To despise this question is to ignore the first of God’s Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3). If all men were not faced with the danger of loving false gods more than the one true God, no need would exist for this commandment. Throughout the scriptures the living God is set in great contrast to dead idols. The prophet Malachi asks, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?” (Mal. 2:10); the Apostle Paul declares, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” (Acts 17:28); but David calls idols “the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.” (Psa. 115:4-7). Is it any wonder therefore, that God hates and forbids idolatry, a thing so destructive to His honour and so powerless to benefit men?
How did man created in God’s own image and capable of fellowship with Him fall into idolatry? The first sinners, Adam and Eve, show us. When our first parents were yet in the state of innocence in which God created them, Satan tempted Eve to suspect evil intentions in God for His having placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which was not to be eaten, in the middle of the Garden of Eden. The devil appealed to Eve’s self-love when he said, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Gen. 3:5,6). Although Eve was deceived by the devil’s lie, many believe that Adam knowingly fell into disobedience, rebellion, and idolatry out of love to his wife more than love to God.
The tragic fall of Adam and Eve and the whole human race with them is proof of the truth and reality of the Psalmist’s warning, “Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god:” (Psa. 16:4). Regarding these words, Charles H. Spurgeon observed: “The cruelties and hardships which men endure for their false gods is wonderful to contemplate; our missionary reports are a noteworthy commentary on this passage; but perhaps our own experience is an equally vivid exposition; for when we have given our hearts to idols, sooner or later we have had to smart for it. Near the roots of our self-love all our sorrows lie, and when that idol is overthrown, the sting is gone from grief. Moses broke the golden calf and ground it to powder, and cast it into the water of which he made Israel to drink, and so shall our cherished idols become bitter portions for us, unless we at once forsake them. Our Lord had no selfishness; he served but one Lord, and served him only.” (The Treasury of David, Vol. 1, p. 194; Hendrickson Publishers).
Mr. Spurgeon’s words concerning the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, hold the key to overcoming the soul-destroying sin of idolatry. When Christ is enthroned in the heart of a man, the idol of self-will cannot occupy the highest place as “a root that beareth gall and wormwood” (Deut. 29:18). The Apostle John states this in another way: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I Jn. 4:20). O reader, do not strive against your loving Creator and seek to justify your selfishness. Fly to the fountain opened before you in Christ’s precious blood “for sin and for uncleanness” for pardon and cleansing of all your transgressions (Zech 13:1). Then you will in faith be able to say, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28).