Deuteronomy 4: Idle Worship of Idols

After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. There you will worship man–made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. -Deut. 4:25-31 NIV

Most of us would be hard pressed today to name our idols.  We know better than to worship gods of wood and stone, but then the majority of people on the earth no longer worship gods of wood or stone, they have become obsolete, replaced by the trappings of modern society.  Now we worship technology and all it has produced.  We worship our iPads, smart phones, and all that is contained in them.  We worship our cars, bicycles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and even our houses.  We worship our children and grandchildren.  We worship our leisure. 

Ultimately, it is our leisure that drives us away from worshipping God.  It is in our leisure, when we are bored or anxious, that we turn to the one thing that calms us most.  Some of us run, some of us read, some of us watch CNN, some of us, those who like to think of themselves as holy, watch CBN, and some of us, myself included, play computer games.  None of these pursuits are harmful in and of themselves, but when they become our consolation, they become our gods. 

Moses reminded the Israelites of the consequences of worshipping other gods.  We face the same consequences today, but we also possess the same antidote.  If we seek the Lord God with all of our heart and soul we will find him.  We will find a God that meets all of our needs, who fills up all of the empty places in our lives, a God who makes the idle worship of idols unnecessary.