American Idols
0 Amens
Introduction
God loves whores. I know that may sound like a strange way to begin a sermon. It might even be offensive to some of you. But that is one of the messages that comes through very clear in the Book of Judges, which we began studying last week. We see again and again in the book of Judges that God loves whores. And though you may be uncomfortable with that you should be grateful for that. Because if God loves whores that means that God can love you. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s turn to Judges 2:6-3:6 so you can see this for yourselves.
Israel’s Idolatry
Remember, Yahweh led the people of Israel into the Promised Land and commanded them to drive the people out – to utterly destroy every living thing. But as we said last week this was not a holy war. This was not one group of religious people taking up arms against another group of religious people. This was Yahweh’s war. Yahweh is a warrior. And through the Israelites Yahweh was waging war against idolatry and the wickedness, injustice, and oppression that it produces. But not long after they arrived in the land the Israelites chose to assert their own will instead of submitting to Yahweh’s will. Instead of driving out the Canaanites they allowed them to remain. They lived among them. They married them. And just as Yahweh warned them, they eventually began to worship pagan gods. But Yahweh remained faithful. He refused to break his covenant with them and he did not destroy them. Instead he allowed them to continue with their idol worship that would lead them directly into self-destruction. And this would begin a cycle that would be repeated again and again in the history of Israel, in the history of the people of God. If you were to outline the book of Judges you would find that this cycle happens time after time: idolatry, oppression, deliverance, idolatry. Israel commits idolatry, their idolatry leads them to oppression, Yahweh shows compassion and delivers them, and then the Israelites return to idolatry. This is the cycle that the people of God go through again and again and again once they arrive in the land of Canaan. Chapter 2 introduces us to this cycle that we’ll see every week that we study this book together.
Verse 12 shows us how the cycle begins. It begins with idolatry. Israel “forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.” The cycle then goes from idolatry to oppression. Yahweh allows them to face the inevitable consequences of their self-focus. Reading on in verse 12, “They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.” The cycle begins with idolatry and is followed by oppression. But watch what comes next. Suddenly, in verse 16, we read, “Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.” The word “judges” in this book does not refer to some guy in a long black robe who hands out sentences and judgments. The word “judges” in this book means “deliverer.” Yahweh sent deliverers – judges -- to deliver his idolatrous people from oppression. Look again at the transition between verse 15 and verse 16. In verse 15 Israel is in great distress because of their idolatry. In verse 16 Yahweh sends delivers to save them. What’s missing here? What do we not see happening between these two verses? What do we not see happening between Israel’s distress and Yahweh’s deliverance? Repentance! We have no sign here of Israel repenting of their sin. We have no sign here of Israel calling out to Yahweh for deliverance. All we have is Yahweh choosing to give grace to those who have not even asked for it. All we have is Yahweh choosing to show compassion to those who do not deserve it. Thankfully, Yahweh has not changed. He still saves idolaters. He still delivers idolaters. And he still does it without any effort or work on their part. You would think that this tremendous show of compassion and power would cause the people of God to remain always faithful to Yahweh. But that’s not what happens. The cycle goes from idolatry, to oppression, to deliverance, and then back to idolatry. The very next verse, verse 17, says this, “Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them.”
This is the cycle we’ll encounter as we read the book of Judges. And with each pass through the cycle Israel’s idolatry gets worse and worse. If you’re looking for a book about how good we are as human beings this is not it. The book of Judges shows that Yahweh values his people but that says nothing of human goodness. It says everything about Yahweh’s goodness. That is what this book is about: Yahweh’s faithfulness to his unfaithful people.
We need to also remember, though, that while Yahweh is faithful and Yahweh is compassionate Yahweh is not a pushover. Yahweh is not that parent you see at Target who lets their children run wild and still buys them whatever they want if they just yell loud enough and long enough. Yahweh does not wink at evil. Yahweh hates evil. He is angered by it. And as we saw last week he allows his people to face some of its consequences. He does not destroy his people but he may allow his people to walk right into self-destruction. Look at verses 20 and 21, “Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, ‘Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.” Yahweh allowed his people to face the natural consequences of their sin. Because the Israelites did not obey him Yahweh allowed the Canaanites to remain in the land where they would eventually oppress the Israelites and cause them great distress. He did this to discipline them for their idolatry. He also did this to test them as we see in verse 22, “I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did.” It didn’t take long for the test to reveal what Israel truly valued. They claimed to worship Yahweh. But in reality they worshiped themselves. Look at 3:4-6, “They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses. The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.”
Remember what Joshua asked the people of God as they entered the Promised Land? He said, “Choose today who you will serve. Will you serve Yahweh or will you serve the Baals?” “We will serve Yahweh,” the people replied, “because he is our God.” That’s what they said but that’s not what they did. Yahweh tested their profession and verses 5 and 6 tell us how the people responded. They lived among the people, they married the people, and they worshiped their gods. The three things Yahweh specifically commanded them not to do. Yahweh warned the Israelites that if they were to live among the Canaanites they would become like them. And they did. So much so that they even intermarried with them. To enter into marital covenants with the Canaanites was to break their covenant with Yahweh. Yahweh had expressly forbidden intermarriage, and the reasons for this are obvious. Unfortunately, some people still overlook the obvious. I’ve run into this face-to-face.
