thoughts on idols

For a long time the idea of idolatry confused me. I would read about idolatry in the Bible but I didn't know anyone who made a little idol and bowed down to it to worship it. How did the idea still have relevance to us today?

Slowly over time I've begun to see that the warnings against idolatry have huge implications for us today. We may not fashion a little figurine from stone or wood but essentially an idol is anything that we put our trust in instead of God. And I and almost everyone I've ever met puts our trust in a lot of things instead of God. Of course the big an obvious one is money. I need to constantly remember that a job that pays, or money in the bank, or retirement savings, or whatever is not what provides for me. It is the Lord. Many of us have been reminded that money and jobs are not as reliable as we thought during this recession.

But there are lots of other things we're tempted to put our trust in (idols) out there. We put our trust in family and friends for happiness, we trust in health insurance and doctors for health, we trust in clothes, cars, houses, and vacations for status. The problem with idols is that they cannot deliver. They are dead to provide us with what we really want and need. I ran across these verses in Psalm 115 this morning:

vv.3-8 (italics mine)
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor cant they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

These verses make sense of Jesus' confusing words in Mark 4:9-12. Jesus basically quotes Isaiah 6:9,10 and says that many who hear his words will be like those who see but don't perceive, who hear but don't understand. If they did they would turn to the Lord and be forgiven.

Psalm 115 is saying that we become like the things we put our trust in (idols). And Jesus is saying that when we trust in other things we become like those dead things we trust in. We have eyes but can't really see and ears but can't really hear.

I heard recently that one of the primary tasks of anyone who preaches the Gospel is to point out and speak against the idols of the culture they're preaching in. I wonder what some of our other idols are?