1 Worthless Idols and a True Husband, Jeremiah 2:1-5, 20-28, 3:12-15 (October 19, 2014) The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD. 4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD: What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? 20 For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, I will not serve. Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. 21 Yet planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? 22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD. 23 How can you say, I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done a restless young camel running here and there, 24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. 25 Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go. 26 As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, 27 who say to a tree, You are my father, and to a stone, You gave me birth. For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, Arise and save us! 28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. 14 Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. PRAY We are in a series of studies in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was one of the great prophets of Israel, and his nickname is The Weeping Prophet. He s called that because he ministered in Israel during a time in the nation s history when the people had turned away from the Lord. They had rejected his law, his commandments, his worship, and when Jeremiah obeyed the call of the Lord and preached to Israel, the people ignored him. And as a result of Israel s continued disobedience, the Babylonian
2 army came along, destroyed Jerusalem, and carried the people off into exile. Jeremiah saw all this, and he wept. Now, why did the people of Israel ignore Jeremiah and all the other prophets and turn away from the worship of the Lord? And the answer is: idolatry. It s all through the passage - just one example can be found in verse 28: But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah. What I want us to see this morning is that just as idolatry plagued Israel 2500 years ago and brought them nothing but destruction and desolation, it plagues us today. This is such an important topic. Whether you are a Christian or not whether you believe the gospel or not whether you are a brand new Christian or have been a Christian for decades and are very mature in the faith, idolatry explains why it is you do the things you do and feel the things you feel. It s such an important subject that the apostle John ends one of his books in the New Testament like this: Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:21. Understanding idolatry, and your idols in particular and how they work in your life, can give you a road map of your heart. Three headings: first, why we practice idolatry. Second, what it does to us. Third, how we can get rid of it. First, why we practice idolatry. I don t know what you think of when you think of idols. For a long time I thought it was some ritual that only the really ignorant, primitive people would ever practice. When the movie Curious George came out, I took my oldest son to see it, he was probably three or four years old. And of course once it came out on DVD we watched it a hundred times at home. But the whole plot of the movie revolves around the Lost Shrine of Zagawa, which turns out to be an idol, a statue, from some kind of African religion. The reason the man with the yellow hat runs into George in the first place, and the reason for any conflict in the movie at all, is this idol. The main character goes to Africa to look for this idol, he runs into Curious George, and hilarity ensues. But of course none of the characters in the movie thinks this idol, this statue, they re trying to get back to the United States has any power whatsoever. They just want to put it in a museum to sell tickets so that the museum can stay open. They all know the statue has no power at all it s just a statue. And that may be what you think when you think of idols. You may think, Yes, people like ago, before the Enlightenment, before universal public education, they would bow down to these little statues and worship them. But we don t do that we ve evolved beyond that. I just can t relate to idolatry. Are you sure? Do you know what kind of idolatry the people of Israel engaged in 2500 years ago? They worshiped Baal and Asherah. Those are the two gods you see worshiped over and over again in the Bible. Asherah was the goddess of fertility, and she
3 had the power to enable women to conceive and bear children. Baal was the god of storms and rain and agriculture. Now, remember, everyone in ancient Israel was engaged in agriculture there was no industry, there were no corporations, there was no middle class the only way you could make a living was in agriculture. So why would you go to Baal? Well, if you wanted to survive, you had to grow crops to feed yourself and your family, so you went to Baal for help. And, of course, if you wanted a family, if you wanted children, and back then having a family was everything you were considered cursed if you didn t have a family then you d worship Asherah so that she could help you have a family. The people of Israel practiced idolatry not because it was some meaningless ritual, but because in the deepest desires of the hearts they desperately wanted a family of their own to love and take pride in, and because they feared not having enough money to take care of their family once they got it. And we look at that and say, Oh, I can t relate to that? We say, Oh, those poor, ignorant Israelites, what a bunch of idiots aren t we glad we ve moved beyond all that? No today, we have the same heart desires they did. The people of Israel wanted security, and success, and money, and family. What do you think it is we want? Why do you think so many people overwork? Even when it wrecks their family because they re never home and their kids don t know them? Even when they don t really enjoy working and they d so much rather be doing other things? Because their career, or the money they make, or both has become an idol. They re trusting it to give them security and money, and life isn t worth living unless things are going well at work. Why do you think so many people are so worried about their children will they do well in school, will they be popular, will they have encouraging friendships, will they make this team, will they get into this sorority? Why do so many parents try to control their children s lives and guarantee certain outcomes? Even though when they sit back and think about it these parents know they can t control anything, their children are going to have to make good decisions on their own and no amount of worrying will fix it? Why is that? Because their kids have become idols life isn t worth living unless their kids are doing great at school and are popular. And, truly, why is it that so many of us probably all of us at one time or the other thought there was no way we could be happy unless this one person loved us and wanted to be in a relationship with us? And as long as the relationship goes well and we feel like that person really cares, we re doing great nothing can touch us. But when that person starts to pull away from us or gets bored with us, we re devastated. We can t eat or sleep. Why? This love relationship has become an idol, and life isn t worth living unless this person loves me. The actual number of potential idols out there is almost limitless. Anything can be an idol. Why is that? There is a great book been around for years in Christian counseling
