Missionary John Williams (1796 – 1839) was
one England’s first to embark to Polynesia in 1816. The tribes Williams was
trying to evangelize were not only cannibals, but polytheistic (worshippers of many
gods). Each tribe had their various idols that they prayed to and revered.
William’s big breakthrough came when he was able to lead one of the tribal
chiefs, a man named Romatane, to Christ. Williams preached to him from Isaiah
44:15-17 about the folly of idolatry. When Romatane was converted his first
command to the tribes was to collect all the idols and burn them! John Williams
repeated this process on 50 little islands in Polynesia and several tribes renounced
their idols for the Gospel. Tragically, In November 1839 John Williams and a
colleague, James Harris, were killed on the beach at Erromanga, Vanuatu (New
Hebrides) and believed to have been eaten.[1]
Rev. John Williams
The holy boldness of John Williams to call
for an end to idolatry reminds us to do the same in our lives. From cover to
cover the Bible warns against the sin of idolatry. The second commandment of
Moses’ original ten says, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Ex. 20:4). When Paul rolled
into Ephesus, he started preaching the Gospel. As the Holy Spirit started convicting
people, they gathered their idols and “a number of those who had practiced
magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all” (Acts
19:19). The last verse 1 John reminds us, “Little children, keep yourselves
from idols” (5:21).
Today we may not bow down to statues or
leave a pinch of incense on an altar, but we must realize that idolatry starts
in the heart. Adrian Rogers has said that the test for an idol goes like this: “Is
there anything that you love more, fear more, serve more or trust more than God?
If so, then that thing has become an idol to you.”[2] In short, anything that
takes the rightful place of God in our lives can be an idol—money, sex,
addiction, power, social media. Idolatry isn’t just sinful, it’s stupid because
it wrongly places faith in objects that have no saving power and cannot bring
us ultimate fulfillment. The truth is that idolatry always promises what it
cannot deliver, and we are left empty.
Remember when the Israelites were severely
punished by the Lord for making the golden calf and worshipping it (Ex. 32)? In
fact, the Bible says that when Moses discovered the golden calf that he destroyed
it, had it ground to powder, mixed it with water and made the people drink it! The
metallic taste in their mouth was unforgettable lesson on how their sin was
disgusting to the Lord.
Moses’ action teaches us about how to deal
with idols in our own lives. We cannot tolerate idols; we must annihilate them.
All too often Christians try to deal with their idols by putting them in the
closet rather than taking them out with the trash. We pretend that we have
cleaned house, spiritually speaking, but in fact that same sin is still in the
cupboard ready to come out the next time we are tempted. The sin we tolerate,
infiltrates and then dominates!
Moses never gave his people the chance to
resurrect the Golden Calf and in the same way we need to do the same thing in
our lives. Instead of dabbling with our idols we need to destroy them; instead
of playing games we need to declare war! -DM
[1] Robert J. Morgan, From This
Verse (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998), May 4.
[2] Adrian Rogers, “Is There an Idol in
Your Life?” Love Worth Finding, October 16 < https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/love-worth-finding/read/devotionals/love-worth-finding/is-there-an-idol-in-your-life-love-worth-finding-october-16-11816237.html>
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