Renouncing MY Idols
Isaiah 2:20-22 English Standard Version (ESV)
20 In that day mankind will cast away
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
21 to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
22 Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?
"My heart is swayed," worships and confesses John Piper in the seventh reason of his book, 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die, "and I embrace the beauty and the bounty of Christ as my Treasure."
Considering Isaiah 2:20-22, I find something especially moving about Piper's word MY. He finds beauty and bounty in Christ as his particular treasure, just as the repentant in that section cast away the idols of gold and silver that they have made for themselves to worship. This is, at bottom, an individual transaction trading what now is revealed as worthless for Him of infinite worth.
There is a place, to be sure, for communal confession. God's people who are called by His Name, famously enjoins Solomon to the assembled nation in 2 Chronicles 7:14 are to humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face. The people as a whole, as happened with Joshua after defeat at Ai, are to search for sin because the civil fabric can be easily frayed. Even so, unless I bring that confession home, and home to my own heart, it is entirely undermined by hypocrisy.
There are idols I have fashioned that only I can consigned to the caves, and the moles, and the bats. There are idols, as with the collective guilt on Jacob's departing household brought on by Rachel's smuggling of household gods, that only I can give up because only I know about. In fact, pleading for public confession and reform can sometimes serve as a purposeful distraction from that. The more sweeping my cause, the louder my voice, the better I can drown out conviction within.
Yet, the Holy Spirit persists in His still, small voice. He reminds me of the burns on my hands and my heart from my idol work and that only He has the balm for them. Fear of what people will think of my spiritual leadership in the family and the larger assembly may check my confession, but Isaiah overcomes even less. Stop regarding man, he insists. He is of no account compared to the One Who gives breath and will demand it back. Even still, he can sway MY heart.
20 In that day mankind will cast away
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
21 to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
22 Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?
"My heart is swayed," worships and confesses John Piper in the seventh reason of his book, 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die, "and I embrace the beauty and the bounty of Christ as my Treasure."
Considering Isaiah 2:20-22, I find something especially moving about Piper's word MY. He finds beauty and bounty in Christ as his particular treasure, just as the repentant in that section cast away the idols of gold and silver that they have made for themselves to worship. This is, at bottom, an individual transaction trading what now is revealed as worthless for Him of infinite worth.
There is a place, to be sure, for communal confession. God's people who are called by His Name, famously enjoins Solomon to the assembled nation in 2 Chronicles 7:14 are to humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face. The people as a whole, as happened with Joshua after defeat at Ai, are to search for sin because the civil fabric can be easily frayed. Even so, unless I bring that confession home, and home to my own heart, it is entirely undermined by hypocrisy.
There are idols I have fashioned that only I can consigned to the caves, and the moles, and the bats. There are idols, as with the collective guilt on Jacob's departing household brought on by Rachel's smuggling of household gods, that only I can give up because only I know about. In fact, pleading for public confession and reform can sometimes serve as a purposeful distraction from that. The more sweeping my cause, the louder my voice, the better I can drown out conviction within.
Yet, the Holy Spirit persists in His still, small voice. He reminds me of the burns on my hands and my heart from my idol work and that only He has the balm for them. Fear of what people will think of my spiritual leadership in the family and the larger assembly may check my confession, but Isaiah overcomes even less. Stop regarding man, he insists. He is of no account compared to the One Who gives breath and will demand it back. Even still, he can sway MY heart.
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