Tearing Down Idols

Judges 6 - God gave Gideon a job to do. He told him to throw down the altar of Baal that his father had built and to cut down the grove by the altar. Israel has long since forgotten what God had done for them. God miraculously brought them out from under the oppression of Egypt and brought the safely through the wilderness to dwell in the Promised Land. However, Israel was incomplete in their obedience to God once they reach Canaan. Israel was commanded to destroy all the inhabitants of the land, but they failed to trust God and pursue this goal with all their might. Instead, they compromised and began to dwell with the Canaanites and other nations in the land. At first Israel was in control, forcing the Canaanites to pay tribute, but through the years the Canaanite’s pagan lifestyle influenced the Israelites to turn their backs on God and begin to worship false gods. This is where we find ourselves in Judges 6. Gideon gathered ten men and waited for the sun to set. In the night, Gideon and his men overthrew the altar of Baal and built an altar to Jehovah. There they sacrificed a bullock that God commanded. Imagine after several years of Baal worship, coming to the altar to worship again and finding the it torn down. There next to that pile of rocks now stands another altar dedicated to the worship of Jehovah. What a reminder of what should have been. To see the bold obedience of God’s servant willing to risk his life to reestablish true biblical worship in his city. However, the men of the city did not respond in humility or repentance. In fact, they responded in anger. They stormed to Joash’s house, and demanded that Gideon be brought outside so that they might kill him for his action.

Gideon’s father, Joash responded with two simple questions, “Will ye plead for Baal,” “Will ye save him?” In other words, if Baal is such a great god, let him fight his own battles. Someone tore down his altar let Baal revenge this wrong action. He was trying to help these men see that Baal was nothing. Why would they serve a god that can’t defend himself?

It is unfortunate that many Christians, today defend the “Baal” of their own life. Someone takes a strong stand on truth and strongly applies it to 2010 and others get all bent out of shape. The preachers stands and proclaims God’s truth; the truth doesn’t agree with their life and instead of changing their life to match the Bible they are ready to kill the messenger. What area of your life do you defend? What sin in your life are you not willing to let go of? Truthfully, you can’t think of one reason why that sin should be in your life, not one reason why it is a help to you, but yet you defend it. The practices of your life should be able to be defended by the truth of God’s word. Think about it for a moment are you fighting for Baal when you should be living for God?

Maybe you’re the preacher in one of these scenarios. You question whether you should throw the altar down. What will they say? What will they do? They may leave. Yes, they may. But the goal of God is not peace. The Goal of God is truth, and He has called you to tear down the false altar and build one dedicated to Him. So whether it is music, attitudes, a lack of faith, gossip, unfaithfulness to the local church, worldliness, movies, relationships, PREACH THE WORD. TAKE A STAND. Tear down the altar of worldliness and build an altar of holiness. Tear down the altar of idleness and build an altar of godly productivity. Tear down the altar of worldly music and build the altar of Christ-honoring music. Tear down the altar of bad attitudes and anger and build an altar of Christlikeness. Proverbs 28:1 " The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as the lion."