“But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause
the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses:
forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more
that way.” Deuteronomy 17:16
When
you think of idols, you typically think of an image or animal, fashioned from gold,
as an object of worship. Outside of
American culture, idol worship (in that sense) is still alive and well. However, American idols, take on a different
forum or no forum at all. That said, American
idols receive all the reverence and worship as the golden ones. American idols (really, all idols) are born
out of our carnal ideals, wants, and needs.
They resonate deep with our humanity, and permeate far into our
culture. This can make our worship of them
difficult to discern and hard to eradicate.
Only the Holy Spirit can perform either function (both discernment and
eradication) in our lives.
Long
before the prophet Samuel anointed King Saul, Moses prophesied of the day when
the children of Israel would demand a king.
They wanted a king because they wanted to be like the other
nations. The other nations had a king to
govern them, provide for them, and fight their battles for them. A king to keep them safe. This was the agreement between the royal and
his subjects. You give the king your
subjection and adoration, he gives you safety.
Moses told them, when you do this, when you reject God and set a king
over you, make sure it is one of your brethren; and when he is king, he should
not multiply horses (along with wives and gold) to himself. In that day, horses were incredibly
useful. They were weapons of war, a mode
of transportation, investments, and valuable for trade. The horse was quantifiable prosperity and
safety. What would be considered in our
day and age as a well-diversified investment, real-estate, and insurance
portfolio. The king with armies, horses,
land, and gold, is one who is safe; and the people under such king are
safe. Furthermore, Moses told the
people, don’t let the king cause the people to return to Egypt. Egypt was no picnic for Israel, but at least
it was familiar and familiar is safe.
Canaan land was not going to be safe, Canaan land is a land of
unknown. They were never to go back to
Egypt; Egypt was not their home, it was not their promise, and though familiar,
it was so much less than what God had in store for them in Canaan. They had to trust God in Canaan land, they
had to rely on God in Canaan land, and they had to believe God in Canaan
land. Therefore, the temptation to
tangible safety was powerful. They
wanted to “see” their king, “see” his horses, “see” his chariots, and “see” his
coffers full of silver and gold. They
wanted to “see” their safety. In this,
is the idolatry of safety. God never
wanted his people to be safe, he wanted his people to be His. To depend on Him, to trust Him, and to love
Him above all else. A sanctified life is
a life of hazardous faith, consistently met with abundant blessings (the kind that
doesn’t show up in any portfolio). We
leave off safety but gain “blessed assurance.”
The
American idol of safety has been commoditized and marketed broadly. We want to live in the safe neighborhood,
drive the safe car, and get a good education so we can work to gain a safe and
stable income; in hope to maintain our safety.
Is this all bad? I leave that to
you and the Lord, but consider if we spend our lives “getting horses” and
striving to serve the false idols of safety, then we will reject the providence
of God in our lives and lose out on the blessing of a spiritual Canaan
land. God may not want us to be safe. Mission work is not safe, preaching the
gospel is not safe, outreach is not safe, and serving the Lord is not
safe! Search your heart, would you
rather live in temporal safety or complete fellowship? Would you rather have a king, or the King of
Kings? Would you rather worship an idol
or the one true God? Lord help us to be
abandoned to God and His Christ, and leave of the notion of safety.
