Though it is not referenced in the context of the second commandment there is one thing we can count on from the wickedness of idolatry. A group of people who have carved out an image (a false ideology or philosophy), and are serving it, will often make demands of others to do the same.
Generally, it is not good enough for an idolater to carve out an image (originating from an unbridled imagination), and bow to it in isolation. There’s always a certain group of people who inevitably engage in a recruiting mode to get others to bow to the same carved image. And unfortunately, they find willing candidates to join the make-believe. But recruiting is not always their only strategy. A potential next step by some is to digress into putting more pressure on others to bow to the image. It can eventually digress to using political, medical, religious, educational, media, or social pressures of some kind to get people to accept and serve their carved image. It is rarely “live and let live” with an idolater. The same evil that energized their effort to carve out an image, which they now serve, further motivates them to arrogantly demand a return on their investment. So, they start making no uncertain demands that others join their charade; a kind of forced and bully-based evangelism.
The history of people who gave themselves to this kind of coercive make-believe is scattered throughout the Bible. This helps us get in touch with what to expect from people in our modern world who refuse to embrace thinking patterns based on the Bible, but who choose a life of self-deceit instead. Here’s the shortlist of examples:
- The people of Sodom demanded sexual engagement with Lot and his family. Lot refused; obtained angelic support, and he and his family were escorted safely from the soon-to-be-destroyed city.
- The demand was made that everyone should bow and worship at the gold image of King Nebuchadnezzar. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refused and were thrown into the fiery furnace where they met the “fourth man.”
- Various pressures like persecutions, mockery, and arrests manifested throughout the book of Acts, because of demands by authorities to not speak the name of Jesus and not preach the gospel. The book of Acts celebrates those who refused.
This kind of history repeats itself and characterizes the way various ideologies force their way into our present culture. Their strategies are now much more sophisticated and manipulative especially as we consider the regressive distortions relative to gender, sexual behavior, climate and nature, defining national boundaries, life in (and now outside) the womb, and, highlighted in recent days, medical standards of care. Other manipulations in the world today as a result of carved images devalue race, women, men, Christian faith, and freedom in general. And all this in spite of superior claims to modern enlightenment by those who are self-appointed moral agents. And yet their morality is best described as fluid, based on an ever-evolving trendy secular creed.
God’s mandate is to seek a change of mind and heart, submit to His word and to His ways, and remove these high places. And not surprisingly, common sense also functions much better in this framework
0 Comments