A Little Bit On Idolatry

Friday Morning Coffee

I was sitting in a living room with a few other Camp War Eagle women, coffee in hand, some cinnamon rolls in our bellies, and our bibles open to Genesis. “The Beginning.” We took a look into the start of creation and the start of life for Adam and Eve. We came expecting to learn from the Lord, but I left that living room really thinking of ways to relate to that Old Testament passage. I hope you can find a way to relate as well.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) Man! that is a lot to praise Him for in one verse, and as chapter one and two continue you see the great power and attention to detail of the God we “try” to love and serve.

Now, we enter chapter three: The Fall.

Satan enters the picture and does his best to distract and tempt Eve. He asks her what God really commanded her not to do. She answers, adding a little bit to God’s command. Satan tempts her with his lies. And here is the part that really struck me starting in verse 6,

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Here is where I know sin enters the world, and I think the sin is idolatry.

She has taken something the Lord has created and made it her desire over Him. And what it can do for her.

I see three different parts of the scripture that to me resonate with her possible thought processes:

1.     She saw “the fruit of the tree was good for food” which is a true statement about the thing she desires.

2.     She saw it was “pleasing to the eye” and something that looks good, like all the other things the Lord has made.

3.     She thought it was “desirable for gaining wisdom.” She saw something in it that would give her something she wanted and thought she should have.

How guilty are we of ignoring God’s commandments, because we think we know what is best and it “looks good” so why not? It looks okay and the Lord created it, so how could it be bad?

But if that thing becomes more important than the One who created it.

That’s idolatry.

Here is an excerpt from Matt Chandler’s The Explicit Gospel on pride and idolatry:

“ The point is that if we are going to orient around anything less than God—even things that look happy and shiny and pretty, even things that God himself gives us to enjoy—or slip in even a moment’s worship of something other than God, we are declaring our preference for the absence of God. This is called pride, and even a sliver of it deserves its end result: the place where God isn’t. And let’s be honest: nobody has just a sliver of pride.”

So what do we do now?

We praise the Lord that His story doesn’t end there. That is only the beginning.

What happens next is the best part!

Christ has come, redeemed, and will come again!

We can “try” all we want to love and serve the Lord. But we need Him. We cannot conquer sin or death alone and we cannot desire Him above all other things alone. He is the one who Genesis states, “will crush [Satan’s] head” and who already has!!

Let us praise the Lord for His overwhelming love and grace that He would offer us righteousness in His son’s death and resurrection, even when we choose things above Him.

"Lord, I Need You"

Lord, I come, I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

Without You I fall apart

You're the One that guides my heart

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are, Lord, I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Shelby