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Deuteronomy 32:21. "They have stirred me to jealousy with what is no god, they have provoked me with their idols. So I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation."

 

God tells us over and over again in the Bible that he is a jealous God. He made us for Himself, for us to be his people and for Him to be our God. He does not tolerate rivals for His love and protection of us, and no rival we turn to could possibly love and care for us as our Creator does. But the world, the devil, and our own fallen nature all cause us to forget this and to frequently provoke Him with our idols. Then we start feeling the effects of our idolatry - we start being provoked ourselves when we see Him seemingly favoring other people, or letting foolish leaders or even nations gain power over us. This unsettled feeling is the result of our giving other things more importance in ourt lives than God. If we ignore it, the consequences can be very dire for us, as our idols start taking our freedom, our relationships, and even sometimes our lives.

 

It is important to ask ourselves, then, what are the idols in each of our lives? Our modern day idols are typically not golden statues (although the Golden Globes might have something to say about that); or graven images (although the public Baphomet statue might have something to say there). The idols that most people have today are typically good things, but things we have come to rely on too much, things we have allowed to take God's primary place in our lives.

 

During COVID, I saw this with the medical industry (I don't mean to pick on medicine, but it makes a very good example!). Medical care, modern medicines, and doctors can be wonderful things, and we are blessed to live in a time and place with such great understanding of biology and human illness and disease. But scientists and doctors are not God. When we turn to them expecting god-like cures and "warp speed" vaccines, we are confusing that issue. With COVID, scientists and doctors felt great pressure to respond quickly, and pharmaceutical companies were given a great financial incentive to develop a vaccine. So they did, but because of our idolization of them and our fear (which also became an idol during COVID), we did not hold them to proper standards; corners were cut, results were manipulated, sometimes we were even flat-out lied to (like Anthony Fauci with his "noble lies," (and read this article and watch the video included with it, and tell me he has not become the victim of our idolatry! We have to pray for him!), and people were hurt, and then ignored or dismissed. 

 

During COVID, many fearful people forgave obvious harms, manipulations, and lies without question, because they had come to see the medical community, at least the ones who were saying what they wanted to hear, as godlike. They idolized the medical system as one that could do no wrong, even when the evidence of wrongdoing was very obvious. They were led, and even encouraged, to treat their fellow man with suspicion, and sometimes hatred and violence. The adulation of "science" and medicine also encouraged prideful, tyrannical behavior on the part of many in the medical community - our idols started acting like idols! Only God can do no wrong, human beings are fallen, and fallible, always. Also, idols get us to sin in service of them, that's one of the devil's greatest ploys, and we did a lot of sinning against our fellow man in service of our fear during COVID.

 

So we see how idolatry works in this one example, but we also must be aware that anything can be an idol. We can identify them when we start seeing ourselves acting badly yet justifying it to ourselves; or when we start losing other very important and good things, like health or family, in service of them; or when we start seeing people or things gaining power and control over us that they should not have. If we see those things, we should wake up and realize we are on the wrong path - that is God's way of bringing us back, so that we rely only on Him. We can see the danger of idolatry easily in things that we know are wrong, like pornography, theft, or any bad thing that can cause us to lose everything if we don't detach from it. It is much harder to see when the thing we have made our idol is a good thing, but just not the most important thing, like medicine or health.

 

The most important thing is God, everything else must give way to our service to and love of Him. If we find ourselves acting against His commandments, hurting others or alienating them, violating others' free will, losing relationships or our mental or physical wellbeing due to our singular devotion to something, even something good, we can be pretty sure that thing has become an idol to us, and we have to learn to detach from it.