1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Heart - Three Ways to Live | Page 5

In the Psalms, the prayers of the people are not only toward God, but also against
idols. Psalm 24 v 3 - 4 says, “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand

in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his
soul to an idol… ”
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel levelled an enormous polemic against the worship of
idols. First, they said, an idol is empty, nothing, powerless. An idol is nothing but what
we ourselves have made, the work of our own hands (Isaiah 2 v 8; Jeremiah 1 v 16).
Thus, an idol is something we make in our image. It is only, in a sense, worshipping
ourselves, or a reflection of our own sensibility (Isaiah 44 v 10–13).
Second, an idol is, paradoxically, a spiritually dangerous power that saps you of all
power. This is a triple paradox. Idols are powerless things that are all about getting
power. The more you seek power through them, however, the more they drain you of
strength. Idols bring about terrible spiritual blindness of heart and mind (Isaiah 44 v 9,

18), and the idolater is self-deluded through a web of lies (Isaiah 44 v 20). Also, idols
bring about slavery. Jeremiah likens our relationship to idols as a love-addicted person
to his or her lover (Jeremiah 2 v 25).
Idols poison the heart into complete dependence on them (Isaiah 44 v 17); they
completely capture our hearts (Ezekiel 14 v 1–5). They become our lord, as author
Rebecca Pippert observes:
“Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power.

The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to
please. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our life.”

Tuesday
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