Psalm 115:3-4

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.  But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands.

From Background Notes [BN] for January 25^th & 26^th  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

When Israelites voice deep concern about the loss of Baal’s altar, they implicitly raise questions about his adequacy, as the Psalmist suggests in his artistic portrait of gods that acquire value from gold and silver but who are crafted by the hands of human beings.

Far from being gods, they are symbols of human accumulation and greed, the mere playthings of the selfish who flaunt their private collections. To trust in Baal was really to trust in gold and silver, in a culture that had commodified its god. What Gideon did on that dangerous night was rip the mask off of Baal and leave him vulnerable to the critique of the Psalmist and of Joash. Baal is no god; Baal is a fiction. When a society constructs its reality on a fiction, it will get fictional results: “Those who make them will be like them.” Maybe Joash knew that even before his son heard the voice of God and obeyed. Maybe the keeper of Baal’s sanctuary, the owner of his altar and sacred poles knew for some time that the altar was nothing more than an expensive trinket and the poles mere pornography that appealed to prurient interests. Maybe, after the long night of fearful violence when the strongholds of evil tumbled down, Joash woke up and said aloud, “Well, it’s about time that somebody did something about that.” His words seem full of relief and fatherly pride that this otherwise cautious, tentative, and fearful son had the courage to do what he, Joash, had only thought about doing. [BN,7]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am