May
2009
IDOLATRY: WATCH OUT, YOU’LL BECOME WHAT YOU WORSHIP!
When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-13), we often ignore the circumstances of the event and lose ourselves in a contemplation of what it must have been like to be in such a manifestation of the presence of God. According to G.K. Beale’s analysis of Old Testament idolatry, God warned his people that they would become what they worshiped. As a result of worshipping the gods of the nations around them, Israel had become deaf and blind to the things of God (cf. Psalm 115:2-8), particularly to holiness and righteousness. They had learned to take God’s presence for granted, and no longer reflected his glory to the world as a witness of God’s redemptive compassion for all humanity. Indeed, the key element of this passage is that while in the presence of God, Isaiah realized his own sinful condition, and that of his people (Isa. 6:5). However, Isaiah was transformed by an act of cleansing from the presence of God and became an imager of God to Israel. Israel on the other hand continued in a spiritual insensitivity that reflected the lack of living attributes of the idols they chose to worship, unconnected to God and incapable of enjoying or appreciating his presence among them.
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