Word of Encouragement (02/22/2023)
Then he will say, 'Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection! 39 "'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.’” (Deut. 32:37-39)
God’s sarcasm begins in the second half of v. 38: “Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection!” He knew how diligently and generously the Israelites offered their sacrifices to these pagan idols. With what? With the produce of the land, with which the LORD had blessed them. And why? They believed that these idols could do what they wanted them to do better than the LORD their God could. The sacrifices they had offered to these idols were enough to fatten them up and make them strong. So, the LORD challenged the Israelites to call on them to help them in their time of trouble. Of course, God knew that the pagan idols, who craved animal fat and wine, were no gods at all. That was what made Israel’s idolatry so foolish and wicked. She regarded these false, non-existing gods more highly than the one and only true God.
God at one point referred to these idols as demons. Also, in many cases, they were mere personifications of natural phenomena, such as the sun and the moon, the rain and thunder, the trees and the rivers, etc. These were mere instruments of God, who created and established them to sustain the world. But so powerful were these natural phenomena that many worshipped them as if they were gods and goddesses. Imagine how much more powerful God must be, who established them and uses them as mere tools to accomplish His sovereign will.
The modern man, enlightened by science, no longer holds such a primitive view of the world. He no longer worships these ancient idols. He knows that they are nothing more than natural phenomena produced by the laws of physics. Since he knows how things work in nature, he rejects our need for God as well as the existence of God. But, as someone noted, it’s like saying that there cannot be such a thing as a car builder because we understand how the car works.
The modern man may not believe in primitive idols. That is a good thing. But he is not free of idols; he just has different idols or different expressions of the same, ancient idols. The new idol he has is what we call scientism. Science is the human enterprise of discovering how nature works. Scientism is the belief that science is the ultimate standard of truth and the answer to all of our problems. The two are not the same. Science is a method by which we understand the natural world. Scientism is a belief in the almighty power of science. Scientism is not a logical conclusion of science. Science can only speak of how things work, not how things ought to be, especially in the realm of morality. Scientism is not much different from primitive religions in the sense: they both believe that man’s happiness and fulfillment depend on the manipulation of nature.
The modern man may have rejected the forms of ancient idols, but he is still beholden to the essence of those idols. As Tim Keller pointed out, the modern man may not bow down to the statutes of Aphrodite and Dionysus and Plutus, but he still sacrifices his time and money and effort at the altar of beauty and pleasure and wealth. But can these things keep him happy and safe if God should strike him down for the punishment of his sins?
Who of us can say that we don’t have these tendencies of the modern man? And are we not like the Israelites of old, who valued these idols more highly than God? Isn’t that what we are doing when we refuse to be content and grateful to God when He doesn’t give us what we desire? Let us let go of such idols decisively right at this moment. Then, we will be able to see how much we have been blessed and begin to bless God for our wonderful salvation in Jesus Christ!