A couple of years after I married ReShawn I started working at a Christian bookstore in Vancouver. There was a woman who worked there whose name I won’t say. One day, out of the blue, she decided to give me her opinion on interracial marriage. “It’s evil. It’s disgusting. And the Old Testament makes it very clear that God hates it.” At this point she had never met ReShawn. She had no idea my wife was Black. So I just listened and didn’t bother responding. I was confident that when she met ReShawn she would be embarrassed and would never bring up the topic again. I was wrong. About a year later she brought up the topic again. This time she was very upset with a TV show she was watching called Judging Amy. The writers were flirting with the idea of having Amy, a white woman, fall in love with her bailiff, a Black man. “I can’t believe they are showing that on TV”, she said. “I shouldn’t have to look at that in my own home. The Bible clearly says that it is sin to intermarry with other races.” With that she stood up, walked over to me, put her arms around me and said, “But I still love you and ReShawn.” And then she walked away. If you’d like to file a complaint you can call her at Branches bookstore where they sell the finest in Christian books and music at a relatively reasonable price. I suppose I should have said something. But I was speechless. Because she had misread the Scriptures so badly I didn’t even know where to begin. Yahweh did not forbid intermarriage because of race. The Canaanites were not even one race of people. The Canaanites were people of various races and various nations who all inhabited one land – the land of Palestine. Yahweh commanded them not to intermarry for religious reasons, not racial reasons. The Bible teaches that through marriage two distinct people become one people. Yahweh knew that when the Israelites married the Canaanites the Israelites would begin to worship the gods of the Canaanites. And that is precisely what happened to the Israelites. It is also precisely what happens to us when we enter into romantic relationships with those who do not worship Jesus. Verses 5 and 6 show the natural progression of Israel’s self-assertion. They lived among the people, they married the people, and they served their gods. They committed idolatry.
Now, I know that our culture doesn’t take idolatry very seriously. We’re taught that everyone can worship who or what they want. We’re told that all religions are basically the same. God doesn’t care what name you call him by. Even our bumper stickers tell us, “God is too big to fit into one religion.” Of course all of these claims are religious in themselves because they claim to have true knowledge about god that is superior to contradictory knowledge about god. So instead of allowing our culture to create its own religious viewpoints I think we should allow God to speak for himself. And if we do that we see that idolatry is beyond serious. It is evil. Verse 11 says, “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals (meaning other gods).” Not only is idolatry evil but Yahweh equates it with whoredom. Verse 17 says this about Israel’s idolatry, “they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods.” This is not the only time Yahweh accuses the Israelites of whoredom. He compares their idolatry to prostitution again in 2Chronicles 21, in Jeremiah 2 and 3, and throughout the books of Ezekiel and Hosea. Yahweh obviously finds idolatry despicable. But why this particular comparison? Why does he equate idolatry to prostitution? Well, throughout the Bible Yahweh says that his relationship with his people is like a marriage. He is the groom and his people are the bride. He is a faithful husband who gives all of himself to his bride. His people are expected to be a faithful bride, giving all of themselves to their groom. But they don’t. They give themselves to other gods, to other lovers. They commit spiritual adultery. But it is not just adultery. It is also prostitution. Because God’s people do not just give themselves to other gods. They give themselves to other gods because of what they can get out of it. They worship this god so that their crops will grow. They worship that god so they will get pregnant. They worship this goddess for good love and good sex. They worship that goddess so they can win in war. They don’t worship their gods because they love them they worship them because their only purpose is to meet human need and human desire. They are johns, they are tricks. This is no different than the prostitute who prostitutes himself for nothing but a material reward. The Israelites were prostitutes. They whored themselves out to other gods. And yet, as we see throughout this book, Yahweh continues to deliver them. Because God loves whores. And we should rejoice in that. Because that means God can love us. Whether we know it or not, we, like the Israelites, have prostituted ourselves in idolatry.
Our Idolatry
If you’re irreligious you may laugh at that. You’re not so sure that idolatry even exists because you’re not so sure that God even exists. And even if it exists, you certainly can’t be guilty of it because you don’t worship any gods. As long as you’re not worshiping any gods how could you be guilty of idolatry? Well, that’s where it helps to define our terms. To be an idolater is not simply to worship a false god. The Bible tells us that to be an idolater is to give to creation what only belongs to the Creator. We don’t have to make gods out of bronze and wood to be guilty of idolatry. All we have to do is give to creation what only belongs to the Creator. All we have to do is take anything – even a good thing – and turn it into an Ultimate thing. We can do this with our children. We can do this with our marriage, with our relationships. We can do this with sex. We can do this with our careers. We can do this with our finances or our possessions. We can do this with our bodies. We can do this with art or entertainment. We can do this with the earth itself, and animals, and with any and every part of creation. And we can certainly do this with ourselves. We can take good things and turn them into Ultimate things. And this is idolatry. We give to the creation what we should be giving to the Creator. Being irreligious does not excuse you from idolatry. It actually guarantees it.
