Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How To Identify Your Idols | Judges | Judges 10:6-18

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Judges. Hey, Patrick and I are starting a new podcast. It's called Truth Over Tribe, where we talk about cultural and political issues from a Christian point of view. If you're interested, subscribe to Truth Over Tribe on your podcast player so you won't miss any of the episodes.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Do you have any idols? The great theologian John Calvin said that our hearts are idol factories. If he's right, and I think he is, then all of us have idols. So maybe a better question is, how do you figure out what your idols are? In the book of judges, God continually finds Israel guilty of idolatry. Here's how it sounds in Judges chapter 10, verse 6. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Bales and the Asheraths.

Starting point is 00:01:03 and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Now, what does it mean that Israel served these gods of the nations around them? Well, it means that they prayed to those gods. They ask those gods to provide for them to protect them, to meet their needs, whether that was the need of children or crops or rain or whatever else they needed. Here, then, is a good working definition of idolatry. It's depending on something other than God. It's looking to something other than God for that which only God can provide. When we do that, we are worshiping something other than God. That's idolatry. Now, I want to make sure that we really understand what idolatry is because if we have this

Starting point is 00:01:51 image at our mind of people bowing down to a statue, we're going to think that we're not guilty of idolatry because you're not bowing down and praying to any statues, or at least, least I hope you're not. But that doesn't mean that you're free from idolatry. Idolatry is far deeper. It's far more prevalent than that. Ezekiel 14 talks about an idolatry of the heart. John warns us to keep ourselves free from idols. Paul says that greed is a form of idolatry. So idolatry is real and alive, but again, in our lives, it probably doesn't look like bowing down to a statue. We commit idolatry when we depend on something other than God. So let's consider some examples.

Starting point is 00:02:36 If I depend on money to buy me self-respect or to define my life, who I am, if I depend on money to bring me happiness, then I'm idolizing money in a similar way to the people and judges or serving other gods. And you can imagine that could be said for lots of things. Like, let's think about physical attractiveness. If I'm spending a lot of money and time and effort to look a certain way in order to feel good about myself, that might be idolatry. Or let's think about kids. If I have to have kids to make me happy, that might be idolatry.

Starting point is 00:03:15 If I have to have good kids so that I feel good about myself, that might be idolatry. If I have to have successful kids to feel like I'm a successful parent or a successful person, that's probably idolatry. Now notice all these things are good. Money to provide the things that we need in our life. Kids are a blessing from God. A fit and healthy body is a good gift also. These good things become idols when they become ultimate things. Instead of enjoying them to whatever extent we can, we depend on them and can't live without

Starting point is 00:03:49 them. So how do I identify whether something is becoming an idol? Well, one question to ask is, what can you not? live without. What's something you have to have in order to give your life meaning, purpose, joy? Rhonda Rousey was a MMA champion. She had never lost until 2018 when she lost a Holly home. Rhonda Rousey went on the Ellen DeGeneres show sometime after that and was discussing her career and this devastating loss. And she told Ellen, you can find all this on YouTube. She told Ellen, that as she sat there in her locker room, she thought, who am I? Now that I'm not a champion,

Starting point is 00:04:35 now that I'm not the undefeated Rhonda Rousey, who am I? And she thought about committing suicide. And then she said she looked at her boyfriend and she said, I know who I am. I am going to have his babies. That's why I'm going to live. Now, you see how losing that match caused her whole life to fall apart. She didn't know who she was because she had based her identity on being a champion. And then maybe you've noticed how she switched from being a champion to being the mother of her boyfriend's kids. When you find something that you can't live without, you might have found your idol. Here's another test to determine what is an idol in your life. Follow your negative emotions. Emotions like fear, worry, anger, jealousy, pride.

Starting point is 00:05:29 Follow those negative emotions because they will probably take you to something you idolize. Let's just take worry. What do you worry about? Well, one thing we worry about are things that we think we need in order to give our life purpose and meaning and definition and happiness. We're afraid we might lose them or we're afraid we might not get them. So if I ask, why am I so worried about this, it might tell us something about what we really worship, what we idolize. See, we worship idols for the very same reason Israel did. The idols promise to provide for us and to care for us.

