If you’re looking for a helpful biblical resource on idolatry, I very much recommend Richard Lints’ Identity and Idolatry. I’ve read a few other good resources on idolatry, but in my view, this one is the best. In this book, Lints talks about the various angles of idolatry, including image, identity, worship, purpose, significance, and security. Speaking of significance and security, here’s an excerpt I appreciated:
At the heart of worship is a sense of ‘giving yourself away’ to another. Key to worship then are the questions ‘To whom are you giving yourself away and in what manner are you giving yourself?’ Genuine worship is giving yourself to the living God in whom and for whom you ave been created. Idolatry by contrast is substituting the true object of worship (God) for an imitation (idol) and reorienting the relationship from worship to possession. One who worships the living God does not possess him for one’s own purposes. But those who create an idol seek to possess it for their own purpose….
An idol is desired as a means to an end, and the end is significance and security on the individual’s own terms. Since significance and security cannot be fulfilled by the idol, the idol creates a deeper longing for significance and security for that which it cannot provide. This results in a chasing after the idol, driven by the conviction that eventually the idol will somehow provide the promised significance and security. The cycle repeats itself. Longing provides the opportunity to chase, and chasing creates a deeper longing. Effectively the idol possesses the one who fashioned it. The yearning for significance and security that initiated the dynamic of idolatry has in fact led to a deeper dissatisfaction and a greater frustration – a dissatisfaction and frustration caused by the inability of the idol to fulfil that which it appeared to promise.
That’s worth reading again – and it helps us as God’s people fight against the idols in our own hearts and lives.
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