But being religious doesn’t excuse you from idolatry either. I know you might think, “I go to church, I read my Bible, I pray, I know that there is only one God and he is revealed in Jesus Christ. There’s no way I can be an idolater.” You’re wrong. The truth is that those of us who are religious – those of us who go to church and do Christian things – we are extremely vulnerable to idolatry. The scary thing is that we don’t notice our idolatry because we have learned how to label our idolatry “obedience” and “righteousness.” The things that we do that we think are most Christian are often the most idolatrous. We don’t notice this because we tend to focus on what we do. “I go to church. I read my Bible. I pray. I give money to the church and to the poor. I tell people about Jesus.” Christians love to focus on what we do. But God doesn’t just focus on what we do. God focuses on why we do what we do. You can have two people in the same church that appear to be living the same type of life in the same way. But one of them may be a worshiper of Jesus while another is an idolater. Only God knows because only God knows why we do what we do. Only he sees that one of these two people does righteous things for unrighteous reasons. They do good things in order to be acceptable to God or in order to stay acceptable to God. And that is idolatry. Because that person is giving to creation what belongs to the Creator. That person is trusting in themselves to make them right with God and keep them right with God instead of trusting in Jesus to do those things. How easy it is to do that in our Christian culture. How easy it is to think this way! How easy it is for us to feel close to God when we are “doing the right things.” How easy it is for us to feel distant from God when we are not “doing the right things.” How easy it is for us to think we’re good Christians because of what we do. This is idolatry. This is giving the trust that belongs to Jesus and the glory that belongs to Jesus to ourselves. The idolatrous church-goer and the Jesus-worshiping church-goer may do the same things. They may both appear to be obeying God. But the idolater obeys God for the purpose of being acceptable to God. The true Christian obeys God because he knows he is already accepted through Jesus. The idolater obeys to be accepted by Jesus, the true Christian obeys because he is already accepted through Jesus. That is the difference between idolatry and true worship.
So, no, religious people are not excused from idolatry. Church people are not excused from idolatry. We are very vulnerable to idolatry. We are especially vulnerable to the idol of our own righteousness. But we are also vulnerable to much more. We are vulnerable to all of the idols of our culture. And we allow more of them to enter the church than we could ever address in one week. So let’s just focus on one of them. Money. Church people love money. And it is not a stretch to say that a huge number of us worship it. We give to it what should only be given to our Creator. We give it our trust. We trust in money to provide us with security. We trust in money to provide us with joy. We trust in money to provide us with pleasure. We trust in money and the things it buys to make us feel good about ourselves and make others think well of us. We make money into an Ultimate thing.
It’s not a coincidence that the best-selling “Christian” books are books like The Prayer of Jabez, or Your Best Life Now. These books tell us that God wants us to be financially prosperous. They tell us that this is one of God’s primary concerns and something we should expect as Christians. They tell us that if we just follow a few easy steps then God will open up the floodgates of heaven and rain down on us with financial blessings. And millions and millions of Christians buy these books. And it’s not just the books. Turn on the TV. Who are the most popular television preachers? TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Paula White. What do all of these people have in common? They’re heretics who teach a false gospel. And at the center of that false gospel is what? Money. Prosperity. Millions upon millions of Christians watch their programs, buy their tapes, read their books, and send them money because, if they do, these teachers promise that God will give them more money. They are the most popular preachers because they don’t preach Jesus – they preach our idol of money – and that’s what we hunger for. And it’s not just books and TV. It’s not just the big churches. If you don’t believe me walk outside these doors right now. Walk ten blocks in any direction and you will walk by several churches proclaiming this same message. “God wants you to be prosperous. He wants to bless you financially. All you have to do is this or that easy step and God will pour out financial blessings into your bosom.” And the people respond in worship to their idol. In these churches Jesus is not our security, money is. Jesus is just the means to get our security. Jesus is not our joy, money is. Jesus is the means to get our joy. This is all a load of feces. I know. Because I was one of these people. I listened to the preachers on TBN. I bought the books they wrote. And I attended a church that preached the same false gospel. I called myself a Christian but the truth is I wanted Jesus for what I thought Jesus could give me more than I wanted Jesus for Jesus.
Maybe you’re not like me. Maybe you’ve never fallen for the health & wealth nonsense that plagues our bookshelves and our airwaves and our local churches. But that doesn’t mean you are not just as guilty of turning money and material prosperity into an idol. You still may trust in money to provide you with security. You still may trust in money to provide you with the good life. You still may trust in money to provide you with pleasure. You still may trust in money to get you what you want and need in life. And I know that some of you do. There’s no question about it. Because I see what you give to Jesus’ church. And not all of you, but many of you, are clearly worshiping money and what it brings you more than you are worshiping Jesus. Take last week for example. Last Sunday was January 6th. The first Sunday of the month, which means that people just got paid. We had over 30 adults here. You know how much money these 30 adults gave to Jesus, collectively? $117. On the first Sunday after payday 30 people collectively worshiped Jesus with $117. That’s an average of $3.90 per person. That story would be bad enough. But the truth is worse. The truth is that on the first Sunday after payday only 5 out of 30 people chose to worship Jesus through giving. Now, let me be very clear. Giving money does not earn you favor with God. I’ll say that again, giving money does not earn you favor with God. And God does not require of you a specific percentage or a specific amount. But God does require your worship. Because of our life situations every one of us will give differently and should give differently. But regardless of your life situation what you give reveals who you worship. Those who worship Jesus give to him generously and sacrificially. Those who do not – do not.