Starting point is 00:06:10 They promise to make us happy. But of course, they don't keep their promises. They can't keep their promises because a dead idol will never fill you up. Only the living God can do that. Every time the Israelites worship the idols of the nations around them, then those nations started to rule over them. So we find out in Judges 10 verse 7 that the Israelites began to worship the idols of the Ammonites and the Philistines and then we're told that those nations begin to oppress them. God is teaching us a truth. If we will learn it, it will save us from a lot of misery.

Starting point is 00:06:46 The truth is that idolatry leads to enslavement. Let's just think that through with a couple of examples. Let's think through fitness. When physical fitness or physical beauty becomes an idol, we might look good on the outside, but under all that good appearance, we're headed in a bad direction. Maybe it starts with just spending too much time at the gym,

Starting point is 00:07:09 and that damages our relationships or maybe our work and our professional life. Maybe it's that we're so health conscious about our eating habits that we stop spending time with other people. We're no fun to be around. Maybe we're spending all our money on new clothes. Or maybe we get to the point that we work out so much that we get injured and then we're grumpy because we can't work out. Or maybe we just get frustrated or angry with people who get in our way and keep us from working out. Let's do it again for kids.

Starting point is 00:07:39 If kids become an idol, then we can get enslaved to them. Maybe we're enslaved by being emotionally devastated if we can't have kids. Now, I don't mean to say, that grieving is wrong or that grieving reveals idolatry. Not at all. The Bible tells us that there's an appropriate kind of grief. The Bible is full of laments. But there's a difference between grieving and being devastated. Or if your identity is wrapped up in your kids, then you might put pressure on them to excel at academics or sports so that you end up looking good, but really all that pressure has ended up hurting the kids that you love. Or maybe you end up riding the emotional

Starting point is 00:08:21 roller coaster of the teenage years. If your identity is so wrapped up in your kid's behavior, you might realize that you're an emotional mess. Or you might sacrifice your relationship with God or your relationship with your spouse because you're catering to your kids' needs. You're prioritizing your kids. All the while, not realizing that what your kids really need from you is to love God and to love your spouse more than you love them. Despite their pain and misery, Israel continued to worship the same idols that let them down and got them into trouble. It's easy to look at Israel and see the futility of it all. But human hearts haven't changed. Our hearts deceive us, just like their heart deceived them.

Starting point is 00:09:11 We are deceived into thinking that when an idol leads to slavery, what we are, we really need is more of that idol. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. If someone seeks their value and purpose in a relationship, maybe they sacrifice everything for a marriage that ends up failing. It seems natural to think that what you need is another relationship. Like, I need a better spouse. We see our problem not as worshiping an idol, but not worshiping an idol enough. If I just got more of that, then I'd be happy. back in Judges 10, 7, it says that God sold them into the hands of their enemies. Now, that word scares me. I don't want to be given over to my sin. Now, when God sold them into the hands of their enemies, it doesn't mean that he completely abandoned them. Just that he

Starting point is 00:10:04 was trying to teach them something. He was trying to get their attention. If you want to worship false gods, then eventually the true God will let those false gods rule over you. In Romans chapter 1, Paul talks of idolatry, and he says that God gave them over to their sin. I'm sure they didn't know exactly when God would give them over. It's not like there was a flashing light that said, hey, this is the time that God is going to give you over to your sin. There was no red line saying, don't cross this line. It's just that slowly their heart grew hard, and now their sin ruled over them. God gave them over to it.

Starting point is 00:10:43 See, those who love money or fitness or health or family or popularity or anything more than God will eventually find themselves ruled by those things. God has given us many good gifts, but they are not to be our God. There is only one God, only one that satisfies, only one that defines us, only one in whom we should put our hope. You might just want to pause and pray and ask God to show you your, idols and to pray that God would give you a greater love for him than anything else this world has to offer. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How To Identify Your Idols | Judges | Judges 10:6-18

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