ii. 18. _And the idols He shall utterly abolish._
There are a great number of things which would be incredible if they
had not actually happened! Men who, like ourselves, boasted of
"reason" and "common sense," sought to settle their disputes and to
vindicate their honour by the duel; they have stoutly believed in
witchcraft, in "touching for the king's evil," and in other
absurdities. But surely the supreme folly of which men have been
guilty is idolatry. That men should fashion an idol of wood or stone,
and then bow down to worship _it,_ what absurdity is this! Yet
+I. The idols have had a long reign in the earth.+ Trace human
history back as far as all extant records will enable you to do so,
and you will find idols enthroned in the affections of men. That they
should ever have been set up there must be regarded as one of Satan's
subtlest and greatest triumphs. The instincts that lead men to
worship are so strong, that his only hope of preventing fallen men
from returning to their allegiance to God lay in persuading them to
worship some other thing or being. His difficulty and his device were
those of Jeroboam (1 Kings xii. 26-28). He seems to have led men down
step by step: stars, images as representatives, then the images
themselves: first, natural principles, then living creatures in which
these principles were supposed to be embodied, then the living
creatures themselves. To have begun at the end would have been too
great a shock; the absurdity as well as the wickedness of such
worship would have been too obvious. Thus was the empire of the idols
founded, and it continues to this day. +II. The empire of the idols
has been world-wide.+ It might have been supposed to be a folly that
could be imposed only on a few barbarous tribes, and that all
civilised nations would have rejected it with distain; but as a
matter of fact, it is precisely among these nations (Egypt, Greece,
Rome, Judæa, India) that idolatry flourished most and in its basest
forms. Hence the empire of idolatry was co-extensive with the globe.
In Elijah's time even God thought it a great thing that He would
assure His prophet that there were seven thousand who had not bowed
the knee to Baal (1 Kings xix. 18). +III. The idols have been served
with passionate devotion.+ In almost all ages worshippers of idols
have put to shame the worshippers of God, by their fidelity to their
convictions, the scrupulousness of their observance of the rites
which they have esteemed religious, and the greatness of the cost at
which they have done honour to their gods. +IV. The idols have had
for their allies the most influential of social and moral forces.+
Their priests and dependents (Acts. xix. 25) have jealously watched
every encroachment on the empire of their gods. Rulers, for political
reasons, have strenuously endeavoured to uphold the national faiths.
Custom and fashion have wrought in the same direction. But, above
all, the idols have had their most powerful allies in the human
breast--in the instinct of worship, and the craving for sensual
indulgences. _Idolatry has combined these most powerful of all
cravings_--has provided deities in whose worship the worst passions
of man's animal nature have been gratified. +V. Nevertheless the
empire of idolatry shall be utterly destroyed.+ It shall vanish as
utterly as the great empire of Assyria. "The idols He shall utterly
abolish." Already that empire has been overthrown where it seemed
most firmly established, and the complete fulfilment of the
prediction of our text is obviously now only a question of time. Even
in heathen countries, men are becoming ashamed of their idols, and
are representing them as merely the _media_ of worship. The victory
of Christianity over idolatry is already assured. The struggles that
are yet to shake the world will be, not between Christianity and
idolatry; not even between Christianity and atheism, for atheism is
necessarily merely a brief episode in human experience; but between
Christianity and other forms of monotheism.
APPLICATION. 1. _In the wide-spread and long-continued empire of the
idols we have a conclusive proof of man's need of a Divine
revelation._ The natural progress of fallen man is not to light, but
to darkness (Rom. i. 21-23; 1 Cor. i. 21). 2. _In the prediction of
our text, we have a conclusive proof of that in the Bible we have
such a revelation._ Consider the circumstances of the prophet:
idolatry on every hand, corrupting even His own people. It was
contrary to all experience; it must have seemed to many who first
heard it as the ravings of a lunatic. Such a prediction, already so
marvellously fulfilled, came from God! 3. _In the approaching
complete fulfilment of the prediction of our text, let us rejoice._
And let us labour as well as pray, that the time may be hastened when
by idolatry God shall be no longer dishonoured and man degraded.