Christians are not immune to idolatry. We are likely to make idols out of our own righteousness. We are likely to make idols out of money. We are likely to make idols out of any number of things. Some of you, right now, are looking to a relationship to provide the fulfillment only Jesus can provide. You are in a relationship that you know you shouldn’t be in but you stay anyway because you are trusting in this relationship to fulfill you. At the same time some of you are thinking of leaving the relationship you should be in because it’s not providing the fulfillment you want it to provide. But it’s not supposed to. Some of you, right now, are looking to human beings to provide you with value and approval and acceptance that only Jesus can provide. You are saying things you should not say and doing things you should not do because you want their approval and their acceptance. At the same time some of you are not saying what you know you should say and are not doing what you know you should do because you are looking to other human beings to make you feel valued, approved, and accepted. We could go on and on and on. We make idols out of our families, our careers, our emotions, our success, our education, our health, our talents et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever our idols are they all have this in common – we are only worshiping them because of what we think they will provide for us. Which means that ultimately we are worshiping ourselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Church of Jesus Christ is filled with whores. We whore ourselves out to false gods in exchange for the security and the value and the peace that we think they can provide us. This may rub some of you the wrong way. Maybe you say, “I’m no whore.” Maybe you say, “I’m no idolater.” I understand your objection but I can only offer you one reply. Yes you are. Yes you are. And I can say that without even the slightest doubt. You are an idolater. Now how can I say that with such certainty? Because you sin. Don’t you? Does anyone here not sin? Of course not. You sin. And your sin is proof of your idolatry. All sin is idolatry by its very nature. To sin is to set our hearts upon something other than Jesus. Every time we sin we are trying to find our fulfillment, or our pleasure, or our value, or our happiness in someone or something other than Jesus. We are saying that Jesus is not sufficient so we must take matters into our own hands. Do you remember what the first of the 10 Commandments is? The first commandment is “do not have any other gods before me.” It’s not a coincidence that this is the first commandment. This is the first commandment because every other commandment stands or falls on it. At any given moment if you are keeping the first commandment you will also be keeping the other 9. You cannot simultaneously worship the only true God and sin against him. Likewise, if at any given moment you are breaking one of the other commandments it is because you are also breaking the first commandment. When you lie it’s because at that moment you don’t believe Jesus is sufficient. You are trying to protect something or acquire something that you don’t believe Jesus is able to protect or acquire for you. When you covet it is because at that moment you don’t believe Jesus is sufficient. You feel there is still something else you need to be fulfilled. The list goes on. And the equation is simple. All sin is idolatry. All of us sin. Thus, all of us are idolaters. And since idolatry is always about giving ourselves only so we can get something for ourselves it is always prostitution. Thus, we are all whores.
Our Response
I know that this is strong language. I know that this whole sermon has been heavy, uncomfortable, even offensive. I don’t apologize for that but I do want you to know I don’t say all this to make you feel guilty. I don’t say all this to shame you into doing the right thing. I don’t say this from a position of superiority. I say this because I’m your pastor and I love you. And because I love you it would kill me to watch you give yourselves to idols. Because these idols don’t fulfill you. Jesus does. These idols don’t give you value. Jesus does. These idols don’t redeem you. Jesus does. These idols don’t love you. Jesus does. And these idols most definitely don’t liberate you. Jesus does. These idols – all idols – enslave you. The more you give yourself to them the more they entangle you in slavery. If you worship money you become a slave to it and to work, time, unrest, and discontent. If you worship your own righteousness you become a slave to it and to the pressure to always perform well. If you worship relationships you become a slave to them and to the emotions that accompany them. If you worship self you become a slave to the worst parts of yourself and to every desire and passion. These idols enslave us and oppress us just as they did to Israel. And through that slavery and oppression they ultimately destroy us just as they did to Israel.
For your own good, please, do not settle for lesser lovers. Do not give yourself to inferior lovers. Worship Jesus and Jesus alone. Not because Jesus needs your worship but because you need to worship Jesus. He is the lover of all lovers because he loves the unlovable. He loves whores. We know that because of what Yahweh did with Israel. They continued to prostitute themselves to other gods and in his compassion he continued to send them deliverers. We know that because we continue to prostitute ourselves to other gods and in his grace Yahweh has sent to us the perfect and final deliverer. He has sent us Jesus. Every judge that Yahweh sent to Israel was just a shadow of the perfect and final deliverer, Jesus. Jesus, the perfect worshiper who has never committed idolatry of any sort. Jesus, the great emancipator who liberates you from your slavery to sin, Satan, self, and idolatry. Jesus, the Ultimate good who alone can fulfill you, give you value, and make you acceptable to God and to others. Jesus, who refuses to break his covenant with his people and chooses to pay the price for us when we break our covenant with him. Jesus, the perfect lover, who dies for his beloved, in the place of his beloved, for the benefit his beloved, at the hands of his beloved. Jesus, the perfect lover, who takes the filthy, stained, stinking garments and bodies of prostitutes like you and me and washes them in his blood and clothes them in his perfect, glowing, white, pure, monogamous, faithful robe of righteousness.
