A funny thing happened on the way to my email inbox. The Lord arranged the perfect story to pop up on the news feed on Monday as I was thinking about our lesson on God’s condemnation of idolatry.
In a surprising turn of events, King Charles III [of Great Britain] has reportedly turned to a Greek Orthodox monk for spiritual advice following his recent cancer diagnosis. The monarch, known for his spiritual sophistication, has sought counsel from Archimandrite Ephraim, whom he has been friends with for over 25 years. . . . The King is said to have a deep appreciation for ancient rituals and spiritual practices, often rising at 4am to follow the liturgy. . . . Despite the diagnosis, sources close to the King are optimistic about his recovery. One source told The Sun, "Charles has a spiritual sophistication, a spiritual life... I believe he'll overcome it."[1]
A few observations. Evidently, it’s surprising to the journalist writing the article (and probably the readers also?) that King Charles should seek spiritual advice in the wake of his cancer diagnosis. It’s surprising because he’s “spiritually sophisticated,” and the advice he seeks is of a decidedly traditional and probably therefore unsophisticated variety. The monarch’s “deep appreciation” is “for ancient rituals and spiritual practices,” the liturgy for which often prompts him to rise at 4 am.
Now, I sincerely want to give King Charles the benefit of the doubt and assume editorial bias for the lack of any mention of the Lord Jesus Christ as the sum and substance of the liturgical practices for which he rises so early. But if the ancient rituals which Charles seeks out in his time of need are bereft of Christ himself, then they are empty and ultimately powerless idolatrous practices which will afford him no help now or on the Day in which he will stand before the LORD to give an account for his life. May God in his mercy open Charles’s eyes and soften his heart before it is too late.
Woe to Idolaters
We now come to the fifth and final woe oracle announced by the prophet Habakkuk as he considers the sovereign timing of the justice of God. As with the other four woes, this oracle isn’t addressed to specific people or nations, but is pronounced as a true consequence for any and all idolaters, not only in Habakkuk’s day but also right down through history to today. However, unlike the first four woes, this one stands apart for its focus upon idolatry instead of the various forms of oppression condemned by the others. Also, notice that the “woe” comes in the middle, and not at the introduction of this oracle.
“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.” Habakkuk 2:18–20
The ancient Near-East culture was polytheistic and idolatrous across every tribe and nation. But God called his chosen people Israel to be different. Throughout the Old Testament we see his prohibitions against idol worship and chasing after false gods in the strongest terms. One way to discern the degree of insult to the LORD for a particular sin is to see the punishments called for in the civil laws of OT Israel. Some infractions call for a day of separation before cleansing, or bringing goats, sheep, bulls, or doves for offerings. Others call for repayment in kind such as payment for or replacing stolen animals or items, and then there’s the “eye for an eye” limitation on vengeance. But for idolatry and the worship of false gods—also known as “ancient rituals and spiritual practices”—the punishments were more severe. In the summary of Leviticus, chapter 26, we read:
“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you (there follows a long list of blessings upon blessings for obedience…)
“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: (there follows a long list of curses upon curses for disobedience. . .)
Then, finally:
“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. (Leviticus 26:1–3; 14–16; 27–33, bold print mine)
If the terms of God’s judgment are hair-raising to read, it’s because they’re meant to be. Even more shocking should be the thought of a people chosen to be holy unto the Lord and graced with his special blessings and covenant promises turning their backs upon those very blessings and promises and seeking false gods to worship instead. Idolatry, admittedly, was one of many sins condemned and warned against in the lists above. But the longing of the heart after other gods and false means of worship—worship founded in human ingenuity and therefore subject to the worshippers’ control—leads the list because the worship of a people always follows what they love. The first two of the ten commandments are the prime examples of this: “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth (Exodus 20, 3–4). If we’re not dedicating our whole hearts to the worthiness of God and devoting our whole love to him, the rest of his commandments will fall like dominoes in the wake of our spiritual adultery.
How well did Israel heed the warnings? In second Kings we read the Lord’s words to what remained of his people after the Assyrians had taken the Northern kingdom into exile and the Southern kingdom refused to learn from that severe punishment:
And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. (2 Kings 21:10–12, bold print mine)
This assessment comes around the same time that Habakkuk is prophesying in Judah, and it confirms God’s judgment upon his people that we’ve read in Habakkuk.
