Temple Wrecker
Num 33:32-52
Numbers 33:32-52 1/5/2018
God spoke to Moses. He told him to have the Israelites destroy the idols and sacrificial “high places” throughout the Promised Land. None of the idol worship was to survive the Israelite invasion.
Destroy the Idols of the Canaanites
As was common in the ancient world, the Canaanites had a system of gods they worshipped through the use of idols. Idol worshippers wrongly believed that patronizing their system of gods could alter their circumstances – could help get them the things they really wanted.
So the problem is two dimensional: On the one hand, it’s about self-serving. Me first. Me over everyone else. This attitude is contrary to the spirit of the God of all creation – who is ultimate giving.
On the other hand, it’s about the false mechanism. Human beings have a long established need to worship. It’s built into us. However, as the prophets later pointed out, idols aren’t worthy of worship. It’s a piece of wood, or metal or stone – shaped by the hands of a man. It has a certain power. It’s about manipulating my environment.
Destroying idols is intended to destroy both these dispositions. To set the people free from selfish ambition and from satisfying the need to worship through mere objects that are not intrinsically worthy of human reverence.
Destroy My Idols
I don’t bow down to man-made objects.
Yet, I do want to manipulate my circumstances so I come out on top – every time. That’s still in me.
And I still want something outside of me to rely on; something I can point to that is bigger than me. Something that is powerful but also relatable and meaningful.
It’s no longer about knocking the heads off of somebody else’s stone figurine. I’m post-modern. This was never my idol. The potential sources of my satisfaction are more “advanced” – the technology, or the dollars, (or bitcoins), or the movement, or the medicine, or the fame, or the facebook, or – the list goes on.
It’s not about these things per se, any more than it was about the wood, or the stone, or the metal of an ancient idol. It’s about my need and what I’m willing to do to get satisfaction.
So about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols: we know that “there is no idol in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” 1 Cor 8:4