God loves whores. I know that may sound like a strange way to begin a sermon. It might even be offensive to some of you. But that is one of the messages that comes through very clear in the Book of Judges, which we began studying last week. We see again and again in the book of Judges that God loves whores. And though you may be uncomfortable with that you should be grateful for that. Because if God loves whores that means that God can love you. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s turn to Judges 2:6-3:6 so you can see this for yourselves.
Israel’s Idolatry
Remember, Yahweh led the people of Israel into the Promised Land and commanded them to drive the people out – to utterly destroy every living thing. But as we said last week this was not a holy war. This was not one group of religious people taking up arms against another group of religious people. This was Yahweh’s war. Yahweh is a warrior. And through the Israelites Yahweh was waging war against idolatry and the wickedness, injustice, and oppression that it produces. But not long after they arrived in the land the Israelites chose to assert their own will instead of submitting to Yahweh’s will. Instead of driving out the Canaanites they allowed them to remain. They lived among them. They married them. And just as Yahweh warned them, they eventually began to worship pagan gods. But Yahweh remained faithful. He refused to break his covenant with them and he did not destroy them. Instead he allowed them to continue with their idol worship that would lead them directly into self-destruction. And this would begin a cycle that would be repeated again and again in the history of Israel, in the history of the people of God. If you were to outline the book of Judges you would find that this cycle happens time after time: idolatry, oppression, deliverance, idolatry. Israel commits idolatry, their idolatry leads them to oppression, Yahweh shows compassion and delivers them, and then the Israelites return to idolatry. This is the cycle that the people of God go through again and again and again once they arrive in the land of Canaan. Chapter 2 introduces us to this cycle that we’ll see every week that we study this book together.
Verse 12 shows us how the cycle begins. It begins with idolatry. Israel “forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.” The cycle then goes from idolatry to oppression. Yahweh allows them to face the inevitable consequences of their self-focus. Reading on in verse 12, “They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.” The cycle begins with idolatry and is followed by oppression. But watch what comes next. Suddenly, in verse 16, we read, “Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.” The word “judges” in this book does not refer to some guy in a long black robe who hands out sentences and judgments. The word “judges” in this book means “deliverer.” Yahweh sent deliverers – judges -- to deliver his idolatrous people from oppression. Look again at the transition between verse 15 and verse 16. In verse 15 Israel is in great distress because of their idolatry. In verse 16 Yahweh sends delivers to save them. What’s missing here? What do we not see happening between these two verses? What do we not see happening between Israel’s distress and Yahweh’s deliverance? Repentance! We have no sign here of Israel repenting of their sin. We have no sign here of Israel calling out to Yahweh for deliverance. All we have is Yahweh choosing to give grace to those who have not even asked for it. All we have is Yahweh choosing to show compassion to those who do not deserve it. Thankfully, Yahweh has not changed. He still saves idolaters. He still delivers idolaters. And he still does it without any effort or work on their part. You would think that this tremendous show of compassion and power would cause the people of God to remain always faithful to Yahweh. But that’s not what happens. The cycle goes from idolatry, to oppression, to deliverance, and then back to idolatry. The very next verse, verse 17, says this, “Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them.”
This is the cycle we’ll encounter as we read the book of Judges. And with each pass through the cycle Israel’s idolatry gets worse and worse. If you’re looking for a book about how good we are as human beings this is not it. The book of Judges shows that Yahweh values his people but that says nothing of human goodness. It says everything about Yahweh’s goodness. That is what this book is about: Yahweh’s faithfulness to his unfaithful people.
We need to also remember, though, that while Yahweh is faithful and Yahweh is compassionate Yahweh is not a pushover. Yahweh is not that parent you see at Target who lets their children run wild and still buys them whatever they want if they just yell loud enough and long enough. Yahweh does not wink at evil. Yahweh hates evil. He is angered by it. And as we saw last week he allows his people to face some of its consequences. He does not destroy his people but he may allow his people to walk right into self-destruction. Look at verses 20 and 21, “Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, ‘Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.” Yahweh allowed his people to face the natural consequences of their sin. Because the Israelites did not obey him Yahweh allowed the Canaanites to remain in the land where they would eventually oppress the Israelites and cause them great distress. He did this to discipline them for their idolatry. He also did this to test them as we see in verse 22, “I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did.” It didn’t take long for the test to reveal what Israel truly valued. They claimed to worship Yahweh. But in reality they worshiped themselves. Look at 3:4-6, “They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses. The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.”
Remember what Joshua asked the people of God as they entered the Promised Land? He said, “Choose today who you will serve. Will you serve Yahweh or will you serve the Baals?” “We will serve Yahweh,” the people replied, “because he is our God.” That’s what they said but that’s not what they did. Yahweh tested their profession and verses 5 and 6 tell us how the people responded. They lived among the people, they married the people, and they worshiped their gods. The three things Yahweh specifically commanded them not to do. Yahweh warned the Israelites that if they were to live among the Canaanites they would become like them. And they did. So much so that they even intermarried with them. To enter into marital covenants with the Canaanites was to break their covenant with Yahweh. Yahweh had expressly forbidden intermarriage, and the reasons for this are obvious. Unfortunately, some people still overlook the obvious. I’ve run into this face-to-face.
