Practical Polytheists

From time to time I’ll overhear someone talking about how sophisticated we are in the modern era – particularly in comparison with the superstitious simpletons of the past.  Those old cavemen went around worshipping the sun and hitting things with clubs.  And so we can appreciate the first couple of commandments given to Moses and the Israelites in Exodus 20: “You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol.”  This seems to make sense in view of the polytheistic culture surrounding the Israelites, but it can perhaps feel distant and disconnected from us.

I’ll concede that we are indeed more sophisticated in many ways – in our technologies and medical breakthroughs, for example – but it seems that we have yet to develop sophisticated souls.  The fundamental problems and challenges we face today are the same fundamental problems and challenges our ancient ancestors faced: pride, hedonism, egotism, idolatry, polytheism…

Wait, what?  How did those last two end up in the list?  We don’t worship idols or believe in a pantheon of gods, do we?

As a matter of fact many, if not most, people today are what I would describe as practical polytheists.  Oh sure, we’ve gotten away from giving proper names to our modern idols, but they’re effectively the same gods the Israelites flirted with throughout the Old Testament.

Adrammelech was the Sepharvite god of war and love (see 2 Kings 17:31).  Nebo, after whom was named a mountain and several towns (see 1 Chronicles 5:8), was the god of wisdom, literature and the arts.  Ashtoreth, also referred to as Astarte or Ishtar, was the Sidonian goddess of sex and fertility (see 2 Kings 23:13).  And of course Jesus addressed the worship of Mammon on numerous occasions in the gospels.  Mammon seems to be an Aramaic rendering of the Roman god Pluto, of the Greek god Plutus, and represents greed and dishonest gain.

So maybe you don’t worship Adrammelech, but do you crave violence, war or the power to control?  Do you worship key relationships in your life, making them the chief focus of your attention?

Maybe you don’t worship Nebo, but do you worship knowledge, progress or artistic expression?

Maybe you don’t worship Ashtoreth, but do you worship sex and/or fertility?

And maybe you don’t worship Mammon, but do you crave what others have?  Do you worship the idea of financial abundance, thinking that if you can just “get enough” and “have enough” that life will be all good?

As is often the case, when we “peel back a layer” of Scripture or history, we realize that we’re not so very different from those old superstitious simpletons after all.  And so it is that the guidance and wisdom God gave to them also applies to us, to neglect our idols in favor of God, who is all-in-all, and who is life abundant.  Our fulfillment is not found in obtaining this or that, nor in achieving this or that, but rather in discovering the One who made us, and walking each day, each moment beside Him.  This is how to gain sophistication of the soul.