Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Tearing Down Idols | Torah | Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

How should Christians live in a culture that isn’t following Jesus? Should non-believers live the same way as believers? In today’s episode, Patrick looks at Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18 to discuss how Christians should tear down idols in their own life. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. If you're listening from the U.S., you'll know that we are about a month away from elections. And if you're anything like me, you care about politics and the state of our nation. And yet you're exhausted by politics and the state of our nation. Maybe you've been avoiding political topics at work or sidestepping your way out of arguments at home on race or school or Trump or just. whatever, or maybe you found yourself sucked into one of those arguments, only to regret it later.

Or maybe you're the one instigating the battles, and you find that you enjoy the political horse race in Washington. Look, we all come at elections differently. But how should Christians orient themselves towards, not just elections, but towards a contentious culture in general, towards changing the political order? I was recently listening to a speech by my state senator at a national conference. And he was arguing that the time had come for Christians to take back America for God. He told the story of a group of Christians gathering during the reign of Julian the Apostate. Now, I don't expect you to know who that is. Julian was a famous Roman emperor. And the reason he was famous was because he murdered so many Christians. And so perhaps it was no surprise that when

these Christians get together in Alexandria, a Roman soldier shows up with an axe sharpened and ready to go. But to the surprise of the Christians, he didn't swing his axe at them. Instead, he swung his sharpened axe at a pagan idol in their midst. And that story, someone chopping down an idol, it recalls the very passage that we are about to read today on 10 minute Bible talks when God calls Israel to root out all idolatry. He says that there must be no half measures. All idols must be destroyed. And idolatry must be punished. Here's a smattering of verses. Deuteronomy 12 verses 30 to 31. Be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about the nation's gods, saying, how do these nations serve their gods?

We will do the same. You must not worship Yahweh, your God, in their way. Because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. Moses goes. on to say that all prophets who tell the people to worship any God but Yahweh in Israel, all of those prophets must be put to death. And he doesn't stop there. Deuteronomy 136. If your own brother,

or your own son or daughter or wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you saying, let us go and worship other gods. Gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other, do not yield to them or listen to them, show them no pity, do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly put them to death. After this, he calls for the destruction of any town in Israel where the whole town is practicing idolatry. He is saying over and over again, you must crush every idol. You must root out idolatry from the land of Israel. And the reason why is clear, Yahweh wants Israel to be a light to the nations, but Israel can't

be a light if it's like the nations. Which brings me back to my senator's remarks. He sounded a lot like Moses when he told his listeners to sharpen their axes and tear down the idols in our culture. It's time to take back America for God. But there was one big problem with his imagery. There was one very big problem with his approach and with his analogy. America is not Israel. This land is not the promised land. In the New Testament, Paul calls the Church the children of Israel, not any nation. The body of Christ is Israel in this era.

And guess what? The body of Christ is in every nation, every tribe, every tongue. And so there is no nation that is like Israel. What's my point? Your body and your life is the promised land. You are the place where God wants to root out to idols in idolatry. This is why Jesus said to rip out your own eye if it causes you to sin. The place to resist idolatry strongly is in your own heart. It's in your own church. It's amongst God's people. But God never commanded Israel to go into other nations and do that. God never told Israel to go into Syria, Egypt, Babel. or Greece and tear down their idols. He said that in Israel, Israel must tear down the aisles in its own midst, its own idols to greed and pride and sex and selfishness, anger, and even worse. Why? So that it could be alight to the nations. But God never told Israel to go out into the other nations and do likewise. And so the church in America is not called to go and try to tear down

the idols of our culture to violently destroy them. That call from my state senator had nothing to do with what the Bible says. As you enter this political season, you have to understand where your chief loyalties lie, where your chief concerns lie. They lie with God's kingdom. They lie with God's church. God never calls us to sharpen our axes, to smash the idols, to take back our culture for him, because this culture isn't his. The church is his. Instead, he calls us to smash our own idols so that our light would shine and that light would win our culture back to God, not by violence, but by attractiveness. If you want to know how to deal with sin in your heart and in the Christian community, then yes, look back to Israel, fight idolatry in your heart and in your church tooth and nail.

But if you want to know how to deal with American culture and politics, you must never forget this. America is not Israel. You can't win it back for God because it's not God's special nation. is Babylon. How did the Jews respond when they were exiled to Babylon? Well, just look back at the Book of Daniel, and then you'll find out how to live in this kind of world. You see, the Jews, they worked for the welfare of Babylon, while resisting Babylon's idols in their personal and communal lives. They wouldn't bow down. They wouldn't worship them. When Nebuchadnezzar tried to make them bow down before his idols, they refused. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didn't get out their axes. They didn't try to destroy Nebuchadnezzar's idols. They didn't try to attack Nebuchadnezzar's army. Instead,

they came calmly before him. They spoke with wisdom. They spoke with tact. They didn't accuse. They didn't attack. They didn't even defend themselves. They were just like Jesus. They were simply a non-anxious presence. They sacrificed their own lives rather than fight. And when Nebuchadnezzar threw them into the furnace, it didn't destroy them. They walked out of the fire unscathed. And when they walked out, the anxiety, the anger that characterized Babylon, it all diffused. Nebuchadnezzar's idolatrous rage dissipated. He defended their right to worship Yahweh from that point forward. Daniel and his friends didn't topple Babylon's idols by violence or rhetorical force. They trusted God. They remained calm. They spoke with tact. They

didn't self-defend. They felled more gods by a non-anxious, self-sacrificial presence than any warrior ever did with axe and hammer. So this election season, remember, you're not taking America back for God. You're in exile living in Babylon. Work for the welfare of Babylon. Leave Babylon better than you found it. Resist its idolatry. Don't worship its idols in your life or in your Christian communities, but understand that your calling is to be a light that draws Babylon back to Jesus. Your calling is to be a non-anxious presence and the culture that's shifting and changing all around you. Why? Because you stand on the firm ground of Christ. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday

that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.