“Idols of the Heart”
1 John 5:21

Introduction: I’d like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the last verse of 1 John. For the next several weeks we are going to be studying the concept of, “Idols of the heart,” and this is the text we are going to use as a springboard to launch us into this study. The Apostle John ends his first letter with a very curious admonition when he says, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” What do you suppose he had in mind when he wrote that? Was he telling his readers to be careful as they walked about town because large statues could fall on them and hurt them? Was he thinking about how so many people worshiped the idols that were prevalent in those days? It wasn’t hard to find statues of pagan gods and goddesses – they were everywhere. Was he telling his readers not to worship idols - not to revert to the paganism from which they had been delivered?

What is curious to me is that he doesn’t say, “Don’t worship idols.” He says, “Guard yourselves from them.” I believe that is significant. I don’t think his concern here is that his readers might abandon Christ and revert to the worship of Diana. The Apostle John is concerned about the myriad objects and desires that we set up in our hearts that replace God as the sole object of our worship. As we talk about idols of the heart for the next few weeks, that is the concept I want you to keep in mind. An idol is anything, tangible or intangible, that we love more than God. It is anything we want more than God and His will for us. It is anything we honor more than God. It is anything we pursue more than God. From this perspective it makes perfect sense for John to end his letter with a warning to guard ourselves because there are many, many, things that Satan would use to replace God as the sole object of our love and devotion.

As an introduction to this study, I thought it would be a good idea to go to the OT and look at a case study. Are you familiar with case studies? That is when you look at situation and then evaluate it from a particular perspective. In Gen. 29 and 30 we have the first use of the word “idol” in the Bible, and it is found in the story of Jacob. Turn there with me. In theses chapters we see his employment by his father in law, his marriages, the birth of his children, and his departure from his father in law. Let’s skim through these chapters, and as we do so, I’ll make various observations as we are reading, and then we will end the message by making several points of application concerning idols of the heart. We are going to start in chapter 29, down in verse 14. At this point, Jacob has met his uncle Laban for the first time.

14 And Laban said to him, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh." And he stayed with him a month. 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?" 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.17 And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.

Remember this contrast between the two sisters – it plays into the story. The implication is that Leah was not physically appealing.

18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel." 19 And Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man; stay with me." 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

Can you imagine how that made Rachel feel? She was loved and desired!

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her." 22 And Laban gathered all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23 Now it came about in the evening that he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. Note the deception.

Jacob isn’t getting Rachel, the one he bargained for.

24 Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. 25 So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?"

This is a pretty calm response for such a treacherous deed!

26 But Laban said, "It is not the practice in our place, to marry off the younger before the first-born. 27 "Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years." 28 And Jacob did so and completed her week [seven years], and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. 29 Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.

So now Jacob has four women in his home – two wives with their personal maids.

30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

Again, think of the climate this produced in the home!

31 Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Note the divine dimension of conception. This plays into the story as well.

32 And Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, "Because the LORD has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me." 33 Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also." So she named him Simeon. 34 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore he was named Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the LORD." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

As we come to chapter 30, note Rachel’s response to Leah’s fertility.

Genesis 30:1 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die."

Rachel’s barrenness is a source of huge sorrow and embarrassment for her, especially when contrasted with her plain sister. Can you imagine how she felt every time she heard one of the children cry? It was a cutting reminder of her barrenness. Every time Jacob came in from the fields and those four boys came running out to see Daddy and he would romp and frolic with them was another twist of the knife in her belly. For all her life Rachel had probably received all the attention because of her beauty, but now it was the “other wife” who was producing male offspring. This was huge in that culture. And her bitterness was so great that it twisted her perception of reality. She blamed Jacob!

2 Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

Again we see the divine element in conception.

3 And she said, "Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children."

This was a legal way for a barren woman to have children. It would be akin to surrogate motherhood.

4 So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son." Therefore she named him Dan. 7 And Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 So Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed." And she named him Naphtali.

Note how twisted her thinking has become because of her desire to have children. This has now become a contest and she thinks she is winning! It is very sad what jealousy will do to a person.

9 When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, "How fortunate!" So she named him Gad. 12 And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, "Happy am I! For women will call me happy." So she named him Asher. 14 Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben [Leah’s oldest son] went and found mandrakes [apparently they thought mandrakes had some kind of fertility enhancement] in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." 15 But she said to her, "Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son's mandrakes also?" So Rachel said, "Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."

Isn’t this getting rather pathetic? It sounds like Leah has been completely shunned by Jacob.

16 When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with her that night. 17 And God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18 Then Leah said, "God has given me my wages, because I gave my maid to my husband." So she named him Issachar. 19 And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20 Then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun. 21 And afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. 23 So she conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken away my reproach."

Pause here. Rachel finally has what she wants, right? In verse one of this chapter she says, “give me a son, or else I die.” Now she finally has a son from her own womb. No surrogate was involved. Case closed – she is a contented mother. Right? Wrong! Look at what she names her son in verse 24.