Returning specifically to our text in Habakkuk, David Firth notes that:
As is common in the OT, Habakkuk notes that idols are human creations that offer no profit. Habakkuk develops a paradox: although an idol is silent, it nevertheless is able to deceive those who trust it. Thus those [who are] trusting idols stand under divine judgment, for telling a piece of wood or stone to awaken or arise is foolish, and no amount of gold or silver overlay will give it life. By contrast, Yahweh is real and is present in his temple and all the earth is called to silence before him. In this way, Habakkuk brings the woe oracles to a close while also preparing for the psalm of chapter three.
Yahweh dwells in his temple, and from there he sees all; once this reality is recognized, one understands that the temple is also the divine palace, the place from which the true King dispenses justice. Idolatry attempts to avoid Yahweh’s claims by denying the reality of his existence. Yet life must be lived under his rule, and the oppressors of chapter two have missed this fundamental fact. Further, Yahweh’s rule from his temple grounds the claim of 2:3 in a fundamental reality. The reality of his rule over all the earth means those living by faith can be sure his justice will finally be seen, even if its exact timing is not disclosed. (David G. Firth, Habakkuk, ESV Expository Commentary, vol. VII)
The Foolishness of Spiritual Sophistication
In Isaiah 44:12–17 the foolishness of idolatry is spelled out in ludicrous detail. As modern readers we’re tempted to laugh at what we read, almost as if Isaiah is emphasizing to a satirical degree how the ancients worshiped idols made by their own hands. The foolishness is obvious. And yet, idolatry goes deeper than mere trinkets carved and set on a shelf. In 1 Samuel 15:23 we read the LORD’s assessment of Saul’s kingship: “rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” Rebellion and presumption, rejecting the word of the LORD. That broadens our definition and brings idolatry right into our modern, enlightened world now, doesn’t it? We’re not only talking about “ancient rituals and spiritual practices,” but also “spiritual sophistication.” James Boice comments on our passage that the idolatry Habakkuk addresses is alive and well in our own time. Boice was speaking specifically of “spiritism and the occult,” but his words apply equally to the “spiritual sophistication” so many, including King Charles III, presume to claim.
It is hard to understand why an educated, scientifically minded, modern people such as we imagine ourselves to be should be so intrigued by spiritism and the occult; but our chapter explains it perfectly. It is simply the end condition of a people who will not walk by faith in God but who trust to their own devices instead. We trust ourselves, but we are not adequate for the trust. So, finding no help in mere human beings and having rejected the true God, we turn to superstition.
If what we need is God, as the Bible claims, and if we turn to things instead of God, as we so often do, these other things will inevitably disappoint us no matter how much we have or how fervent our misplaced devotion to them may be. What do you turn to for strength and security in life? Is it money? Do you think that if you only have enough money you will be alright? Is it other people? Do you think that somehow your friends will help you get by? Is it success? Fame? Your own strength and ability, whatever it may be? Do you think that if you get all these in order, somehow you will manage.
They will not be enough! You and I are made in the image of God, destined for fellowship with God. If we will not have God, then there will always be a vacuum—a terrible, hellish vacuum— our lives. (James Montgomery Boice, The Minor Prophets, Vol. 2: Micah–Malachi; An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1986))
The Love of God Which Frees Us From Idols
The final cursed state of Israel as promised by the Lord in Leviticus 26 and 2 Kings seems extreme indeed. Yet there is a purpose to it. Hear God’s merciful covenant-keeping lovingkindness as Leviticus 26 ends:
“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, . . .
Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 26:40–42; 44–45)
Through Moses, God shared the blessings he delighted to pour out upon his people if they would only walk in the ways that he’d commanded them, but also the consequences of their disobedience. The consequences were meant to bring them up short in their sins and remind them to simply repent and return to him. In fact, as I read through Leviticus 26 it occurs to me that it’s not equally balanced—the weight and horror of the sins, iniquities and transgressions, demonstrated by the severity of the consequent punishments, is far greater than the requirement he places upon their forgiveness. Only remember, confess, repent, and return, he tells them, and God will remember his covenant to be their God and restore their relationship.
That inequity was only temporary. At the appointed time, God sent his Son Jesus to bear the full horror of the weight of the sins of all his chosen people so that in him we would be given the Spirit-wrought ability and desire to remember, confess, repent, and return. And so, in Spirit and truth, we who worship the True King of kings may bow in worship before him, knowing that “the LORD is in his holy temple,” with Jesus Christ his Son—our Redeemer—at his right hand interceding for us. Therefore, “Let all the earth keep silence before him.”
[1] MSN.com news article, King Charles III revealed an unexpected source of spiritual relief after cancer diagnosis (msn.com) accessed 2/26/2024 (italics theirs)
Grateful 