The Idols In Our Hearts

Now some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak to them, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols."'" (Ezekiel 14:1-4)

This is a scary passage of scripture when you understand what God is saying here. Ezekiel was the voice of God to the nation of Israel at this time in history. The elders (government officials) came to him to find out what God was saying to them. Before they could say anything, God told Ezekiel these men had set up idols in their hearts. They had caused themselves to stumble into sin by doing so. Then God asked a rhetorical question. He asked if He should let them inquire of Him at all when they have done that. Then He told Ezekiel what to say to the elders. He said to tell them, "Everyone...who sets up idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him...according to the multitude of his idols." God is going to answer him as his idols would. That is scary.

Generally when we think of idols, the first things that come to mind are physical things or fleshly desires. Many people think first of money or things money can buy. Some people have made education or position idols that God must not touch. We even sometimes prize relationships with other humans above our relationship with God. These could all be idols, but idols in our hearts are often much more insidious than we have thought.

My pastor recently wrote to me in an email reminding me that our hearts are deceptively wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9) His reminder goes right along with this passage. God is saying that if we come to Him looking for the answer we want, He will answer us according to our desires. To say it another way, if we have put something between us and Him when we come to ask Him anything, He will tell us what we already want to hear. That being the case, we would be in jeopardy of not knowing whether an answer we receive in prayer is what God wants us to hear or what we want to hear. How then would we know if anything we hear from God is really what he wants us to hear and not the product of our own desires?

Thankfully and graciously, we have two things the elders of Israel did not have at the time of Ezekiel. We have the completed cannon of scripture, the Bible, and we have the Holy Spirit. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, that he would lead us into all truth. (John 16:13) Unfortunately, that does not make us error proof. It should, but we often operate in our souls rather than in our spirits. You remember the soul, our mind, emotions, and will. The soul is, in fact, the greatest idol most of us have to deal with when coming to God regardless of whether we are born again or not.

Some people think whatever God says to them has to make sense. Let us go by the numbers. Sense is the domain of the mind. The mind is part of the soul. When we say what God tells us has to make sense, we have made our mind an idol. It is something that we value more than God. God will answer us according to what makes sense to us. We could tell story after story of God directing something that did not make sense until we saw the final result. Then we understand why He directed it. These are not only our stories, but are corroborated by many people who have passed through our lives. God's will does not always make sense initially, but it will always make sense ultimately.

Perhaps you are one who has to feel something passionately to overcome inertia and get started with it. Feelings are emotions and are, once again, the domain of the soul. We probably do not need to go into any more detail on that. If it feels good do it would not be the guiding rule here.

Of course, we also have our will to deal with when God tells us to do something. Yes, soul again. We may actually know beyond all reason or feeling what it is God wants us to do and the will can still veto any action on our part.

The idols in our hearts can keep us from hearing from God. We are hesitant to give concrete examples of things we have seen because to do so might offend some readers now or in the future. However, throwing caution to the wind in this case for the sake of illustration, let us tell of the pastor who stood in front of his church on a Sunday morning and, mistaking a move of the Holy Spirit for emotionalism, quenched the Spirit that day. It is a mystery as to what he was thinking. We might also tell of the pastor who for fear of financial difficulty spent eighteen months preparing the sale of a portion of the church property only to find out when the transaction was completed, there was not enough land left to build the facilities the church needed. Another example that comes quickly to mind is the pastor whose church was floundering due to his own lack of spiritual perception. He blamed another for the problem on what he thought was good evidence. As of this writing there has been no perceptible change.

Whenever we operate in the soul rather than the spirit we have placed an idol between us and God. He will answer us according to what we think, how we feel or what we have determined beforehand we want to do. The result will be the best we can do, far less than what God would do were we able to stay out of his way.

We are not sure our will would have allowed us to take on the task of exposing and fighting the religious spirit over Santa Maria had we considered our feelings or thought twice about it. Sometimes it works to fly by the seat of one's pants. God uses all kinds of people. Let him use you. You will find the peace beginning to rule in your heart as you find your place in His kingdom. God bless you.