1 Kings 17 & 18
In November of 1967 I attended my very first New York Giants football game at the old Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. I remember it being the coldest I’ve ever been in my life, and I remember how awestruck I was to see these players who’d I’d only seen on TV in the flesh. They weren’t TV characters anymore, they were real.
For much of my life the New York Giants served as the emotional connection between my father and me. It was the one thing that we were both passionate about and I know that sounds sad – it was – but it was better than growing up estranged. And as I grew older, that football team became more and more the focal point in my life. By the time I reached adulthood Sunday afternoons in the fall belonged to the Giants. They were the most important thing. After my wife and I got married, I dragged her into the madness of it all and she became a Giants fan by default simply because she saw how it controlled me.
If the Giants won on Sunday, I was euphoric. If they lost, I was miserable till Tuesday. When it came to rival teams – most especially the dreaded Cowboys – I had a visceral hatred for the men wearing those uniforms. I mean it was a profanity laced, blood pressure raising hatred. As I look back on it, I see how crazy unhealthy it was.
Here’s what’s amazing though. In the last 18 months between COVID and no fans in the stands and kneeling for the National Anthem I lost interest. Completely! Didn’t watch a game, didn’t read Monday morning recaps. And you know what? I witnessed an amazing drop in my personal stress levels. I enjoyed church more, I for sure enjoyed my Sunday afternoons more.
I came to see how impactful worshipping an idol can be. I came to see how a 3-hour football game on a Sunday afternoon could guide the course of my life week in and week out. And I came to see how detrimental that was.
We live today in a world given over to idol worship. If it’s not athletes, it’s movie stars. Or musicians. Or some social or political movement. Or your job. It could be a pastor! These days we see a lot of very unhealthy megachurches led by men – and at times women – who savor being worshipped as idols. It’s what keeps them in the pulpit.
Scary stuff.
Idolatry has always been a challenge to the faith, Old Testament to New…man made statues being worshipped as gods. In Greek and Roman circles there are hundreds of gods being made up out of thin air and given supreme authority over whatever they were given supreme authority over. In Jesus’ day Roman emperors declared themselves to be gods worthy of worship.
For those of you who have or are currently struggling in an addiction, that’s the very picture of idolatry. You’ve taken a substance or a behavior, placed it at the center of your life where Jesus ought to be and now everything connected to how you exist is run through the authority of that substance or that behavior.
In the Old Testament Book of 1 Kings, there’s a great picture of how our sovereign Lord overcomes false idols and fake gods. There’s a prophet named Elijah who’s sent by the Lord to confront a crazy evil king of Israel by the name of Ahab. Evil as Ahab is, his wife Jezebel is worse. She basically teaches Ahab how to be evil. She leads Israel into worshipping the Baals, false gods who draw followers into all manner of sin. She slaughters nearly all the prophets of the Lord living in Israel at that time.
Elijah goes and faces Ahab and tells him that because of his evil ways Israel is going to be thrown into a period of severe drought lasting years. Then the LORD sends Elijah into hiding. True to His word, Israel is thrown into a devastating drought and three years later, the Lord sends Elijah back to Ahab. This time Elijah presents a challenge. “Because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah (another false god) who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
It’s smackdown time. The One, True God of Israel versus the hundreds of followers of Jezebel’s fake gods. And the deal is that whoever ends the drought first is clearly God. And so, there at Mount Carmel the followers of Baal chant and yell and cut themselves until, the Word says, blood gushed from them. No rain. After hours of doing this, Elijah begins to taunt them. And then he builds an altar to the LORD. And then…Elijah prays. Passionately and humbly, he prays for God to show these non-believers that He alone has the power to break the strongholds created by idols. And the rain comes. And the prophets of Baal die at Elijah’s hand and Ahab turns tail and runs away.
If you’re a believer, be blessed to know that you worship in Jesus a God who loves smashing strongholds. Who loves exposing false idols for what they are so that nothing can stand in the way of us knowing Him for who He is…Lord and Savior. The only One capable of setting us free from the condemnation of sin and instead covering us in His eternal righteousness.
If you’re worshipping at the altar of a false god, an unfulfilling idol, do like Elijah. Pray humbly for Jesus to topple that stronghold. He’ll do it. He’ll show you a path to doing it. And He will fill you with the undying joy that comes from living for Him.