Any Asherah Poles in Your House?

No, I can say without hesitation that I do not have any Asherah poles anywhere near my house. How about you?

Scripture:

Romans 1: 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Lesson:

I do not have any mahogany Buddha’s, or golden calves either, but before I get to proud of myself I need to consider a Mark Driscoll quote: Idols are good things turned into god things and they become bad things. W.E. Vine says, “Man is essentially constituted a worshipper. If he abandons the worship of God, some other object will be found to take the place of the Creator.”

Paul is telling us that when we turn to foolish thinking: do not worship God, do not acknowledge Him, do not show gratitude to him, do not recognize that he is the source of all good gifts, it leads to darkened minds. Exchanging truth thinking for images and that is idolatry. An idol is anything that absorbs us and takes the place of God and/or our worship.

We are so defined by what we own (cars, clothes, houses, jewelry, money, beauty, careers, position, sports, etc.) Parents wrap themselves up in a lot of things hoping to assign some sort of value to themselves and their children. These things are not idols on their own but can become idols when we view it as defining our value and devote ourselves to getting “it.”

To worship God as God, we will heed God’s message in Exodus 34:12-14, “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. We will acknowledge him as Lord of all creation, including ourselves. We give up our will to his will in our lives. We should only seek our identity, purpose, significance, security, and our value in and through Jesus Christ.

application:

1.     What are some evidences of those claiming to be wise, but are foolish?

2.     Who or what has moved into your life that takes up more space that your time with God? It might be the object of your worship?

3.     What absorbs you, your thinking, your energy? What do you have or seek to have that you think will give you value in life? Where does God/Christ fit in?

4.     What do your idols look like? (children, sports, movie stars, food, drugs/alcohol, pleasure, things, houses, etc)

5.     What steps are you willing to take to tear down the Asherah poles or anything else so that you can turn your eyes back toward Jesus?

Prayer:

Dear Father, help us be honest with ourselves, and identify those created things we might have a tendency to worship and serve. Help us to put away our idols, to put you in your rightful place as the only one worthy of our worship and service, so that we can worship and serve you first, and foremost. In Christ alone. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.