The Worship of Mammon

I have a dog in my house with ADHD. My dog, Mia, will sit, obey, beg for food and even play dead.

Until something moves.

If someone comes to the door or a vehicle pulls into our driveway, I’ve lost her attention. If we are outside, it’s even worse. If a squirrel catches her eye as it runs across our yard or up a tree, she’s gone. She’s chasing the squirrel.

Chasing Foreign Gods

The people of Israel in the book of Judges had the same attention deficit disorder. Instead of chasing squirrels, though, they chased foreign gods.

The nation of Israel had escaped Egypt, wandered for 40 years in the desert with Moses, and then overtaken the Promised Land of Canaan under Joshua. God commanded his people to rid the land of the heathen peoples and their heathen gods. They didn’t do it. The angel of the Lord warned the people, “[The heathen peoples] will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you” (Judges 2:3).

Instead of God’s people being an influence on the Canaanites, the Canaanites became an influence on the Israelites. God’s people soon became entrenched in heathen practices.

Cycle of Snares

The book of Judges records a repeating cycle of Israel chasing after foreign gods and getting caught in their snares. The cycle begins with Israel enjoying a time of rest and peace. They become restless. A new god catches their eye. They chase after that new god. They get themselves in trouble as God calls his people to repentance using the surrounding heathen nations to oppress and enslave the people of Israel. Israel eventually repents and returns to the Lord. God sends a Judge to free the people from the heathen nation.

This cycle happens numerous times in Judges. How disheartening are the words that begin these cycles, “Once again …”. The holy writer records the Israelites’ sin of idolatry and apostasy in Judges 10, “Once again the people of Israel committed evil in the eyes of the Lord” (Judges 10:6). Remarkably, this is the fourth “again” in Judges (3:12; 4:1; 8:33; 10:6).

Seven

Again the Israelites are chasing after foreign gods – not just one or two, but seven! “They served the Baals and the Ashtartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sihon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines.” (Judges 10:6). Seven national deities.

God had told Israel to claim victory over these heathen nations. Instead, these heathen nations had claimed victory over Israel with their pagan gods. “In this way they forsook the Lord and did not serve him” (Judges 10:6).

“So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, who shattered and crushed the people of Israel that year. For the next eighteen years, the Ammonites oppressed all the people of Israel who were in the territory east of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead” (Judges 10:7,8).

In his righteous anger at his people for running away from him and running after foreign gods, the true God oppressed his people. The Ammonites marched westward from the edge of the desert. The Philistines marched eastward from the sea. Their combined forces crushed Israel like a nut in a nutcracker for 18 years.

The apostasy of Israel was bad. Their oppression was even worse. But God’s response to their cries for help was the worst of all!

Unnaccepted

“Finally the people of Israel called out to the Lord, ‘We have sinned against you, for we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals’” (Judges 10:10). This is most likely not a sincere confession because God does not accept it. This is the sad puppy dog face they give for being bad … until the next god crosses their path.

Then comes the longest discourse from God in the book of Judges: At this, the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, and from the Philistines? When the Sidonians and Amalek and Maon oppressed you, and you called out to me, I delivered you from their hands” (Judges 10:11-12). God asks a powerful question. How could his chosen people be so unfaithful to him after he had been so faithful to them? He gives them seven examples of divine interventions. They stand in sharp contrast to the seven national deities.

The Divinity gets angry when he is jilted for a cheap, nickel-plated statue.

God’s patience of chasing after them has finally run out. God continues his discourse, “It is you who have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore, I will no longer deliver you” (Judges 10:13). God had chosen them. They responded by choosing other gods!

How chilling to hear God say he no longer wishes to save them!

God challenges his people. “Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen! Let them deliver you in the time of your distress” (Judges 10:14)! If God isn’t good enough for them – and their history proves that they preferred other gods to him – then they should go running to those other gods. Let them rescue the people!

This might seem harsh, but God wanted a sincere confession of sin that they might recognize the snare they were in. They needed to learn their only rescue was the true God. This is tough love!

Real Repentance

Israel cries out in real repentance, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever seems good in your eyes, but please save us today” (Judges 10:15). This time they call their idolatry and apostasy what it is – “sin.” They accept the consequences God has given them. They plead for deliverance with humility. They follow their words with actions. They removed the foreign gods from their midst and served the Lord (Judges 10:16).

Then comes such a beautiful verse:

[The Lord] could no longer refrain himself from relieving the misery of Israel.

Judges 10:16

God could not bear to leave his wayward people alone. He is the prodigal Father who is reckless with his patience, lavish with his love and extravagant with his forgiveness (Luke 15:20-24). With that prodigal, reckless love, God sends Judge Jephthah to deliver his people (Judges 11).

