Blocks of Wood

“Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’

    Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’

Can it give guidance?

    It is covered with gold and silver;

    there is no breath in it.”

The Lord is in his holy temple;

    let all the earth be silent before him.”

Habakkuk 2:19-20

 

 

“Whoa…..I don’t care for encouragement that begins with the word ‘Woe’!”

I have to admit, I don’t either.

But truth is the ‘Woe’s’ are there for a reason.

We are well advised to pay attention when we read them.

God is giving a message to the Prophet Habakkuk and speaks of those who worship idols made with hands.

Now maybe your saying to yourself “I would never bow down to a block of wood!”

That’s so ‘Old Testament’.

But 2015 has plenty of ‘block of wood idols’.

Techy toys, careers, a religion based on our own works and efforts.

These can all become ‘block of wood idols’ created, not by God, but by man.

We imagine in our minds some chunk of Mahogany or a slab of marble painstakingly carved to represent a ‘god’.

Yet how many painstakingly carve a career, a hobby, a retirement or a religion so that it becomes the idol they bow down to worship.

Moses brought the command down the mountain…Thou Shalt have no other gods before me.

Jesus revealed how to live out that command.

The Holy Spirit in us empowers us to do the same.

Jettison (repent of) any blocks of wood in your life.

“Come, let us bow down in worship,

    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;”

Psalm 95:6