A couple of years after I married ReShawn I started working at a Christian bookstore in Vancouver. There was a woman who worked there whose name I won’t say. One day, out of the blue, she decided to give me her opinion on interracial marriage. “It’s evil. It’s disgusting. And the Old Testament makes it very clear that God hates it.” At this point she had never met ReShawn. She had no idea my wife was Black. So I just listened and didn’t bother responding. I was confident that when she met ReShawn she would be embarrassed and would never bring up the topic again. I was wrong. About a year later she brought up the topic again. This time she was very upset with a TV show she was watching called Judging Amy. The writers were flirting with the idea of having Amy, a white woman, fall in love with her bailiff, a Black man. “I can’t believe they are showing that on TV”, she said. “I shouldn’t have to look at that in my own home. The Bible clearly says that it is sin to intermarry with other races.” With that she stood up, walked over to me, put her arms around me and said, “But I still love you and ReShawn.” And then she walked away. If you’d like to file a complaint you can call her at Branches bookstore where they sell the finest in Christian books and music at a relatively reasonable price. I suppose I should have said something. But I was speechless. Because she had misread the Scriptures so badly I didn’t even know where to begin. Yahweh did not forbid intermarriage because of race. The Canaanites were not even one race of people. The Canaanites were people of various races and various nations who all inhabited one land – the land of Palestine. Yahweh commanded them not to intermarry for religious reasons, not racial reasons. The Bible teaches that through marriage two distinct people become one people. Yahweh knew that when the Israelites married the Canaanites the Israelites would begin to worship the gods of the Canaanites. And that is precisely what happened to the Israelites. It is also precisely what happens to us when we enter into romantic relationships with those who do not worship Jesus. Verses 5 and 6 show the natural progression of Israel’s self-assertion. They lived among the people, they married the people, and they served their gods. They committed idolatry.
Now, I know that our culture doesn’t take idolatry very seriously. We’re taught that everyone can worship who or what they want. We’re told that all religions are basically the same. God doesn’t care what name you call him by. Even our bumper stickers tell us, “God is too big to fit into one religion.” Of course all of these claims are religious in themselves because they claim to have true knowledge about god that is superior to contradictory knowledge about god. So instead of allowing our culture to create its own religious viewpoints I think we should allow God to speak for himself. And if we do that we see that idolatry is beyond serious. It is evil. Verse 11 says, “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals (meaning other gods).” Not only is idolatry evil but Yahweh equates it with whoredom. Verse 17 says this about Israel’s idolatry, “they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods.” This is not the only time Yahweh accuses the Israelites of whoredom. He compares their idolatry to prostitution again in 2Chronicles 21, in Jeremiah 2 and 3, and throughout the books of Ezekiel and Hosea. Yahweh obviously finds idolatry despicable. But why this particular comparison? Why does he equate idolatry to prostitution? Well, throughout the Bible Yahweh says that his relationship with his people is like a marriage. He is the groom and his people are the bride. He is a faithful husband who gives all of himself to his bride. His people are expected to be a faithful bride, giving all of themselves to their groom. But they don’t. They give themselves to other gods, to other lovers. They commit spiritual adultery. But it is not just adultery. It is also prostitution. Because God’s people do not just give themselves to other gods. They give themselves to other gods because of what they can get out of it. They worship this god so that their crops will grow. They worship that god so they will get pregnant. They worship this goddess for good love and good sex. They worship that goddess so they can win in war. They don’t worship their gods because they love them they worship them because their only purpose is to meet human need and human desire. They are johns, they are tricks. This is no different than the prostitute who prostitutes himself for nothing but a material reward. The Israelites were prostitutes. They whored themselves out to other gods. And yet, as we see throughout this book, Yahweh continues to deliver them. Because God loves whores. And we should rejoice in that. Because that means God can love us. Whether we know it or not, we, like the Israelites, have prostituted ourselves in idolatry.
Our Idolatry
If you’re irreligious you may laugh at that. You’re not so sure that idolatry even exists because you’re not so sure that God even exists. And even if it exists, you certainly can’t be guilty of it because you don’t worship any gods. As long as you’re not worshiping any gods how could you be guilty of idolatry? Well, that’s where it helps to define our terms. To be an idolater is not simply to worship a false god. The Bible tells us that to be an idolater is to give to creation what only belongs to the Creator. We don’t have to make gods out of bronze and wood to be guilty of idolatry. All we have to do is give to creation what only belongs to the Creator. All we have to do is take anything – even a good thing – and turn it into an Ultimate thing. We can do this with our children. We can do this with our marriage, with our relationships. We can do this with sex. We can do this with our careers. We can do this with our finances or our possessions. We can do this with our bodies. We can do this with art or entertainment. We can do this with the earth itself, and animals, and with any and every part of creation. And we can certainly do this with ourselves. We can take good things and turn them into Ultimate things. And this is idolatry. We give to the creation what we should be giving to the Creator. Being irreligious does not excuse you from idolatry. It actually guarantees it.