4 circles, and it has a great title that sums up why we practice idolatry here s the title: The Search for Significance. Whatever it is in your life that makes you feel significant, that makes you feel like you matter and your life has meaning and a purpose, that gives you an identity, it s an idol. Two more things about idols before we move on: first, we can t help it we will have idols in our lives. Verse 25: 25 Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners [meaning foreign gods ], and after them I will go (emphasis added). Other translations have I must go after these idols. Have you ever met someone who was perfectly at peace with who they are, perfectly content with their existence, and who is no longer on the search for significance? They have it all figured out. They have found their own significance within themselves, and they cannot be perturbed by anything. Perfect peace. Have you ever met someone like that? The answer is: no, you haven t. That person does not exist. We are all on a search for significance because we cannot produce it ourselves. We cannot produce on our own a sense that we are significant, that we matter. And because we can t, we must go after idols. Second, we will continue practice idolatry even though idols will never satisfy. Verses 12-13: Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. God says to the people of Israel, You think these foreign gods Baal, Asherah will satisfy you. They can t they are broken cisterns. What s a broken cistern? A cistern is a container attached to the roof by a pipe of some kind to catch all the rainwater that fell so they d have water when they needed it. It was a very important tool in arid climates to make sure you had water to drink and cook with. But a broken cistern, a cistern with a big crack in the bottom, was almost useless. Right after a big rain, you could dip some water out and quench your thirst, but the next day there d be nothing there all the water would have leaked out overnight. A broken cistern can t satisfy. Say your idol, what you try to get significance from, is your parents approval. You ve been wanting for years to hear your father say he loves you and he s proud of you, and finally, one day, after years of waiting, he says it. Does that mean that the next day when you wake up and go about your day, everything s just fine? Are you forever satisfied? Of course not you will feel satisfied, you ll feel significant, for a while. But give it a night, give it a week, certainly a month, and the significance will leak out, and you ll be empty again.
5 If your idol is your child, and you re terrified fourth grade won t go well, but then he finishes fourth grade yes! Do you say, OK, everything else will be smooth sailing now I can relax and drink in the satisfaction knowing fourth grade is over? No because fifth grade is coming, then middle school, then high school, then college, the marriage, then grandchildren. The relief and satisfaction will leak out, because at the end of the day even the best idols your children are but broken cisterns. The Bible is right idols are worthless, because they cannot satisfy, yet we seem doomed to chase after them anyway. But that s not the worst news about idolatry. Second, what idolatry does to us. Verses 21-24: 21 Yet planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? 22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD. 23 How can you say, I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done a restless young camel running here and there, 24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. Notice all the things God compares Israel to in her idolatry. Israel goes from being a bride (in verse 2) to a prostitute in her idolatry, from being a pure-bred plant producing fruit to a wild and degenerate vine. And then, most telling, God compares his bride Israel to a restless camel and a wild donkey in heat. What s that mean? It s not just that idolatry is worthless, that it can t really help us or ever satisfy us, but idolatry is dehumanizing. We, as human beings, are made in the image of God. We were made to have dominion over creation, to rule over creation. That s Genesis 2 God put Adam, the first man, in the Garden of Eden and gave him authority to name all the animals. But in idolatry creation rules over humans. In idolatry we take some created thing a job, a man, a woman, money and we bow down and worship it. I asked Jim to read from Romans 1 earlier in the service. In that chapter the apostle Paul makes it clear that idolatry robs mankind of the most precious thing in the universe a relationship with the God who made us. And instead of walking on our own two feet, masters of the universe that God made and gave us dominion over, idolatry drags us down to the level of animals and leaves us crawling around on the earth searching for significance from the very things we are supposed to rule. If you allow idols to have the central place in your heart for too long, then eventually the idolatry will wear you down to where you feel and in some sense are less than human. Have you ever known someone who has lived really hard for years and years they drank way too much, they used hard drugs, they did not eat right, they did not get enough sleep. What does their body look like after ten, twenty, thirty years of that kind of living? It looks absolutely worn out. In fact, you put someone who has put their body through that next to someone who has taken care of themselves physically, and one actually looks
