the apostle john ends his first epistle to the church with this command,
'little children, KEEP YOURSELF FROM IDOLS. amen'
joy is the reality that JESUS..alone..IS ENOUGH.
idols are anyone, anything that we live for..other than Jesus.
to live for anything, no matter how small..no matter how hidden from general view..or even our conscious mind..no matter for how short a time is a sin of the darkest dye..we stand naked and black before God.
this is what the bible calls 'falling short of the glory of God'. He deserves 100% of us..the one who created us, paid the price of our redemption from sin and its penalty by His death on the cross..the one who has from eternity past until the moment of our completed redemption (standing without fault 'before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy' jude 24), suffered/suffers/will suffer because He is not yet our all.
Jesus' commandment, 'BE PERFECT as your Father in heaven is perfect' seals the doom of our continuous attempts to either try to be or flee.
in living for any other than God 100% we not only break the second commandment (no idols) but the first (have no other god before Me) in seeking to be our own god.
not only this condemnation comes but brings no kind of deep satisfaction which we crave. jeremiah 2.13 'My people have committed two evils
they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water,
to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water.'
the ongoing futility of our lives is portrayed in the picture given in psalm 135.15f:
'the idols of the heathen
(that would be you and me every time we seek 'life' in anything outside of the LIFE of Jesus Christ within us and vouchsafed to us forever)
are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands.
they have mouths, but they speak not:
eyes have they, but they see not;
they have ears, but they hear not;
neither is there any breath in their mouths.
THEY THAT MAKE THEM
ARE LIKE THEM (lifeless)
so is every one that trusteth in them.
..taken from spurgeon's treasury of david, vol. 7.156..
15f..'the rev. john thomas, a missionary in india, was one day travelling alone through the country, when he saw a great number of people waiting near an idol temple. he went up to them and as soon as the doors were opened, he walked into the temple. seeing an idol raised above the people, he walked boldly up to it, held up hos hand and asked for silence. he then put his fingers on its eyes, and said,
'it has eyes, but it cannot see!
it has ears, but it cannot hear!
it has a nose, but it cannot smell! it has hands, but it cannot handle!
it has a mouth, but it cannot speak! neither is any breath in it!
instead of doing injury to him for affronting their god and themselves, the natives were all surprised; and an old brahmin was so convinced of his folly by what mr. thomas said, that he also cried our,
'it has feet, but cannot run away!
the people raise a shout and being ashamed of their stupidity, they left the temple, and went to their homes. from 'the new cyclopaedia of illustrative anecdote, 1875
18'like them shall be those making them, every one who (is) trusting in them'
if the meaning had been simply, those who make them ARE like them, hebrew usage would have required the verb to be suppressed. its insertion, therefore, in the future form requires it to be rendered strictly, SHALL BE ie. in fate as well as character..see isaiah 1.31 joseph addison alexander.
'like unto them'
a singular phenomenon, known as the Spectre of the Bocken, is seen on a certain mountain in germany. the traveller who at dawn stands on the topmost ridge beholds a colossal shadowy spectre. but in fact it is only his own shadow projected upon the morning mists by the rising sun; and it imitates, or course, every movement of its creator. so heathen (all?) nations have mistaken their own image for Deity. their gods display human frailties and passions and scanty virtues, projected and magnified upon the heavens, just as small figures on the slide of a magic lantern are projected, magnified and illuminated upon a white sheet.
from elan foster's new cyclopaedia of illustrations, 1870
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