The dangers of idols

"Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." (Psa. 19:13).

Where did the young prophet first go astray? 

"Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.

And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,

And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak." (1 Ki. 13:11-14).

Up until verse 11, the young prophet had done and said everything correctly. What landed him sitting under an oak tree, and not running back to his country, which was a mile (?) away, and to his God? How did he lose his inspiration to complete his mission and flee to home? Was it the altar that was so gravitating? Was it possibly the morally debasing fertility rites? 

Was it something more common. Was it the smells of roasted pork? Was it something more innocuous, like Israelite food with pagan condiments? Was it the look at the auspicious king that broke his attention on the Lord? In his denunciations to Jeroboam, was the young prophet parleying with the king like Eve did with the serpent?

Whatever his error, it appears to have broken Jehovah's first commandment. It caught the young man's lust, and caused his heart's devotion to divide between Jehovah and the gods of Satan. His original ardour for God's honor dissolved. Regardless of the great accomplishment that day, a prophet's national call to obedience must be followed through with the exemplification of his call. Now he must die lest the nation hear of an apostate prophet of Jehovah, and the whole kingdom of Satan have a heyday at Jehovah's expense; lest their rebellion be aroused to renewed vigor, and many souls be lost.

When Moses was traveling to free his beloved people, he brought an idol with him. And he almost got killed for doing that. His idols were also very innocuous. They were his little family from Arabia--his beloved wife and two little boys.

What exactly did they do wrong? Moses listened to his non-Israelite wife, who fought against circumcising their two boys. Moses caved to their self-pity. For every male born, after eight days of taking life easy, the first painful experience must come. Circumcision would send the message, "Get ready, boy, life is not going to be a picnic. You are going to have to strive and struggle to keep your faith and eskew your flesh."

Standing before the avenging angel with drawn sword, Moses' wife quickly grabbed a knife and did the commandment of Jehovah, despite her motherly feelings. Thousands of mothers before her had had to see her babies wail. Her boys weren't going to die, but rather avoid potential disease.

Moses' three idols almost cost him his life. Isaac was another idol that had to be blotted from a father's heart. Not permissible was any competition to love God with all the heart, soul, and body. Moses passed the test--barely. But the young prophet didn't. Eve was another whose idolater did not escape punishing destruction. Mrs. Ezekiel, the dearly beloved of her husband's soul, might have been another. Is this cutting off the over protection for children too harsh? It was aimed at the parents' delinquency. Jehovah wouldn't allow Himself to dispense with empathetic pain. "He...spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." (Rom. 8:32). If God spared not His own Son, then He will not spare any soul who will not take full advantage the Son's agonies for our repentance.

What might be my idol? What my other God? What might be the one thing (or the many things) for which communion with Jesus must be put on hold until I'm done loving this other source of ecstasy and relaxation--a car, house, money, philosophy/doctrine, the "mirror, mirror on the wall", etc.? 

Or, is this very test being met by all of us every day, and failed? Will it go unrecognized, in our blindness and Laodicea peace, until probation has ended and we fail the "great transgression"? Will we agonize and diligently seek the Lord to get us through the great temptations? And to flee the enemy with all our heart.

If we are on a mission for the Lord, perfect representation is imperative, in every word, deed, expression, and thought. Fear to fall into the same loss of fervor that plagued the young prophet, must be our fear. God is no regarder of persons. Did fear to repeat this same loss of Spirit, even for a moment, drive Paul to risk endless assaults upon his reputation and life?

Let's not be devoured by Satan's deceptions, our roaring lion.