the macabre, goes undetected or ignored?
What this portion of the 115th Psalm is saying is that those who worship idols that cannot see or hear or speak or smell or feel or walk.....will become just like them. If you cannot see the absolute perfect storm bearing down upon us right now then it is because, like those idols of silver and gold, you have eyes but cannot see.
American Idols
Elvis had not been out of the army long before he made two dramatic movies in succession. In the second, Wild In The Country, he played a young man in trouble with the law and about to go to jail but the parole board saw something decent and valuable to society in him. There's a scene at his pre-trial where the pastor of his youth came up to him and asked him some very in-depth questions on verses in the Bible in which Elvis answered every on of them. There were more references to the Bible in the rest of the film, actually it was pretty amazing. I bring this up to evidence the fact that up to my generation at least, Americans had a familiarity with God's Word from their youth, from Sunday School and from many other sources. One particular theme that seemed to crop up a lot was the 'idolatry' in the Old Testament. The Israelites picked up on the customs of the pagans around them and the next thing you know was that they had idols everywhere also, even to the point of sacrificing their babies to them.
We think of idols as only being from antiquity. The Golden Calf? Interesting for sure but not something we would ever make in such an enlightened culture as ours. But we do indeed have our own idols, we worship them, and we even sacrifice our babies to them. One other thing, God's judgement on us will be the same.
The first Academy Award statuette was awarded about five months before the great Wall Street collapse of 1929. The Oscar as it is known today is 13.5 inches tall and weighs about 8.5 pounds and cost about $400 hundred dollars to make. It's supposed to be a knight holding a sword and was designed in the style of Art Deco. My wife and I were on a cruise this past summer and the grand dining room was in Art Deco with a Great Gatsby theme. It's a very symmetrical design, very modern, very 20th century. This little statuette and the honor perceived in attaining one and the celebrity of all those who own one is a perfect example of an idol that we have in our society today. Place the awards ceremonies on the Lord's Day and you might as well be at the foot of Mount Sinai.
We have other types of idols today that we worship. Young women who have bought into the lie that happiness is in all that they can acquire in power and in sexual freedom often sacrifice their babies through abortion in worship to that idol. Men who have bought into the lie worship the conquest of that same idol.
I could go on and on concerning today's idols for I consider myself somewhat of an expert because I owned so many myself. I still keep a few around and dust them off once in a while. The purpose of this post is not in condemning the Academy Awards or any such idol, rather it is in trying to demonstrate that the pagan cultures had theirs, Israel had theirs and we have ours and that God's judgement will not discriminate.
We in the church are very open in admitting to having idols in our lives. Searching out these idols and trying to remove them is good but we generally don't associate those idols with those in the Old Testament, therefore the hideousness and malignancy of them is masked to us as is the accompanying punishment. If we could see the wildly popular television show Modern Family for example as an idol very similar to those that Josiah destroyed we might meditate on what is actually transpiring here in America. Well, I've got to go for just writing on this topic is convicting me to meditate on the idols in my own life and seeking God's mercy in granting discernment and perseverance and strength in destroying them.
