Idols in the heart
By Ivan Ho 20 Oct 2016
Before someone comes to the Lord, the idols that he worships are external. They are idols that he turns to for answers to his prayers, the false gods that he worships instead of Jesus. These idols are external.
However, when a person has come to know the God of the bible, he is either totally devoted to worship the one true God, or his heart can be divided. For the person who is not totally committed to Jesus, idols have somehow found their way inside his heart. The idol is set up in his heart, occupying his thoughts, his will, his emotions.
When that happens, that person has put himself in a precariously dangerous position in direct enmity with God. I say it again: that person is no longer in friendly terms with God but in direct enmity with Him. God does not tolerate idols! I would like to think that God still loves him but no longer is He in normal friendly terms with that person unless he repents and remove the idols within his heart.
The fact that certain individuals who know God and worship Him on Sundays but at other times preoccupied with the idols in their hearts was the kind of situation God highlighted to Ezekiel the prophet. During his time, God revealed to him that there were people within the family of God who had set up idols in their hearts. Not only that, those individuals were elders of the people! (Ezekiel 14)
The idol worshippers were leaders inside the house and God, who knew what was inside a person’s heart, revealed the serious situation to Ezekiel. Ezekiel was probably unaware of the problem until God spoke to him about it.
Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God , “Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols, in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols.”‘ “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God , “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.
Ezekiel 14:1-6 NASB