Will We See And Hear?

Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the LORD, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never  pass the boundaries I set. But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned away and abandoned me. They do not say from the heart, ‘Let us live in awe of the LORD our God, for he gives us  rain each spring and fall, assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’ Your wickedness has deprived  you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things. [Jeremiah 5.21-25]

Idolatry has no uncertain characteristics that manifest in the lives of those who practice it. Its adherents are foolish and senseless. They have eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not  hear. They have no respect for God as Creator and consequently have no fear of Him. Idolaters give no credit to God for creation. They are stubborn and rebellious. They have abandoned God. Idolaters reason that natural things have natural causes and do not see God's hand in anything, let alone everything.

In short, idolaters ignore the Biblical reason for "natural" occurrences. And, because their eyes and ears fail to "see and hear" what God says about "natural" circumstances, people choose instead to respond to those circumstances in idolatry: they devise their own solutions for circumstances that God says implicate the presence of sin. Instead of repenting, un-seeing and un-hearing people turn to their ingenuity to craft solutions - idols.

As has been pointed out in days past, the idols crafted by man are well-disguised. They don't advertise that they are idols but instead present themselves as practical modern solutions. They offer relief (albeit costly) from all the things ironically described in Deuteronomy 28.15-68 as curses: poverty, destruction, sickness, and physical hardship. So logical have these solutions become that most people view them as necessities, regardless the cost, and find themselves subsequently beholding to these necessities. In a moment of reflection, some might even feel trapped by these solutions.

While the solutions described above offer relief from poverty, destruction, sickness and physical hardship, they do so at a price. In contrast, God offers solutions to all these problems at a price as well: repentance.

Man's solutions offer reprieve from what the Bible calls curses (poverty, destruction, sickness and physical hardship). Whether man ever sees it or not, his solutions are the ingenious works of his hands and mind and thus perfectly fit the descriptions of idols. These solutions include, but are not limited to, debt, insurance, medicine and technology. These all offer solutions to curses (poverty, destruction, sickness and physical hardship) without the need for humility and repentance before God.

It is time we see and hear that these idols have crept into society and our lives and have expensively deprived us of the wonderful blessings of God promised in return for repentance and obedience.

As was discussed in the post What Should We Do?, the only Biblical direction given to a person who would be true to God is to get rid of idols. Will we see it and hear it?

Father, may the truth of Your Word transcend all our human reasons to hold onto our idols! So be it!