I
have been studying worship lately, trying to get a good idea of what it is,
partly because I lead music, and partly because I have never found a fully
satisfying definition of idolatry in the 21st century. What I mean is this, it
seems like in primitive cultures, idolatry would involve making a wooden or
stone statue and then praying to the statue, putting it up in some meeting place
and coming and offering it sacrifices and so forth. Maybe dancing and
celebrating in the presence of the idol. That’s idol worship in a primitive
culture. But moderns are not so superstitious. They don’t make graven images and call upon them. They look to government, medicine, and science to make their crops grow, heal their diseases, and solve their various problems. And they give their money to the same, but our worship of science or medicine doesn’t look like traditional idol worship. I mean, when is the last time you heard a song written to praise the government or a song of adoration to science. The difference is that we are the government, and we are science. Humans are doctors and “medicine” is a field of study, not a person that can be depicted in a stone statue.
I think the reason why I haven’t found a satisfying understanding of modern day idol worship is because of my connotation of the word ‘worship’. Our present day idols are not things that we sing songs to, and put up like statues in our houses, but they are the things we serve and the things that we allow to determine our standards of conduct. We obey our idols, which means we love them and are devoted to them. Like Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
So, anyway, in my continuing study of worship, I came across an idea expressed in several verses. Here it is in Psalms 106: 35-37
But they mingled with the nations
And learned their practices,
And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them…
In Exodus and Deut, God tells the Israelites not to worship the gods of the nations or it would become a snare. But, as you know, they did worship other gods and it did become a snare. So I started pondering snares.
Some snares cause immediate pain. If an animal steps into one of those traps with sharp teeth, it will wince in anguish right away.
(this one doesn’t really have sharp teeth, but you can see the anguish in the foxes eyes.)
But in many cases the pain of a snare has a time delay and the trap at first serves only to restrict freedom. For example, when an insect first gets caught in a spider web, it writhes around a bit, wanting freedom, but apart from lack of movement, it feels no pain. Or if an animal falls into a pit, it might find that it cannot get out of the pit, but it is free to lie down and sleep, or maybe free to eat some food that was left in the pit as bait. So the snare appears to be irksome, but somewhat pleasurable at the same time.
There is another important reality about a snare. Someone set it. And that someone will return and then the real pain occurs. The insect in the web is eaten by the spider, when the spider finally comes around checking her web. The animal in the pit is put to death or to forced labor when the hunter makes his way back to the pit.
When the Bible says that serving other gods will be a snare, you can be sure that there are two consequences of the practice. The first is a loss of freedom. You no longer can do all the things you want to do.
Some times some of my kids have asked me about some particular activity like watching movies with sexually explicit scenes or going to dances or drinking or smoking and sometimes things like going to the mall to hang out. And I usually express a lack of enthusiasm for these activities out of concern for snares. These activities have pleasure associated with them because snares usually have to have bait to be effective. But they are also addictive. Everyone has to shop some time, but making shopping a recreational activity plays on covetousness. Sexual arousal, nicotine, and alcohol also are highly addictive.
The voices of this age (gods, if you wish to call them that) tell us (especially youth) in their own subtle ways that there is nothing wrong with these things, but in fact, they are laden with snares. Of course, to be a true Meyer, I have to say that not everyone who experiments in these areas becomes an addict. Yes, there is a legitimate place for drinking, going to malls, watching a movie, going to a dance. And sometimes even if you fall into a trap, you can wiggle your way out of it; but that doesn’t make the trap not a trap. You just got lucky.
The real danger of a snare is when the one who set it finally arrives and finds you just where he wanted you. I’ll let you speculate on who that is and when he comes for the snares that accompany idolatry. But I think the fact is, in cases like this, that the trapped person could live comfortably for many years, and finally even begin to think he or she is not really trapped, because the ultimate consequence has not yet happened.
Back to the question that teenagers ask their parents. “Can I ….” and the parent says, “no” to which the teenager replies, “but what’s wrong with it?” The answer is: “it’s a snare”. Or sometimes is might be better stated: “it’s a forest containing snares, I don’t want you to get trapped.”
God says, ‘don’t serve those other gods or it will be a snare to you’. He is not being a kill joy. He is being a protector. And so are the parents. You better believe there are a lot of snares out there! And guess what? They are still there when you outgrow your teen years and when you get married and when you have your own kids. I get trapped in one here or there myself. So I learn to avoid the forest. And when I must enter the forest, I exercise extreme caution. That is, I watch out for those other gods, the idols of the post-enlightenment society. If I serve them it will surely become a snare to me.
But, to wrap up. I still find it confusing to identify those false gods of our age. For example, is smoking a god? or is smoking the behavior that ensnares me if I choose to serve a false god? Or taking drinking as an example. Drinking, in and of itself is legitimate. Overdrinking is a snare. Overeating can be a snare as well. So I don’t think wine and food are idols, and I don’t think we worship overeating. Rather, there is something else that we
serve that leads us to get caught
in drunkenness or addicted to smoking. And at that point, I don’t know how
abstract to get. In Old Testament times, they had Baal and Molech. We ain’t got
those guys! Maybe you could say we have things like ‘prestige’. We fall into
certain behavior patterns in worship of prestige. Or ‘coolness’, we want to be
cool. Or maybe Madonna is an idol. Some young girls view her as a role model and
strive to live out what she stands for. Maybe one’s yard can be an idol. If you
live to make your yard look nice, and you spend money on it and pour your time
into it, it is an idol. And then what about NASCAR. Brian Heembergen used to go
to NASCAR races every year. He told me that one of the main reasons that people
go to live NASCAR races is to drink, smoke, and watch for or be a flasher in the
crowd. In the stands you can’t really see much of the race anyway. So maybe
NASCAR is an idol. The book of 1 John ends with an exhortation, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” Perhaps this section of scripture provides some insight. The previous verse says (1 John 5:20) And we know that the son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”
Here the contrast is being drawn between the true God and false gods. John had personally seen Jesus as he hung on the cross and died and then had personally seen him alive again. There was no doubt that this was the true God, but there are all kinds of false beliefs out there. Americans consistently answer in surveys that they believe in God, usually 80 to 90% of those surveyed say so. But when you start probing them about the characteristics of the God they believe in, you find that there are really many gods that are worshiped in America, because the traits differ substantially. So maybe the best way to understand idolatry in post-enlightenment society is to think about false conceptions of God. When we live out and live by those false conceptions, we end up in behavior that is a snare.
I guess in this particular document, I am not answering all the questions, am I? But I hope I have given you something to ponder. My children, guard yourselves from idols. Watch out for snares. Worship and serve the true and living God.
Love,
Dad