Idolatry and Patience
We’re all prone to idolatry, whether what I call Idolatry #1—the worship as God of something that is clearly not God—or what I call Idolatry#2—the worship of the right God in the wrong ways.
But why? What compels us to idol worship?
Perhaps a combination of two factors. The first is some deep acknowledgement of our finitude and therefore vulnerability. We recognize on some deep level that we are inherently dependent. We need help. We did not create ourselves and we cannot ultimately provide for ourselves. There are simply too many variables outside of our control.
I think the second factor is God’s timing. In our experience, God simply takes longer than we’d prefer.
The archetypal idolatry story in the Hebrews scriptures is the making of the golden calf. Moses ascends Mt. Sinai to receive God’s instructions while the people remain at basecamp. Moses is gone forty days and forty nights. The story doesn’t tell us how long the people expected Moses to be gone but I’m guessing a month and a half was longer than they anticipated. They get antsy. They fear Moses has been consumed by God’s holy fire.
And that is what prompts them to come to Aaron, Moses’ brother and spokesperson, and demand that he craft them an idol to be their new god, which Aaron does.
Again, they sense the need for a god to lead them, but the God who had been leading them, the god who rescued them from Egypt has gone radio silent.
When I consider the popular forms of idolatry in our lives (including my life), I see a similar pattern. When it comes to Idolatry #1, why do we put our trust in money, the government, the military, or our power? First, because we know we are inherently vulnerable and so we are always looking to something or someone to ensure our well-being. Second, these replacement “gods” are more expedient. Why wait for God to provide what I need when I can accumulate wealth for myself and have the certainty of it because I can see how much money is in my bank account? Why trust God to secure my safety and well-being when we can have tanks and bombers and long-range missiles?
These things are tangible and we can largely control their supply. No need to wait on God to give us tomorrow what we can provide for ourselves today.
When it comes to Idolatry #2, the same pattern holds. Death is our ultimate vulnerability and it’s easier and more expedient to believe in a God who vicariously sentences an innocent person (Jesus) to death to acquit guilty people (you and me) so that we can escape death than it is to believe in a God who created all people in love, redeems all people in love, and actually expects all people to embody love. The first belief structure alleges to give you everything while requiring nothing of you. It “solves” our ultimate vulnerability at the speed of an altar call.
Our compulsion to idolatry is driven by our felt need for God’s leadership combined with our unwillingness or inability to sit in any discomfort, to patiently wait for God to act on our behalf.
But faithfulness is in the waiting. A willingness to be patient, to wait, is precisely what demonstrates to God our practical trust in Him. It is precisely when Moses does not come down the mountain when you wanted or expected him to that forces the faith decision.
Will we wait on God?
There are certainly other sinful predilections that contribute to idolatry, but every act of idolatry seems to me to be a tacit acknowledgement of our implicit need for God minus the ability or willingness to wait for God to act in God’s ways, in God’s time.
As much as idolatry is about an object of worship, idolatry is also about our decision to take god-making into our own hands because we weren’t willing to wait.
To truly worship God is to not only reject substitute gods but to cease taking control of activities that function to save us. God promises to save. To worship God is to wait on God to fulfill that promise.
But why? What compels us to idol worship?
Perhaps a combination of two factors. The first is some deep acknowledgement of our finitude and therefore vulnerability. We recognize on some deep level that we are inherently dependent. We need help. We did not create ourselves and we cannot ultimately provide for ourselves. There are simply too many variables outside of our control.
I think the second factor is God’s timing. In our experience, God simply takes longer than we’d prefer.
The archetypal idolatry story in the Hebrews scriptures is the making of the golden calf. Moses ascends Mt. Sinai to receive God’s instructions while the people remain at basecamp. Moses is gone forty days and forty nights. The story doesn’t tell us how long the people expected Moses to be gone but I’m guessing a month and a half was longer than they anticipated. They get antsy. They fear Moses has been consumed by God’s holy fire.
And that is what prompts them to come to Aaron, Moses’ brother and spokesperson, and demand that he craft them an idol to be their new god, which Aaron does.
Again, they sense the need for a god to lead them, but the God who had been leading them, the god who rescued them from Egypt has gone radio silent.
When I consider the popular forms of idolatry in our lives (including my life), I see a similar pattern. When it comes to Idolatry #1, why do we put our trust in money, the government, the military, or our power? First, because we know we are inherently vulnerable and so we are always looking to something or someone to ensure our well-being. Second, these replacement “gods” are more expedient. Why wait for God to provide what I need when I can accumulate wealth for myself and have the certainty of it because I can see how much money is in my bank account? Why trust God to secure my safety and well-being when we can have tanks and bombers and long-range missiles?
These things are tangible and we can largely control their supply. No need to wait on God to give us tomorrow what we can provide for ourselves today.
When it comes to Idolatry #2, the same pattern holds. Death is our ultimate vulnerability and it’s easier and more expedient to believe in a God who vicariously sentences an innocent person (Jesus) to death to acquit guilty people (you and me) so that we can escape death than it is to believe in a God who created all people in love, redeems all people in love, and actually expects all people to embody love. The first belief structure alleges to give you everything while requiring nothing of you. It “solves” our ultimate vulnerability at the speed of an altar call.
Our compulsion to idolatry is driven by our felt need for God’s leadership combined with our unwillingness or inability to sit in any discomfort, to patiently wait for God to act on our behalf.
But faithfulness is in the waiting. A willingness to be patient, to wait, is precisely what demonstrates to God our practical trust in Him. It is precisely when Moses does not come down the mountain when you wanted or expected him to that forces the faith decision.
Will we wait on God?
There are certainly other sinful predilections that contribute to idolatry, but every act of idolatry seems to me to be a tacit acknowledgement of our implicit need for God minus the ability or willingness to wait for God to act in God’s ways, in God’s time.
As much as idolatry is about an object of worship, idolatry is also about our decision to take god-making into our own hands because we weren’t willing to wait.
To truly worship God is to not only reject substitute gods but to cease taking control of activities that function to save us. God promises to save. To worship God is to wait on God to fulfill that promise.
Recent
Archive
2026
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
Categories
no categories
No Comments