Substitute Saviors

Life today is consumed with idols; substitute saviors. Sometimes these substitutes are hard to recognize, but if we look long and hard in our hearts, they are there. Probably not miniature graven images sitting on our mantles, but we have them. Stuff, status, sports (insert college football here if you wish) self, sanctimonious religion - these substitute saviors that bid for my love; these are the idols with which I struggle.

At the heart of idolatry is substituting the devotion and affection that rightly belongs to the One who is jealous for us. In a sense, idolatry is a worship issue. What you worship is what you idolize.

There is a sobering reminder of this in Exodus 32. Moses has been with God for sometime on the mountaintop while the people in the valley waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, in their impatience, they approach Aaron and demand new gods (idols) be made and thus the descent into destruction began.

Idolatry happens when God is reduced :1. In His apparent “delay”, the people forgot who God was. Their view of God changed. It is easy for us to condemn these poor people but we aren’t much different. Think about it - we casually approach a holy, transcendent God that we worship on our terms and when He doesn’t respond on our timetable, we spiritually whore ourselves out to any substitute that takes us. In effect, we reduce God to the same level as the other gods in our life.

Idolatry happens when God is reformed :2-4. Since God wasn’t behaving like they thought He should, the people took it upon themselves to form something they could control. After all, it’s easy to control something when it has been reduced to a containable level.

I am convicted by this for I see myself and the American Christian in this. I, like the people in Exodus 32, like a convenient and comfortable faith. I want to worship the One, true God and live in His light and love, yet how often I conform Him in my image to fit my life and my demands. Instead of God reforming me, it is I who feebly attempts to reform Him.

Idolatry happens when God is replaced :5-6. The final step of this progression is that God is replaced. He is put on the shelf. When God doesn’t fit our terms, doesn’t fit our timetable and doesn’t meet our demands, two things will happen. We will either break and return to Him in a love relationship or we will find a substitute savior that will act according to our demands. Inevitably, He becomes our mascot and when, or if we ever need Him, we return to the shelf where we’ve placed Him along our other substitute saviors.

Thankfully Moses, after been made aware of his people’s arrogance, pleads to God for their salvation. If the shelves of your heart is riddled with substitute saviors, practice what Moses did as he interceded for his people.

He appealed to God’s Greatness :11. Moses reminded and confessed to God how He had acted in the past and how He had shown Himself mighty before. One of the first steps in renouncing idols is having the right view of Who God is - He is GREAT! He appealed to His Goodness :12. God is good. Though He has the right and power to wipe us out, He is good. We also need to appeal to that characteristic. He appealed to His Grace :13. Finally, Moses reminded God how gracious He was in choosing these stiff necked people to be His own. It is His grace that takes us back, cleans us up and restores us to right relationship. Don’t cheapen that grace by cheating on Him; bask in His overwhelming and relentless love He has lavished on you - you won’t find anyone or anything else that will take His place.