There’s a narrative within the e book of Joshua that I can’t get out of my head. As the tip of his life neared, Joshua, Son of Nun, Moses’s successor, gave one final message to the Israelites as they ready to make their lives within the promised land. And his name was easy: “It’s time to make your alternative: worship God or worship your idols.”
“Now obey the Lord and worship him with integrity and loyalty,” Joshua stated. “Put apart the gods your ancestors worshiped past the Euphrates and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. If in case you have no want to worship the Lord, then select as we speak whom you’ll worship” (Joshua 24:14–15, NET).
The folks, in fact, declared their constancy to God. They swore they might worship him and him alone. However Joshua was uncertain, warning them of the results of turning away from the Lord. The folks continued to insist they might not fall away. “No! We actually will worship the Lord,” they stated (Joshua 24:21, NET).
After they swore an oath of constancy, Joshua commanded one final time, “Now put apart the international gods which are amongst you and undergo the Lord God of Israel” (Joshua 24:23, NET).
The place we actually are on this
It’s that final line, specifically, that retains sitting with me. “Put apart the international gods which are amongst you.” Or, one other solution to say it may be, “Put away your idols.” And as I’ve thought of the response to former President Donald Trump’s conviction on all 34 counts of falsification of enterprise information within the first diploma (a felony within the state of New York), this name from Joshua weighs closely.
In some methods, the response has been predictable. Whereas a lot of his opposition responded on a spectrum starting from aid to please, a lot of his supporters declared the trial a politically motivated sham. (His marketing campaign, naturally, turned it right into a fundraiser.)
A number of of his supporters amongst evangelicals have adopted swimsuit. Op-eds obfuscate the main points of the case whereas calling for the continued help of a candidate whose character they condemned lower than a decade earlier. Why? As a result of, apparently, he’s not “a device of the unconventional left.”
Others have been extra unhinged of their help, as memes of Jesus comforting Trump and outright comparisons of the 2 run rampant: “In case you’re unsure you may vote for a convicted legal, bear in mind, you worship one.”
Now, we are able to argue about every kind of issues on the subject of the connection between Christians and politics in America. All of us, I believe, can agree that it’s bizarre at greatest. However this goes past bizarre.
That is idolatry.
There is no such thing as a different solution to describe it. And never simply within the (morally and theologically incompetent) comparisons between Jesus and Trump. It’s the insistence that voting for a particular celebration is the best way to please the Lord, even when which means becoming a member of the thief and adulterer (Psalm 50:18). It’s the longing for temporal energy and affect. Events and candidates are a way to an finish.
Idolatry is destroying us
The issue with idolatry, worshiping anybody or something aside from the triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—is that it doesn’t merely corrupt us spiritually. It corrupts our conduct as nicely. Take into consideration the Lord’s condemnation in Psalm 50:19–21:
You do harm with phrases,
and use your tongue to deceive.
You plot in opposition to your brother;
you slander your personal brother.
Whenever you did these items, I used to be silent,
so that you thought I used to be precisely such as you (NET).
And the way true that is. We take the Lord’s obvious silence as his endorsement—regardless of him not being silent in any respect. It’s not as if the Bible shouldn’t be clear on the hazards of satisfaction, energy, and possessions. It’s as if, with scandal after scandal, with each new revelation, the Lord is providing folks an out, the identical method Joshua continued to say, “Select who you’ll worship.”
However with each alternative, as an alternative of coming to their senses (Luke 15:17), too many dig their heels in just a bit deeper. Why? As a result of doing so would imply they must admit they had been mistaken.
It’s exhausting, and it’s arduous to not turn out to be cynical. I’m bored with seeing folks I as soon as revered fall prey to folly. I’m sick of women and men dishonoring the title of Jesus as they bear false witness about him with their conduct and character.
We turn out to be what we worship (Psalm 135:15–18). “What folks revere, they resemble, both for damage or for restoration,” Greg Beale wrote. What comes out of our mouths (or our keyboards) says one thing about our hearts (Matthew 12:34).
And what I’m seeing from individuals who ought to know higher frightens me. It’s not a liberal drift or “radical left” ideology that threatens to tear the American evangelical church aside. It’s idolatry.
Put away your idols
So right here’s my plea: put away your idols. Come again into the sunshine earlier than it’s too late. Flee from the wrath to return (John 1; cf. Psalm 50:22). My worry for thus many is that, at greatest, they are going to be saved as one who’s snatched from the fireplace (Jude v. 23). Every little thing they’ve constructed, their repute, their “legacy,” all of it would burn away as a result of it’s meaningless (1 Corinthians 3:15).
However there are others for whom my worry is deeper: that ultimately, they won’t hear, “nicely accomplished,” however “I by no means knew you; depart from me” (Matthew 7:23; 25:41). I’m not silly or conceited sufficient to say who I believe is in and who I believe is out, definitely not publicly. That’s for the Lord to resolve, and I’m not him.
However what I can see is fruit. And the fruit I see is spoiled; rotten. The plant is sick. However it’s not thus far gone that it may possibly’t be healed. However it wants recent water and wholesome soil. So, flip off cable information. Step out of the echo chamber. Learn the Scriptures. Repent. Pray. And, in some instances, resign. Put away your idols. Comply with Jesus as an alternative.
Picture by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash
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