I don’t think I’m the only person with a dog with ADHD. We are like our attention deficient dogs. … Squirrel!

The God of Fill-In-The-Blank

We are like the Israelites of old who chased after false gods. Oh, we may not worship Baal, Ashtartes or Molech. But, we have our own national gods we chase after and worship instead of the Lord.

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The god of sleep. We worship the pillow god and enjoy its comfort and coziness instead of being confronted with God’s anger over our sin and comforted with God’s forgiveness through his Son.

The god of recreation. We clear our weekends for hunting and shopping trips, vacation and recreation. We choose relaxation that we think we need over reflection on how God has met all our needs – physically and spiritually.

The god of athletics. Soccer tournaments and basketball practices, tailgating and watching the big game consume our precious time instead of consuming God’s precious Word and Sacrament.

The god of cleanliness. Spring cleaning of the house, cleaning out the garage, cleaning up the yard all take precedence over asking God to cleanse us from our sin.

The god of work. Putting in long hours, working two jobs, trying to provide for our family, while not giving credit to the God who worked out our salvation and provided a Savior for us through his Son.

The god of feelings. We follow feelings and let them rule our lives instead of allowing God’s Word to be the rule and norm for how we feel, think and act.

The god of apathy. Knowing that we are caught in the snare of these seven national gods – just like the Israelites of old … but we just don’t care.

Mammon

All of these gods can be summarized as worshiping the god named Mammon (Matthew 6:24). It is the god of money and possessions. In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther describes Mammon as “the most common idol on earth” (LC, Part 1, paragraph 7). He explains, “Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god.”

English painter and spiritualist, Evelyn De Morgan, was obsessed with opposing concepts of materialism and spiritual wellbeing. These are themes in several of her paintings. She very clearly represents this conflict in her painting The Worship of Mammon.

Mammon is the Aramaic word for worldly wealth and property. Mammon is the god of worldliness. Jesus taught: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

In The Worship of Mammon, a follower of Mammon clutches the knee of her god. She stares up at its face in adoration. Mammon holds out a bag of gold in his right hand. The woman doesn’t even glance at the bag. It may have been the love of gold that had introduced her to the worship of Mammon, but now she needs so much more.

She has moved from the love of gold to the love of Mammon himself. Against a deepening blue sky, the woman is consumed by Mammon and expects so much more from him than mere coins. She has cut herself off from the love of God. There is danger for this woman – and for all of us – when we are caught in the snare of Mammon.

Like the Israelites in Judges, we chase after other gods. So God uses health problems or financial difficulties to get our attention. We plead for mercy. God is merciful and things get better. We fall back into the same sins of apostasy and idolatry. Things become more difficult with sudden troubles and severe tragedies. We plead for mercy. God is merciful and things get better. And so it goes.

Breaking the Cycle

God calls us today to repent and break the cycle of sin.

Otherwise, we should just remain with those other gods and see if they will save us!

Plead to God in humility – in the confession of sins at church, in your bedtime prayers and before you start your day: “I have sinned. I have chased after false gods. I have worshiped my own idols. I have not given you the praise you deserve, the attention you desire or the worship you demand. Do with me whatever seems good in your yes. But please save me today.”

Follow your words with actions. Remove the gods from your life and serve the Lord.

How marvelous it is when God no longer refrains from relieving your misery!

God cannot bear to leave his wayward people alone. He hears our cries to save us from our spiritual enemies. He releases us from the snares of our false gods. He keeps our attention from the “squirrels” that constantly distract us. He personally intervened – not by sending a Judge, but by sending Jesus.

God could no longer bear the misery of our sin. He could no longer bear the thought of us being condemned for eternity. He could no longer bear being apart from his chosen people.

So, God sent Jesus!

God poured out his deliberate, justified anger over sin on Jesus. God then poured out his prodigal, reckless love on us.

God’s patience over sin had run out. God took out his impatience on his Son, instead of on us.

God had been forsaken by us so we could run after other gods. Jesus was forsaken by his God so we would never be forsaken. Instead, we are called children of God.

God spends his eternity listening for our cries of repentance and waiting for us to return to him. He interrupts our well-rehearsed speech begging for mercy. He says, “Welcome home child! It’s good to have you back!” He doesn’t kill the fattened calf (Luke 15:23). He has already killed the Lamb of God! He and the angels throw a party in heaven when we repent and return (Luke 15:10).

In response to God refraining from giving you the misery you deserve, throw away your false gods. Stop chasing “squirrels.” Give your full, undivided attention to the one true God. Break the cycle.