Far From Me

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."
--Isaiah 29:13

These words are said by God in response to Israel's idolatry and sinfulness--both of which were problems all the way from their first leaving Egypt to being in the promised land as God had promised they would be.  We always read the stories of Israel throughout the Old Testament and conclude, "Israel...idiots.  Why are they doing this?  Why are they so idolatrous?  Why do they worship other gods?"  But in responding to the text this way, there are a few things we need to remember.

First, the Bible is God's story from God's perspective.  Think for a minute about what it means to be deceived.  It means to not only be lied to, but to have been lied to in such a way that one buys into the lie, believing it, and so acting accordingly.  In Genesis 3, Eve was deceived by the serpent who is Satan, which means she didn't just stupidly make a non-sensical decision based on no thought.  She chose to listen to the serpent because she believed what he said--she believed that he was telling the truth.  She was deceived by he whom Jesus later called 'the father of lies' (Jn. 8:44).
As God tells us the story of Israel from His perspective, would we be stupid enough to think that Israel non-sensically and without any thought just bowed down and worshiped golden calves and idols because they had amnesia or because they were spiritually retarded?  Of course not--each instance of sin is a case of deception.  They've been deceived to believe that what they're doing is the correct course of action, and they acted accordingly.  This is not a justification on my part for Israel's sin; I merely am attempting to give an honest assessment of what really is going on in God's story of God's people.  They're deceived, and they act accordingly.
So when God tells us of their sin, He tells us how silly and non-sensical their sin and idolatry is, because it IS.  We should assume that the same rule which applied to Eve applies to them as well.  Why would it be any different?  They were deceived like she was.  Does this mean God is unfair in His assessment?  Of course not--what He tells is the truth; His Word is always truth (see John 17:17).  And being the honest diagnosis, the cause is deception.

Secondly, Israel's worship of the golden calf (as told in Exodus 32) deserves a further look than what most people will afford it.  To most, it appears a story where Israel just randomly decides to worship an object, preposterously calling the newly created object "your gods...who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" (32:4), as though they seriously thought this little object they'd just created are THE gods (notice Aaron makes one object, and they refer to it in the plural as 'the gods'). 
But on further investigation we realize a few things.
     1.   The second commandment (Ex. 20:4) is a prohibition of 'carved images'.  Whereas most think this refers to worshiping idols, God had already covered that in commandment one "you shall not worship any other gods beside (or before) me."  Instead, with the Second Com. God is more likely speaking of attaching an image to Himself.  He speaks, in essence, of their giving a visible image to the invisible God.  Apparently God hates this so much that it's the second commandment, right after "worship only me".  Apparently it would become an issue.
     2.  If #1 (above) is true, it would make the golden calf incident more likely to be a case of Israel worshiping the golden calf because to them it was a visible image of the invisible God.  Instead of them worshiping another god (which is common thought), they were worshiping God, but through the medium of a golden calf as his image.  This is an explicit breaking of commandment two, and it's so grievous that God tells Moses "My wrath (will) burn hot against them and I (will) consume them" (32:10).  In giving God an image, they've sacrificed God's invisibility in their hearts, and, since we all know how much easier it is to believe in something we see, now they worship the image instead of God.  In this way, they're not worshiping God anymore, but a false god.
     3.  This also makes sense in light of a couple of other passages.  In Deuteronomy 4, Moses, preaching his last sermon to Israel, remembering both God's revealing Himself to Israel and their subsequent golden calf incident, tells them, "Watch yourselves carefully.  Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure" (4:15-16).  "Since you saw no form..." refers to God, meaning that the subsequent warning (not to make an image) refers to making an image of God.  Apparently this is an issue.  In Isaiah 40, Isaiah says, "To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?  An idol!  A craftsman casts it..." (40:18-19).  Apparently, that's what's been going on--people giving the invisible God "who sits above the circle of the earth" (40:22) a likeness, like God said not to in Commandment Two, like Israel did in the golden calf incident, like Moses warned not to do again in his final sermon, and like Isaiah here preaches against.

When this becomes the common practice in a society (ie. Old Testament Israel), it loses its sting as something that should be held in contempt.  Sin that one generation deems as "not a big deal", the next generation accepts as common and necessary without even a thought.  We see this in our society--conservative evangelical denominations which began to make theological compromises 100 years ago are beginning to reap the bad fruit of theological relativity in all matters.  "If this isn't necessarily what it means, then maybe the same principle applies to that as well."  And the rest is history--if we don't have to believe one particular Biblical teaching, can we trust any of it?  Of course the only reason why there are these questions in the first place is because of man's sinfully and stupidly thinking he's the standard of judgment, and that God's truth is only really truth if it fits into man's understanding and man's culture's understanding.  And in God telling us Israel's story, their folly and rebellion is man's continued folly and rebellion--which takes us back to the original passage, which is also the third thing we need to remember in considering sin.

Thirdly, the reason Israel worshiped idols and wouldn't keep God's commands isn't because they were stupid (though they were), nor was it because God's Word coming to them had failed (see Isaiah 55:10-11; God's Word never fails).  The reason they weren't obedient and were rebellious is that their hearts were far from Him.  In short, they didn't love Him.  They didn't appreciate Him; they didn't believe and accept that their life, calling, security, etc. all came from the God who loved them enough to give them breath in their lungs and favor over their lives. 
Later, Paul is pretty explicit with this when he writes, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things" (Romans 1:21-23).  Surely we can see that Israel's idolatry wasn't because of stupidity--it was because of hearts that weren't near God, because they didn't thank God or honor Him as God, because they didn't love Him, and so in turn they attached images to God and in doing so they brought stupidity on themselves. 
But it all starts with a) a heart that isn't bowed to God, and b) a belief in one's own understanding before God's sovereignty and goodness.  And in the end, trusting in one's own understanding over God's leads to one having no understanding.

I'm convinced that this has become the case with much of Christianity...if it can even be called that in some circles.  Jesus came to make peace between us and God, through uniting us with Himself in His death and resurrection, so that we'd be new creations who live in the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, being conformed into His image ever more as time passes by (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Colossians 3:1-10).  When He left His disciples He told them that they'd "be (His) witnesses to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8), meaning that the whole of their ministry will be to make much of Jesus and His person and work and glory.  Truly, a Christian is one who, being bought by Christ's blood, and united with Christ's righteousness, wants with everything they have to bear His image and preach His glory.

And yet, why is it that there are so many Christians who will talk about "love" or "tolerance" or "self-esteem" or even God, but won't ever speak of the Jesus who bought them with His blood and is the only reason they HAVE God in the first place?  Jesus said no one comes to the Father except through Him--notice He told the disciples they'd be HIS witnesses (meaning that in preaching Christ, they'll preach God's character--but they must be preaching Christ to do this; read the rest of Acts to see this in action, and try not to weep at the disparity between the Acts Church and the Church now).
It appears that today has many Christians in ministry (or Christians in general) who appear to operate from humanity first, tying God and His Word to what they say at the very end (as though God's Word answers to man), instead of operating from God's Word first.  Why do Christians hate God's Word and not love Jesus either? 

It's because they still "honor (Him) with their lips, but their hearts are far from (Him)".  Jesus controversially applied this passage to pharisees in Mark 6, WAY after it was written.  I wonder if He wouldn't go farther in applying it to many of us.  My prayer is that I wouldn't be one of them.  The glorious and risen Son Jesus Christ is all-sufficient, all-powerful, and holy.  He deserves praise, worship, adoration, thanksgiving, and everything.  He WILL get all of those for all time--may we be a part of the chorus who is singing it to Him today.

Where's your heart?