The Cycle of Sin?

Then some of the leaders of Israel visited me, and while they were sitting with me, this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, these leaders have set up idols in their hearts. They have embraced things that will make them fall into sin. Why should I listen to their requests? Tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: The people of Israel have set up idols in their hearts and fallen into sin, and then they go to a prophet asking for a message. So I, the LORD, will give them the kind of answer their great idolatry deserves. I will do this to capture the minds and hearts of all my people who have turned from me to worship their detestable idols.’ [Ezekiel 14.1-5]

The wording of this passage today leads me to believe that people fall into sin when they set up idols in their hearts. In other words, people fall into sin because they set up idols in their hearts.

This cycle comes across more clearly in the next few sentences:

“Therefore, tell the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent and turn away from your idols, and stop all your detestable sins. I, the LORD, will answer all those, both Israelites and foreigners, who reject me and set up idols in their hearts and so fall into sin, and who then come to a prophet asking for my advice. I will turn against such people and make a terrible example of them, eliminating them from among my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD. [Ezekiel 14.6-8]

The New Living Translation very clearly indicates a serious problem in the people: who reject me and set up idols in their hearts and so fall into sin. In checking another trusted translation, it also confirmed the same cause and effect problem.

The problematic cycle as detailed in this phrase, "who reject me and set up idols in their hearts and so fall into sin" is first, rejecting God. This is a violation of the First Commandment:

“You shall have no other gods before Me. [Exodus 20.3]

Then, as no surprise, rejecting God segues right into, setting up idols, a violation of the Second Commandment:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. [Exodus 20.4-6]

When people reject God and set up idols in their hearts, it is a misuse of the faith God placed in every person. God gave man faith so that man might please God. It is that simple. Faith is designed to "work" with God, however, it will also "work" without God. To further explain, the Bible is rife with examples of people trusting God and reaping miraculous benefits. Likewise, the Bible chronicles examples of people trusting "not God (themselves, other nations, images carved from wood and stone)" and reaping devastation and destruction.

It is this trusting "not God" that leads to falling into sin. The sin of rejecting God is, in reality, one with setting up idols and falling into sin, however, we might learn something about ourselves and about the human condition if we understand the cyclic relationship of rejecting God, setting up idols, and falling into sin.

Rejecting God is purely the manifestation of pride.

Setting up idols is the first manifestation of hypocrisy in that our proud rejection of God we STILL must necessarily trust in something (self, carved images, or anything else that is the product of man's doing).

Falling into sin then is the completion of the cycle that begins with rejecting God. It is unavoidable. With this preface then revealing the cycle of sin, we might safely conclude that when we repeatedly sin the same sins, we remain in rejection of God (even if only in one area of our lives). The damning truth however is that even a small rejection of God defaults back to a monumental violation of the First Commandment! "No other god" is unmistakably clear.

As uncomfortable as it may be, repeated sin in our lives reveals the ugly truth that we are not fully trusting God alone and, in that condition, are in flagrant violation of the First Commandment.

At the forefront of every spiritual conclusion we make, we must remain mindful that the entire Bible is about Jesus and therefore about faith (the only thing that pleases God). Our faith in God was designed to work through the person of Christ, the "point" of the Bible. 

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! [John 5.39]

To trust in any way, any other god or any other "redemption" is gross sin deserving death in all its curse-versions.

Sin, with every version or degree of death/curse it manifests, requires repentance. To simply pass off curses upon our lives without repentance is to proudly ignore the Bible, Jesus, and faith.

God's people today need to think on these things! Curses (clearly identified in Deuteronomy 28 as the result of sin) are all around us. Should repentance not be equally present among those who purport to believe God?

Father, I am not sure how things have become so complicated regarding pure faith today, but I am certain who is at the root of it. May You find us returning to faith in every area of life. May You find us categorically refusing to trust anything or anyone but You. May You find us repentant in every cursed situation in which we find ourselves and our society. May You find us in pure undivided faith in Your Deliverer, Jesus. May You find us glorifying Your Name (like Jesus) in this dark world instead of groping in the darkness of sin and its consequences like everyone else. So be it.