What God Destroys – Micah 5:10–13

What God Destroys – Micah 5:10–13
Jack Klumpenhower
6/17/2013
You know that God gives blessings, but when is it a blessing for him to take away something you love? When that thing is an idol, of course.

Anything you love more than you love God, or anything you trust more than you trust God, acts as an idol. It takes a role in your life that only God should have. Idols don’t have to be carved images or even religious things at all. They can be deceptively nonreligious yet still take the role of false gods.

The prophet Micah spoke of both kinds of idols. Micah ministered at a time when God’s people were threatened by powerful enemies. He told how God would first save some of his people, and then take some things from them:

“In that day,” says the Lord,
“I will slaughter your horses
and destroy your chariots.
I will tear down your walls
and demolish your defenses.
I will put an end to all witchcraft,
and there will be no more fortune-tellers.
I will destroy all your idols and sacred pillars,
so you will never again worship the work of your own hands.” (Micah 5:10-13, NLT)

At first glance, Micah seems to start by saying that God will fight his people—kill their horses, wreck their chariots, topple their walls. But when he moves on to witches, fortune-tellers, and sacred pillars, what’s really happening becomes clear. God has saved his people, and now he wants to purify them. He’s removing all idols, both religious and nonreligious ones.

The people had relied on those horses and chariots and walls to keep their enemies at bay. They’d thought those things were the key to survival in the world. They’d trusted them ahead of God. Those things had become idols, every bit as much as the sacred pillars.

Today, we have the same kinds of idols. Some are old-fashioned religious ones like statues and charms and, as in Micah’s day, fortune-tellers. Others are religious but perhaps not as obvious. It’s easy to put our trust in spiritual habits, the right church, superior theology, or ministry work. All of those are good things—but not if we trust them ahead of God himself. If we do that, they’re idols.

Our most dangerous idols of all, though, might be our equivalent of horses and walls. First, there are those things that our culture assumes everyone must love and pursue. Sex, money, power, comfort, and reputation seem to top the list. Which do you love more than God? Second, there are those things we trust to make us feel safe and successful in the world: a good education, a fine career, a happy family, healthy living, bankable skills, and personal appeal. Which of those do you trust instead of trusting God?

Because God loves us, he will destroy those idols. That shouldn’t really be a surprise. We’ve known from the start that none of them is lasting. None wholly satisfies. No matter how much we love them, none will ever love us back as God loves us.

There’s no reason to wait for God to bring some crisis into our lives that smashes our idols despite our wishes. God’s saving grace includes the power to say no to idols—to destroy and slaughter and tear them down ourselves—and turn to God alone. So what’ll it be? What are your idols? And how will you, with God’s help, start bashing them to smithereens?

This is the sixth in a series of articles about the shorter books of prophecy known as the Minor Prophets.

Jack Klumpenhower is a writer and children’s ministry worker living in Colorado.