NO IDOLS

NO IDOLS
From the sermon “Judges and Kings: No Idols”
Deuteronomy 16:18–17:1; 17:14-20

I remember the year 2004 very well. It was the year the Lord blessed us with our first grandchild, a grandson, from our older daughter. With the blessing came also severe trials. Our grandson was born with a spinal defect, and his parents were told he would spend his life in a wheelchair—unless he underwent surgery.

So at the age of just two months, he went through a delicate and risky operation to correct the defect. We prayed like we had seldom prayed before. Praise God, the surgery was successful, and today he is a healthy and active 12-year-old boy running around with his soccer team.

After our grandson was healed, our daughter was struck by a mysterious illness which left her with severe headaches. It took months before the doctors diagnosed it as an auto-immune disease. The white blood cells, instead of protecting the body, were attacking the body. They were attacking the blood vessels in her brain.

I remember my daughter saying to me, “Don’t worry, Dad, if I go, it will be quick and painless.” She was referring to sudden death from brain aneurysm. I thought to myself, “Yes, for you, but not for us.”

At the end of that year, I was in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, speaking at churches and seminars. My hosts booked me on one of those tours that took people into the desert for an open-air dinner. I remember the heaviness of my heart as I thought about our daughter.

I left the dinner and walked out into the night. I climbed up one of the sand dunes, and looked up into the star-studded desert sky. I felt like Abraham when God asked him to give up his son. I felt the Lord telling me to lay our daughter on the altar and if needed let God take her. I struggled for a while, and finally surrendered her to the Lord.

One of the things I learned then was that God wanted me to love him with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength. Nothing must come in between him and me. Anything or anyone that comes in between is an idol, or another god. My daughter could become my idol, someone I love more than God.

When I surrendered, I found peace. Our daughter was treated for her illness, going through an extended course of treatment, including chemotherapy during which she lost her hair. Today, she is a healthy mother of three children. I learned from the experience with our grandson and our daughter that the best place to put the people we love and the things that matter to us, is in the hands of the Lord.

It is the safest place. If we insist on keeping our idols, if we resist God and his call for complete surrender, we stand to lose and lose everything.