We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive. Our ancestors sinned, but they have died—and we are suffering the punishment they deserved! [Lamentations 5.6-7]
Lamentations 5.1-7 is a prayer for restoration. Verses 6-7 above reveal why God's people needed to be restored: they trusted in something other than or, in addition to, God - they trusted in Egypt and Assyria. God's people committed spiritual adultery in doing this - it was idolatry.
Once again, today we are faced with what we believe about the Bible. Is it for us today? Or, is it just a historical record with no relevance to modern man? Most of us will religiously say it is for us today, but then hypocritically refuse to live by what it teaches.
God's people today are effectively in the same position as God's people in Jeremiah's time. We did not necessarily initiate our own worship of idols, but we are very much living in the wake of idolatry that began before our generation but we are doing nothing to get out of it.
Our idols today are not so much other nations (at least not those of us who live in the USA) but instead are idols made to meet our needs. These idols were made to meet our needs independently of God. These idols do not require any assistance or help from God, and certainly no accountability to God. In fact, most of the promotions for these idols depict, and thereby promote, tell-tale Godless behavior.
God's people today defend their idolatry the same way God's people defended their trust in Egypt and Assyria - it is excused as a matter of survival. Oh, the truth revealed by Lamentations! The names have changed, but the spiritual adultery of idolatry has not.
As much as the Bible has always spoken about idolatry, it has also spoken about Jesus. How? In every reference to the Sabbath! Jesus is the Sabbath Rest promised by God. So, if Jesus is the antithesis to everything the Bible tells us about idolatry, what did He, the Sabbath Rest, have to say about how we live? Here are two things Jesus said that His followers most need to reconcile with:
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. [Matthew 6.33]
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24]
If God meets all our needs, we don't need idols of our own making to do so.
If we are followers of Jesus, we cannot hold to anything of our own way (our own making - to meet our own needs - our idols).
Any named thing we trust instead of or, in addition to God, is an idol. I'm not calling any names...
Father, I am intentionally refraining from naming idols here in this article today. If these idols are obvious to me, they will be obvious to any other person who reads Your Word with relevance to us in our time. May our hearts be moved to give up our own way (of idolatry), take up our cross, and follow Jesus. So be it.