24 And she named him Joseph, saying, "May the LORD give me another son."

This is very instructive.

25 Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. 26 "Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have rendered you."

From verse 27 to chapter 31:17, we have the story of Jacob’s departure. We are going to skip all of it pick up with verse 31:17.

17 Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; 18 and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had athered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's.

Here is the first time you see the word idol in the Bible.

20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. 22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 then he took his kinsmen with him, and pursued him a distance of seven days' journey; and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad."
25 And Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 "Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre; 28 and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29 "It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.' 30 "And now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house; but why did you steal my gods?" This is the ultimate insult. 31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you would take your daughters from me by force.' 32 "The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 So Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the household idols.

Our opinion of Rachel continues to plummet!

Now let’s skip down to chapter 35, verse 16. In this verse we read the account of Rachel’s death.

Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor. 17 And it came about when she was in severe labor that the midwife said to her, "Do not fear, for now you have another son." 18 And it came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

So here we have our first mention of idols in the Bible, and as we start analyzing this story, where do we see idolatry first? It’s not in the theft of the household gods, it’s seen in 30:1. “Give me children, or else I die,” is perhaps the most blatant statement of idolatry we have in the Bible. Let’s go back to the beginning of the message where we defined idolatry. What was our definition? “An idol is anything, tangible or intangible, that we love more than God, that we want more than God and His will for us, that we honor more than God, and that we pursue more than God.” Do Rachel’s actions fit the definition? Absolutely.

Lessons to learn from Rachel:

1. Idols are very insidious. Is there anything intrinsically wrong with strongly desiring children? Not at all. In fact, God has told us to “be fruitful.” One of the three purposes for marriage is to have children. The Bible is clear in teaching that having children is a wonderful blessing from the hand of God. So at the basic level, Rachel’s desire for children was legitimate, but the first lesson we see is that idols are very insidious. As we are going to see in another week or so, idols are really nothing more than legitimate things out of balance. Satan is the master deceiver and a usurper. He is far too clever to tempt us with blatant idols, so he takes good things that God has created for His children, he distorts them, and then uses them for his own purposes. Idols are very insidious.

2. Idols twist our perception of reality. Rachel was so intent on the acquisition of her desire that she couldn’t see life realistically. Did you see that as we were reading the text? She thought Jacob was the one responsible for her conceiving or not. She had two children and in her mind she had more than her sister who had six! Her idol had twisted her way of thinking. I have talked with idolater one time who tried to convince me that smoking marijuana was fine for a follower of Christ. That it was no different from a Christian having a glass of wine with his dinner. What is the thinking behind that? A twisted perception of reality because of the pursuit of the idol. Why do radical pro-life advocates murder abortion doctors? Because they are idol worshipers. And their idolatry has perverted their perception of reality.

3. Idols never satisfy. We see this in the name of her first son. Not only does she come right out and say “May the Lord give me another son,” the name Joseph means “he increases.” One child wasn’t enough. What is lost in the English translation is the play on words in the Hebrew. Gen. 30:24 says literally, “and she called his name yosafe saying may the lord yasaph another son to me.” The bottom line is that once she attained her desire, she found out she wasn’t satisfied. That is the nature of idols. This is the whole problem of addictions. An addiction is idol worship. Cf. Henry Ford. When asked how much money was enough, he answered, “One more dollar.”

4. Idols will destroy you. The name of Rachel’s last child was Ben-oni, “son-of-my-sorrows.” Jacob didn’t care for that name so he called him Ben-jamin, “son of my right hand.” Ben-oni is probably more than a reference to a difficult delivery – it is an apt description of the misery / sorrow her idolatry had caused her over her lifetime. Idols will destroy you.

A recent example of this is Dr. Amy Bishop, the Harvard trained neurobiologist who killed three colleagues when she was denied tenure. Her idol is respect. We see this from the report that she once attacked a woman in a pancake house for taking the last booster seat. As she was punching the other woman in the head she said, “I am Dr. Amy Bishop.” She inflated her resume and one time flew into a rage when her name wasn’t listed first on a paper she had co-authored.

Idols will destroy you if they aren’t dealt with, and as we consider the story of Rachel, it is amazingly ironic that the woman who said, “Give me children or I die,” died in childbirth!

Conclusion: The reason I wanted to start our study of idols of the heart with this case study is because I want you to appreciate how serious this matter really is. Rachel and her consuming desire for children is the classic biblical example of an idol of the heart. This is a matter that I have been thinking about for nearly 18 months now, and as I have been thinking, and praying, and studying, and applying truth to my life, I have concluded that it is not an overstatement to say that Cornerstone Baptist Church is full of idolaters, and one of them is standing in front of you right now!

Would you join your pastor for the next few weeks in this endeavor? Would you pray along with me for three things:
that God would show you your idols,
that He would convict you when you are at worship, and
that He would grant you grace to tear down the idol?

If you are willing to do this, would you quietly stand to your feet while I pray for us.