Your Idols
One
The Plagues of Egypt
Most of us have heard of the ten plagues of Egypt, the plagues God inflicted so that Pharaoh would finally set the Israelites free. These plagues are sensational, astounding plagues. The Nile River turned into blood. There were three days of total darkness, the death of all the firstborn sons, the first point of these plagues was practical. They were inflicted to convince Pharaoh to give the Israelites their freedom. And since Pharaoh insisted on keeping the Israelites in slavery, the severity of the plagues kept escalating.
But there was another purpose to the plagues as well. The plagues symbolized something important. They signified God’s supremacy over the false gods of Egypt. And that matters not only to the Israelites and the Egyptians, it also matters to us.
Two
“Over the gods of Egypt”
In Exodus 12, just as God is preparing to implement the final plague against the Egyptians, He says, “Thus will I render judgment on all the gods of Egypt.”
How is that? The ten plagues obviously show that God is mightier than Pharaoh, and that Pharaoh will only bring about his own destruction by opposing the Lord. But the plagues also show that God is mightier than the false gods of Egypt.
The Egyptians, like other pagans, worshipped things of nature, and things that they had themselves made. That’s one of the reasons God has to bring the Israelites out of Egypt in order to worship the Lord. As Moses said to Pharaoh, Israelite worship involved sacrificing animals which the Egyptians considered to be “gods.” But since the Egyptians won’t allow the Israelites to leave, God has to expose the falsity and weakness of the Egyptian idols.
So, for example: the Egyptians worshipped the Nile River as a god. And to show everyone the Nile River is not a god, the real God turned the Nile into blood. The Egyptians worshipped the Sun. To show everyone the Sun is not a God, the real God turned out the lights for three days. The Egyptians worshipped Pharaoh and the first born son of the Pharaoh. God showed everyone neither Pharaoh nor his son was a god by allowing his son to die and Pharaoh couldn’t stop it.
Each of the plagues were against one of the false gods of the Egyptians. Do you see that the plagues were revelations of the emptiness of what the pagans worshipped? Now, can you imagine what a plague in our time would look like if God decided to bring our idols crumbling to their feet?
Three
What are the false gods of our society?
What are our false gods? What do we pretend is the most important thing, more important than the true God? What would our plagues look like?
Well, as a society we certainly place the gaining of wealth as a priority over God. We worship money and saving for retirement. Imagine a plague that just evaporated everyone’s savings and retirement account and everyone just had to start from scratch again. That would freak a lot of people out. We worship sex, particularly recreational sex without consequences. What if everyone’s contraceptives suddenly stopped working, and everybody’s sterilizations were suddenly reversed? That would freak a lot of people out too.
We tend to spend all our free time looking for mindless entertainment. What if God made it impossible to watch any news or shows or sports again? Imagine if God crashed YouTube…People would have a tough time with that too.
We tend to worship health and freedom. What if there was a plague that made everyone terrified of getting sick and forced everyone to stay in their homes all day? Oh wait, that kind of happened, didn’t it?
These kinds of things wouldn’t just be inconvenient for our society, they would show our society what it was too attached to. But the main question isn’t: what is society too attached to. The main question is this: what are we, personally, too attached to? What do we love and want more than God? Those things are idols.
Four
Accepting Trials from God
When God sent the plagues to Egypt, it was a chance for the Egyptians and the Israelites to rethink who was God and what wasn’t. More importantly, it was a chance to rethink what they wanted most, things of this world, or union with the True God.
Whenever God sends us a trial, a health trial, a relationship trial, a financial trial, a reputation trial, it’s our opportunity to rethink what we want most: God or this created thing.
If these trials overwhelm us, that’s a sign that we want some achievement and the recognition and good reputation more than we want God or that we want good health more than we want God or we want physical pleasure or security more than God. That’s why every trial from God is a gift. Because it’s a chance to remember that there is only one God, that He is the only thing we absolutely need. A personal plague is a gift, because it topples our false idols. And it gives us a chance to return to the only true God.
Five
Mortifying Your Undue Attachment
We can define a false idol as something which is not God, but which you feel like you can’t do without. So what is the thing you feel like you can’t do without? What is that thing you’re absolutely terrified of losing? That’s the thing that’s most likely to be a false idol for you.
I know the three things I want more than God. These are the things I worry about losing, that make me angry when they are threatened and for which I become overly sad when they are lost. These are my disordered attachments, my idols. Do you know what your idols are? Can you name them?
Lent is the time to work on putting to death our disordered attachments, in other words, purifying our hearts from false idols. So is there any penance you can do, any little sacrifice, that will show you, at least a little bit, that at the end of the day you can do without this thing, at least you can do with less of this thing.
You can do with less money, with less comfort, with less professional activity, with less variety of food and drink, with less attention from others. Getting rid of false idols is the first step to drawing closer to the Lord. And that’s what Lenten mortification is all about.
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
Whenever you feel overcome by stress about something, pause for a moment and let that stress be a reminder of your idols.
Accept more trials this week in order to remember that you want God above all other things, even health and money.