6 more human than the other. Your body can t take that kind of treatment. That s what happens to our souls in idolatry. When we lived in Starkville and pastored there I got to meet two widows. They were friends, and I met one of them about a year before I met the second. And within three minutes of meeting the second widow, she launched into how much she missed her husband. For a good ten minutes she talked about how her husband had this important job and how they did everything together in the community and everyone knew them both, but now she didn t know what she was going to do without him. And after she left, I went to the other widow the one I d known first and I remarked, Wow she s really hurting. When was her husband s funeral? I thought it had been a few weeks ago. The other widow said, Brother J.D., it s been three years, and she s my friend but I don t know how much longer I can take this. I don t know what to say anymore when she keeps going on about how much she misses her husband. I miss my husband, too, but I ve tried to keep going, and I don t think she has. What happened? She d made an idol out of her husband, and then the horrible day came when she had to look at him lying in a casket, she simply couldn t function without him. Her soul didn t know how to exist anymore without her husband, and from then on she couldn t carry out relationships the way healthy humans should. Idolatry is dehumanizing it s awful. It will eventually destroy you. Third, how can we get rid of idolatry? First, we must know who God is. Did you notice as Chenyfehr read our sermon text the tone of God s words to Israel? What does God sound like in these verses? Verse 5: 5 Thus says the LORD: What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? Verse 28: 28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah. Verse 20: 20 For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, I will not serve. Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. What does God sound like in these verses? Does he sound like a doctor telling his patient what s wrong with him dispassionately, coolly walking through the disease, the symptoms, the treatments, the side-effects. This is how we are going to fight this. Does he sound like a counselor or a friend trying to advise someone? Absolutely not. God is so angry with Israel that he calls her a whore. More than anything else, in these verses God sounds like an angry, jealous lover. In verse 2, God calls Israel his bride, and then in verse 32 we read this: Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. God is hurt, God is pained,
7 because his lovely bride, Israel, has left him, has cheated on him, has taken up with other lover gods, and he s jealous. Jealousy, almost all the time, is a bad thing. The Tenth Commandment prohibits coveting, or being jealous about, anything your neighbor has. But there is one sense in which it is entirely appropriate to be jealous, and in fact it would be wrong not to be jealous. Say you re a man, you re married, and you open the door to a room, walk in, and see on the other side of that room your wife engaged in a passionate kiss with another man. What do you do? Let me suggest this: if all you do is say, Sorry for interrupting you, let me close the door so you two can get back at it, then I d say there s more wrong with you than with your wife. In that moment, it would be absolutely right, it would be imperative, to be very jealous for your wife s affection, furious about what s going on, and to step in and do something about it. If you really, truly are in a love relationship with someone, then you will be jealous for their affections. That s the way it should be. I love the old Doris Day, Rock Hudson romantic comedies from the early sixties like Lover Come Back, Send Me No Flowers not that I expect anyone in the room to be familiar with those movies, but I hope by mentioning them to encourage you to go on Amazon and watch them. But in one of those movies, Pillow Talk, Doris Day, as always, falls for Rock Hudson, and she sings (and really she doesn t sing, but she cries) a song in that movie called Possess Me. She wants to be possessed by her lover. Friends, that s what God wants with us in the best sense of the word, God is a jealous lover, he is a true husband, and he wants to possess his beloved. You want significance? You want something that can guarantee in any circumstance that you will know you matter and that you count? Here it is: the God of the Universe, the Almighty Creator God, loves you like crazy. He wants to have you all to himself. He is jealous for you. Now, what job, what career, what relationship, what family could possibly give you the same kind of security and significance that being the beloved of the Lord God omnipotent can give you? What could compare with that? 400 years ago John Donne wrote these words: Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, shall never be free; nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. If that becomes the central operating principle in your life, if that s what you build everything on, you can finally break free of the idols that have been plaguing you and sucking the life out of you. Now, I can imagine someone saying: J.D., that does sound great and all, in theory but that s all it is in theory. How can I know, and can I feel in my heart, that God loves me like that? Career, money, family those things are real to me. God does not feel real to me I can t see him, I can t hold him. So if this love is true then how can his love become real to me?
8 Second, how we can we feel God is a jealous lover? Here s how ladies, if you re dating a guy, when can you be sure he s serious? In the immortal words of Beyonce, when he puts a ring on it. Until then, he could just be playing around but when the ring comes then you know he has to be serious. A lot of things happened on the cross of Jesus Christ on the cross, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for the sins of his people. There Jesus Christ turned away the wrath of God. But at the very least the cross of Jesus means God is serious about you. He s committed to you, so much so that he gave everything he could possibly give to make you his beloved forever. So that you could be his. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. And as you meditate on the cross, over time God as a jealous lover will become more and more real to you. One last thing: how do we get this love? How do we put ourselves in the arms of the ultimate lover? Jeremiah 3:12-13: Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. And in verse 14 God calls himself a true husband. All we have to do in order to put ourselves in the arms of the ultimate lover is confess to him that we ve been chasing idols and we re tired of it. 1 John 1:9: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All we have to do is acknowledge how we ve been cheating on our true husband, and he will take us to himself and love us forever and ever. Amen. You say, That s it? Yep. That s it. It s so different from idolatry. Idolatry means work. To get an idol to bless you, you have to serve it. If career is your idol, then you re going to have to work like crazy for it to bless you. If your kids are your idol, then you re basically going to have to manage every detail of their lives. And this is the thing about idols: you can do everything perfectly make all the right moves at work, make all the right decisions in your relationships, put your kids in the best possible positions to succeed and still everything can fall apart. An idol says, Come to me, and if you work your tail off then maybe, for a short period, I ll make you feel better about yourself. You know what Jesus says? Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. All you must do is confess your idolatry and go to Jesus. Your true husband, Jesus, is the only answer to worthless idols. Will you go to him? If you do you will find the lover for your soul. Like the song that says: I will arise and go
9 to Jesus, He will embrace me in his arms; In the arms of my dear Savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms. PRAY