IDOLS

The Soul Anchor [Hebrews 6:19] - September 1, 2025

Exodus 20:4-6 says,

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Growing up as someone who accepted Jesus as my savior at an early age and believed the Biblical worldview I never truly understood the concept of idols. I mean we have a real God who loves us and wants to have a relationship with us so why worship a pile of rocks or stone statue? On my first trip to Israel when I was 21 years old we spent the night in the Sinai desert. One night we camped right on the Israeli Egyptian border. Although deserts are supposed to be hot that night was the coldest night of my life. Literally, the coldest night I can ever remember!  I felt like I laid for hours waiting for the sun to come up just trying to stay warm. When the sun finally came up, I did NOT worship it that morning but I had an understanding of why ancient cultures and to some degree cultures today worship the sun. It gave me something that I desperately needed at that time – WARMTH!  Sadly, it is all too easy to worship something based on our perceived immediate needs.

Dictionary.com defines “Idol” as “an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.” My online search of the word “idol” mostly revealed a lot of information about an American Idol style “reality television” show that exists in many countries in the world.  The sad truth is that we are always looking for something (sometimes it seems like anything) to idolize.  Yet the Bible is quite clear - “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.”

When we exchange the worship of God for anything else we make a very, very poor trade. As Paul writes in Romans 1:21-23,

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

God bless,

Pastor Frank