Faces of Alabaster
Posted on September 1, 2017 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” — Exodus 20:4-6 (NKJV)
Sometimes watching or reading the news today makes my eyes bleed. I get to thinking that it might be better if I stab myself in the eye with a broken plastic fork than it is to watch a world that is going madder and madder by the minute. It also might do me good to not be able to hear either because words have turned ugly, their definitions are changing faster than the speed of light it seems, and to listen to it shatters my eardrums. All in all, it is becoming a struggle to be in the world BUT it is giving me every reason not to be of it. Guess Jesus and those guys from the 1st century church had some solid advice after all.
The saddest thing to me in all the chaos that is ensuing is the issue of taking down of statues and the erasing of history. First of all, there is stuff in our Bibles that give us insight when hearts are focused in on statues. The Golden Calf was turned into many glasses of Kool-Aid, Nebuchadnezzar’s statue got showed up by three Jewish boys in a fiery furnace and Jesus brought a new meaning to temples built by the hands of men. So, all in all, focusing in on the object is like…well Isaiah puts it like this:
“A person uses part of a tree for fuel and part of it for making an idol. With one part, he builds a fire to warm himself and bake bread; with the other part, he makes a god and worships it. With some of the wood he makes a fire; he roasts meat, eats it, and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, “How nice and warm! What a beautiful fire!” The rest of the wood he makes into an idol, and then he bows down and worships it. He prays to it and says, “You are my god—save me!” Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth.” (Isaiah 44:15-18 GNT)
And the second and biggest thing of all is (and this is if you understand that we must take in the full counsel of Scripture) we weren’t supposed to carve images of anything anyway. But did we listen? NO!!! What we were supposed to do was to raise up an Ebenezer or build altars to El Elyon out of stones of remembrance, but faces of people that are flawed weren’t up to consideration…ever. But for some crazed reason statues have been erected, over the centuries, to “honor” moments or people in history
Granted, there are events and people in history that need to be remembered and I guess the statue helps, but we shouldn’t let it be allowed to tell one side of the history behind it. Like a coin, there are three sides to consider. Heads can be your side, tails can be their side and that thin edge around the outside where the truth is. This is why we have God’s Word in book form. We can turn back the pages of our Bibles and find many reasons why we are flawed people who have done stupid things and needed help from The Most-High God.
Former Presidential candidate, Herman Cain, has recently come out and said, “Tell you what: Why don’t you erase from history every reference to a person who had a serious character flaw? Do that and you’ll have very short history books. You’ll be able to get through a semester in a day or two. There will be almost nothing you would be able to teach.” I gotta agree with him. After all, we are not gonna get any further ahead if we don’t understand what needs to be left behind. Wander in the wilderness for 40 years, you’ll figure it out.
So, what are we gonna do with the faces of alabaster? Well if taking them down helps in the healing process then so be it, but that shouldn’t be the mighty pencil eraser to written history. That Golden Calf deserved what it got from Moses, but I’m not too sure if turning it into Kool Aid was a nice thing to do but those who made and danced around it NEVER did something that dumb again. King Nebbie eventually became a dog and ate grass, Rome tore down Herod’s Temple, and Jesus Christ isn’t on the Cross anymore. Why do I know these things? Pure and simple…you can try real hard but you can’t erase history, especially Kingdom history. If this works in God’s economy why can’t it work in our own? Amen?
Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) is married (Kathy) with two adult children (Kevin and Karen) and has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.
The Daily Bible Reading: Hosea 1-7| You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here
Daily Quote: “An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.” — A.W. Tozer
This Week’s Verse to Memorize:
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16-7
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