No Idols

5 min read

25 But Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD and sinned more than all those before him. 26 He followed completely the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, committing the same sin Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit, so that they aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, by their worthless idols.
— 1 Kings 16:25-26

I always wished that we could delve deeper into the minds of people in biblical history to understand better why they did the things they did or didn’t do the things they didn’t do. Of course, trying to understand a person from another culture and another time couldn’t be easy. But I feel like the more we knew, the more similarities we would see between our own lives and theirs.

And I feel this way because I have lived in so many different places and had relationships with so many different kinds of people. And I’ve come to see that in every group of people you are hanging out with, the general dynamics of human relationships are very similar.

It’s sort of like that Heineken commercial where they put two people from “opposite” cultures in a room and see them find common ground in their humanity.

But as curious as I may be about why Omri chose to follow “completely the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat,” the Bible only tells us what is most pertinent for us to understand. And we see this message over and over again in the Kings.

Omri, like Jeroboam, led others away from devotion to God, and led them into idolatry. And for this “they aroused the anger of the LORD.” In other words, whatever worldview that we may espouse in our lives, whatever decisions we make based on that worldview, it is supremely foolish to arouse the anger of God—especially when avoiding God’s anger is so easy to do.

And the “anger of the LORD” is not necessarily God’s active wrath poured out upon His people. It’s more that God’s wrath was already poured out into the world when Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God. But God withholds that wrath from ever touching His kingdom. And all that we ever need to do the avoid His wrath is to step into His kingdom.

However, once we embrace an idol, we find the kingdom of God evaporating around us, leaving us no protection from the wrath that has come upon this world because of sin. In the kingdom of God, there are no idols.

Father, I confess that my heart is prone to wander. My heart is prone to idolatry. Give me eyes, ears, and a heart so that I will not stray from you and seek after idols. Help me to lead others to Christ, as well. In Jesus’s name. Amen.