“You can get up now… but not too fast.”
Apart from Willie Mays, I was never much into hero-worship… the caliber of heroes being what it is.
Remember this? Some woman worshiping the late dictator, Hugo “Piggy” Chavez as a god and publicly praying to him. This also goes on in North Korea. And here at home, within the Democrat Party.
In Revelation 22:9, John is about to bow down to an angel, but is brought up short when the angel says, “See thou do it not.” Both man and angel are servants of God, and to God belongs all worship.
To worship a slimy little tyrant who will one day die seems spiritually perilous.
Mankind was alienated from God, because of sin. A flood spared but eight humans, in order to wipe wickedness from the earth, and the survivors were told to fill the earth, but instead chose to concentrate themselves in Shinar. After the Babel dispersion, our Creator revealed himself to one man, Abram, and blessed him to bring forth a nation. After all of this, the first commandment given to that nation was to have no other gods before them, but almost immediately they made a golden calf and worshipped that, much to their grief.
The nation of Israel, took their promised homeland, but fell to the worship of Baal. To say the least, they didn’t learn their lessons well, but had to suffer exile in Babylon. When they were returned to their homeland, they became legalistic, and essentially began to worship their religious leaders. When Jesus was sent, instead of heeding His teachings, Many of them gave into the legalism That had all but paralyzed Israel and had Jesus put to death.
Idolatry has changed, we don’t commonly see the statues of Baal in our day, but we see worship of sports figures, entertainers, politicians, and even brand names. While the face of idolatry has changed, the fact of idolatry remains the same, and it all comes down to having other gods ahead of the Creator.
Keep in mind what happened in ancient Israel. Many people lost their lives due to worshipping that golden calf. Our God is no less aware of idolatry now, than He was back then. Mocking God, by corrupting the Lord’s Prayer into worship of a political figure is not a good idea.
When Christ returns, things will be out right, and all such idolatry will be done away with. One thing is for certain, I wouldn’t want to have been the one that uttered that prayer to Chavez. God is merciful and forgiving, but He has His limits.
Imagine carving a bar of soap into a clumsy figurine and then bowing down to it.
That’s the thing that hasn’t changed.
Nowadays you can 3D print an idol. 🙂