But being religious doesn’t excuse you from idolatry either. I know you might think, “I go to church, I read my Bible, I pray, I know that there is only one God and he is revealed in Jesus Christ. There’s no way I can be an idolater.” You’re wrong. The truth is that those of us who are religious – those of us who go to church and do Christian things – we are extremely vulnerable to idolatry. The scary thing is that we don’t notice our idolatry because we have learned how to label our idolatry “obedience” and “righteousness.” The things that we do that we think are most Christian are often the most idolatrous. We don’t notice this because we tend to focus on what we do. “I go to church. I read my Bible. I pray. I give money to the church and to the poor. I tell people about Jesus.” Christians love to focus on what we do. But God doesn’t just focus on what we do. God focuses on why we do what we do. You can have two people in the same church that appear to be living the same type of life in the same way. But one of them may be a worshiper of Jesus while another is an idolater. Only God knows because only God knows why we do what we do. Only he sees that one of these two people does righteous things for unrighteous reasons. They do good things in order to be acceptable to God or in order to stay acceptable to God. And that is idolatry. Because that person is giving to creation what belongs to the Creator. That person is trusting in themselves to make them right with God and keep them right with God instead of trusting in Jesus to do those things. How easy it is to do that in our Christian culture. How easy it is to think this way! How easy it is for us to feel close to God when we are “doing the right things.” How easy it is for us to feel distant from God when we are not “doing the right things.” How easy it is for us to think we’re good Christians because of what we do. This is idolatry. This is giving the trust that belongs to Jesus and the glory that belongs to Jesus to ourselves. The idolatrous church-goer and the Jesus-worshiping church-goer may do the same things. They may both appear to be obeying God. But the idolater obeys God for the purpose of being acceptable to God. The true Christian obeys God because he knows he is already accepted through Jesus. The idolater obeys to be accepted by Jesus, the true Christian obeys because he is already accepted through Jesus. That is the difference between idolatry and true worship.
So, no, religious people are not excused from idolatry. Church people are not excused from idolatry. We are very vulnerable to idolatry. We are especially vulnerable to the idol of our own righteousness. But we are also vulnerable to much more. We are vulnerable to all of the idols of our culture. And we allow more of them to enter the church than we could ever address in one week. So let’s just focus on one of them. Money. Church people love money. And it is not a stretch to say that a huge number of us worship it. We give to it what should only be given to our Creator. We give it our trust. We trust in money to provide us with security. We trust in money to provide us with joy. We trust in money to provide us with pleasure. We trust in money and the things it buys to make us feel good about ourselves and make others think well of us. We make money into an Ultimate thing.
It’s not a coincidence that the best-selling “Christian” books are books like The Prayer of Jabez, or Your Best Life Now. These books tell us that God wants us to be financially prosperous. They tell us that this is one of God’s primary concerns and something we should expect as Christians. They tell us that if we just follow a few easy steps then God will open up the floodgates of heaven and rain down on us with financial blessings. And millions and millions of Christians buy these books. And it’s not just the books. Turn on the TV. Who are the most popular television preachers? TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Paula White. What do all of these people have in common? They’re heretics who teach a false gospel. And at the center of that false gospel is what? Money. Prosperity. Millions upon millions of Christians watch their programs, buy their tapes, read their books, and send them money because, if they do, these teachers promise that God will give them more money. They are the most popular preachers because they don’t preach Jesus – they preach our idol of money – and that’s what we hunger for. And it’s not just books and TV. It’s not just the big churches. If you don’t believe me walk outside these doors right now. Walk ten blocks in any direction and you will walk by several churches proclaiming this same message. “God wants you to be prosperous. He wants to bless you financially. All you have to do is this or that easy step and God will pour out financial blessings into your bosom.” And the people respond in worship to their idol. In these churches Jesus is not our security, money is. Jesus is just the means to get our security. Jesus is not our joy, money is. Jesus is the means to get our joy. This is all a load of feces. I know. Because I was one of these people. I listened to the preachers on TBN. I bought the books they wrote. And I attended a church that preached the same false gospel. I called myself a Christian but the truth is I wanted Jesus for what I thought Jesus could give me more than I wanted Jesus for Jesus.
Maybe you’re not like me. Maybe you’ve never fallen for the health & wealth nonsense that plagues our bookshelves and our airwaves and our local churches. But that doesn’t mean you are not just as guilty of turning money and material prosperity into an idol. You still may trust in money to provide you with security. You still may trust in money to provide you with the good life. You still may trust in money to provide you with pleasure. You still may trust in money to get you what you want and need in life. And I know that some of you do. There’s no question about it. Because I see what you give to Jesus’ church. And not all of you, but many of you, are clearly worshiping money and what it brings you more than you are worshiping Jesus. Take last week for example. Last Sunday was January 6th. The first Sunday of the month, which means that people just got paid. We had over 30 adults here. You know how much money these 30 adults gave to Jesus, collectively? $117. On the first Sunday after payday 30 people collectively worshiped Jesus with $117. That’s an average of $3.90 per person. That story would be bad enough. But the truth is worse. The truth is that on the first Sunday after payday only 5 out of 30 people chose to worship Jesus through giving. Now, let me be very clear. Giving money does not earn you favor with God. I’ll say that again, giving money does not earn you favor with God. And God does not require of you a specific percentage or a specific amount. But God does require your worship. Because of our life situations every one of us will give differently and should give differently. But regardless of your life situation what you give reveals who you worship. Those who worship Jesus give to him generously and sacrificially. Those who do not – do not.
