Devotions in Hosea #3
"A Conversation With Wood"
“My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.”
Hosea 4:12 (KJV)
Most children develop imaginary friends. Apparently our world just can’t contain the exploding imagination in those little minds. Eventually, imaginary friends disappear (or at least we hope they do!). School provides real friends with equally powerful imaginations. Reading unlocks the door to wardrobes full of fantastic worlds. If a person reaches adulthood with imaginary friends, people stop thinking it’s a cute phase and start looking at them oddly.
Adults turn their imagination into another realm of fantasy: imaginary gods. A brief survey of history shows that people all over the world developed religious systems involving worship of the world around them. Our enlightened civilisations smirk at such silly notions. Imagine thinking wood or stone can hear and act! Disparaging the worship of idols masks a problem in our world today. Many people have their own functional idols. We worship stock markets instead of Hermes; beer instead or Bacchus; our health instead of Isis; knowledge instead of Minerva; and lust instead of Aphrodite. Whatever we run to in trouble – or trust in for security – has become our surrogate idol.
Hosea mocked human reliance on idols. When people worship an idol, it’s as useful as talking to a piece of wood. Hoping in our idols holds as much promise as begging a stone for your next meal.
The God of the Bible offers relationship that our “idols” can’t replace. Instead of an unfeeling, unhearing god of wood or stone, the unseen God both hears and cares. Trusting God is an all-or-nothing proposition, though. “I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8). Following God means smashing our functional idols and trusting Him alone.
RMP
Further reading: Isaiah 44:8-22; 1Thessalonians 1:9-10