I suspect most of my students would tell you there aren’t any idols today or that at least that they aren’t very prevalent. I wish that were true. However, the Gentiles have an incredibly hard time shaking off the sin of idolatry. And I don’t mean conceptual idolatry; I mean physical idols: the belief that a piece of wood or metal has the power to direct prayer or provide good luck.

I use the term 'Gentiles' in this context only because the Jews eventually learned this lesson. But the story of what they had to suffer to learn it is one of the most sorrowful stories in the whole world; you can read about it in Ezekiel. You would think the Gentiles would see this history and set aside their idols to worship God alone.

What kind of conversations could be heard in Jerusalem in the decades before Ezekiel? Perhaps something like this:

‘Hey guys, I was just at Baalbek. I know they’re pagans, but they’re made in the image of God, too, and they have some good ideas. They’re deep thinkers. I always thought they believed their statues were their gods, but they told me the statues only direct energy to their gods. They even mentioned there are levels of worship, which made me wonder if we should start something similar for Moses. I know he told us not to, but Moses was only human and made mistakes; maybe we need a statue of him to "praise" because he was so much wiser than us and remind us to keep his law. Either way, check out this golden calf I got. It’s not an idol, it’s very scientific. It focuses luck energy so that if you put it on a hill in a city, the luck radiates over all of that city.'