GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
After the Hebrews were delivered from the hands of the Pharaoh of Egypt by God through the prophet Moses, they passed through the Red Sea by the parting of the waters and ended up on the base of Mt. Sinai. There Moses went up to the mountain and received the 10 Commandments. The second commandment is, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Ex. 20:4) Often, this is taken as a prohibition on having statues in the church. Though in general, this is true, there are instances in the Bible, particularly in the OT, that state there were graven images and paintings, or as the Orthodox would call it--icons. What God meant was a prohibition on “worshiping” created creatures or things; not a prohibition for us to use the material of the world to remind us of saints, or of course, Jesus Christ. The commandment specifically states that the prohibition is on created things, such as birds, animals, sea-animals and rocks/stones; furthermore, it is the worship of created things. Evidence of this can be seen in Ex. 36: 35-37:9 where, per the instructions of God, Moses has images of cherubim embroidered in the curtains of the tabernacle and statues of the same cast for the Ark of the Covenant. Again, here we see that the cherubim 1) were not worshiped 2) nor were they birds, animals, sea-animals or rocks.
The Apostle Paul in today’s Pauline epistle (1 Cor. 8: 1-6) talks about idols. He says, “…we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.” St. Paul was speaking in the context of food offered to idols. But the message is clear: idols are, in our modern terminology--fake—because there is only one true God; and if God is God, then there can be no other God. If there were other Gods, then God would not be God. Further, based on the above paragraph and of what we know regarding the context of 1 Cor. 8, we can say that St. Paul was speaking about the false idols of the Roman, which were men and animals.
In our times, other than what might be overtly visible in religions such as Hinduism, we don’t have idols everywhere. Although that might be the case, the definition of an idol can be stretched to anything that we put before God as a form of worship. In the past, people wanted to worship the created rather than the creator. Similarly, in our time, although it is not birds, animals or stones, we do find ourselves worshiping other things. Often, unknown to us.
Since idols are things that we make more important than God, they can either be physical or nonphysical. For example, entertainment, money, recognition and even family have become idols in our time and the Christian is just as guilty of this type of idol worship as anyone else.
Entertainment: the tv shows, sports, our addiction to facebook, instagram, snapchat, messenger--all of this has become for us an idol, because it has taken priority in our lives, surpassing prayer, fasting, church attendances and spiritual needs. This idol can even take the form of us putting social gatherings and family activities before spiritual concerns/needs.
Money: money is necessary and a good thing. But with all good things, it can turn bad. Our concern for money and wanting to build our equity and security should be equally met with our wanting to build our equity and security for our spiritual life.