Read Psalm 78:54-58. 54And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won. 55He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. 56Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies,57but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
Israel’s original sin in the wilderness was discontentment. A sin that left the Passover generation out of the Promised Land. The next generation, the one that made it into the land, the one that ate the milk and honey, the one who saw walls crumble and armies flee, well they had nothing to be discontented in. They lived in houses they did not build, and ate from gardens they did not plant. Once they made it to the Promised Land, however, they advanced to straight to the sin of idolatry.
When God is slow and silent we are discontent rather than worshipful in the waiting.
When God comes through, keeping all of his promises, we will worship his gifts before we’ll worship the Giver.
The irony is how quickly the Israelites found themselves worshiping the very idols they once tore down. But, oh, how true is this for those in Christ as well. We came to Christ for free salvation, for unconditional love, for acceptance, for future glory within his presence. How quickly did we too turn to everything earthly, every good gift, everything but Christ and his love to satisfy what we once swore would only be satisfied in him?
To live is Christ is a life of identifying and rooting out our idols, our functional saviors, until only hope in Christ remains. Until we decide to take on this task of daily repentance we will never know ourselves, nor will we trust our position in Christ.
Prayer. Jesus, I would tear down every idol from its throne if I could. I need you to do it for me. Amen.
To Live is Christ 
Thank you for this post. I’d like to be a Christian, happy in God’s holy shelter, not aware of the evil around me. However, the molten bull in New York is a reminder that Americans have fallen to the image of the false god of the Canaanites, Baal. The bull is near Wall Street, a symbol of success, wealth and prosperity, things that could be idols if we put more trust in them than in our great and awesome God.
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