Christians are not immune to idolatry. We are likely to make idols out of our own righteousness. We are likely to make idols out of money. We are likely to make idols out of any number of things. Some of you, right now, are looking to a relationship to provide the fulfillment only Jesus can provide. You are in a relationship that you know you shouldn’t be in but you stay anyway because you are trusting in this relationship to fulfill you. At the same time some of you are thinking of leaving the relationship you should be in because it’s not providing the fulfillment you want it to provide. But it’s not supposed to. Some of you, right now, are looking to human beings to provide you with value and approval and acceptance that only Jesus can provide. You are saying things you should not say and doing things you should not do because you want their approval and their acceptance. At the same time some of you are not saying what you know you should say and are not doing what you know you should do because you are looking to other human beings to make you feel valued, approved, and accepted. We could go on and on and on. We make idols out of our families, our careers, our emotions, our success, our education, our health, our talents et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever our idols are they all have this in common – we are only worshiping them because of what we think they will provide for us. Which means that ultimately we are worshiping ourselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Church of Jesus Christ is filled with whores. We whore ourselves out to false gods in exchange for the security and the value and the peace that we think they can provide us. This may rub some of you the wrong way. Maybe you say, “I’m no whore.” Maybe you say, “I’m no idolater.” I understand your objection but I can only offer you one reply. Yes you are. Yes you are. And I can say that without even the slightest doubt. You are an idolater. Now how can I say that with such certainty? Because you sin. Don’t you? Does anyone here not sin? Of course not. You sin. And your sin is proof of your idolatry. All sin is idolatry by its very nature. To sin is to set our hearts upon something other than Jesus. Every time we sin we are trying to find our fulfillment, or our pleasure, or our value, or our happiness in someone or something other than Jesus. We are saying that Jesus is not sufficient so we must take matters into our own hands. Do you remember what the first of the 10 Commandments is? The first commandment is “do not have any other gods before me.” It’s not a coincidence that this is the first commandment. This is the first commandment because every other commandment stands or falls on it. At any given moment if you are keeping the first commandment you will also be keeping the other 9. You cannot simultaneously worship the only true God and sin against him. Likewise, if at any given moment you are breaking one of the other commandments it is because you are also breaking the first commandment. When you lie it’s because at that moment you don’t believe Jesus is sufficient. You are trying to protect something or acquire something that you don’t believe Jesus is able to protect or acquire for you. When you covet it is because at that moment you don’t believe Jesus is sufficient. You feel there is still something else you need to be fulfilled. The list goes on. And the equation is simple. All sin is idolatry. All of us sin. Thus, all of us are idolaters. And since idolatry is always about giving ourselves only so we can get something for ourselves it is always prostitution. Thus, we are all whores.
Our Response
I know that this is strong language. I know that this whole sermon has been heavy, uncomfortable, even offensive. I don’t apologize for that but I do want you to know I don’t say all this to make you feel guilty. I don’t say all this to shame you into doing the right thing. I don’t say this from a position of superiority. I say this because I’m your pastor and I love you. And because I love you it would kill me to watch you give yourselves to idols. Because these idols don’t fulfill you. Jesus does. These idols don’t give you value. Jesus does. These idols don’t redeem you. Jesus does. These idols don’t love you. Jesus does. And these idols most definitely don’t liberate you. Jesus does. These idols – all idols – enslave you. The more you give yourself to them the more they entangle you in slavery. If you worship money you become a slave to it and to work, time, unrest, and discontent. If you worship your own righteousness you become a slave to it and to the pressure to always perform well. If you worship relationships you become a slave to them and to the emotions that accompany them. If you worship self you become a slave to the worst parts of yourself and to every desire and passion. These idols enslave us and oppress us just as they did to Israel. And through that slavery and oppression they ultimately destroy us just as they did to Israel.
For your own good, please, do not settle for lesser lovers. Do not give yourself to inferior lovers. Worship Jesus and Jesus alone. Not because Jesus needs your worship but because you need to worship Jesus. He is the lover of all lovers because he loves the unlovable. He loves whores. We know that because of what Yahweh did with Israel. They continued to prostitute themselves to other gods and in his compassion he continued to send them deliverers. We know that because we continue to prostitute ourselves to other gods and in his grace Yahweh has sent to us the perfect and final deliverer. He has sent us Jesus. Every judge that Yahweh sent to Israel was just a shadow of the perfect and final deliverer, Jesus. Jesus, the perfect worshiper who has never committed idolatry of any sort. Jesus, the great emancipator who liberates you from your slavery to sin, Satan, self, and idolatry. Jesus, the Ultimate good who alone can fulfill you, give you value, and make you acceptable to God and to others. Jesus, who refuses to break his covenant with his people and chooses to pay the price for us when we break our covenant with him. Jesus, the perfect lover, who dies for his beloved, in the place of his beloved, for the benefit his beloved, at the hands of his beloved. Jesus, the perfect lover, who takes the filthy, stained, stinking garments and bodies of prostitutes like you and me and washes them in his blood and clothes them in his perfect, glowing, white, pure, monogamous, faithful robe of righteousness.
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