What Are We Paying For?

Your silver and gold will not save you on that day of the LORD’s anger. For the whole land will be  devoured by the fire of his jealousy. He will make a terrifying end of all the people on earth. [Zephaniah 1.18]

In today's OYCB reading, both Habakkuk and Zephaniah denounce idolatry. Both prophecies contain no uncertain scorn for people's trust in their idols that they have made. Both prophecies point out the futility of trusting anything or anyone besides God.

The thing unique to idolatry is that it has a monetary (silver and gold) cost. Whether the cost is seen in lavish adornment of carved, cast, or chiseled idols, or in paying large sums to other countries for protection, idolatry is expensive.

The reader here is encouraged to read Idolatry Is Bondage for further investigation into the costs of idolatry. What is presented in that post is that debt, insurance, medicine and technology are idols. It is also pointed out that these idols are expensive! Hardly a soul would disagree that debt, insurance, medicine and technology account for great financial burden in almost every household.

Is it a coincidence that Zephaniah quotes God in saying, "Your silver and gold will not save you"?

Regardless how ingeniously man has devised remedies for the curses detailed in Deuteronomy 28.15-68, curses remain the result of disobedience. Man's attempts to circumvent curses (ignoring their obvious call to repentance), if effective at all, are at very best only temporary. No amount of money idolatrously thrown at the feet of debt, insurance, medicine and technology can or will ever be enough to avert God's ultimate wrath upon disobedience. Curses are simply earthly precursors to eternal damnation. Their implication is much more than needing to take out a loan, file an insurance claim, fill a prescription, or get a better widget - all of which require money (silver and gold) to obtain!

The idols "your silver and gold" pay for do not remedy the cause for the need they meet. Only humble repentance before our Holy God will appease His anger. Jesus Christ, on the Cross, took the full force of God's anger on our behalf however, we may not enjoy His sacrifice without obedient repentance and faith (not to be mistaken as two separate acts as genuine repentance and faith are never independent of one another).

The prophets all said, "repent." John the Baptist said, "repent." And, Jesus Christ said, "repent."

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” [Matthew 4.17]

When our first response to a curse is to throw money at it, then money is as much an idol to us as the relief it pays for.

What are we paying for?

This is not a soapbox. It is serious, and its relevance today is unprecedented.

Father, may we see our idolatrous relationships with expensive inventions and solutions (even though we "claim" You gave them). May there rise up a contingency of "believers" who reject expensive idols all for the sake of "trusting God alone" in their own minds, and, in the eyes of the unbelievers whoa are watching! So be it!