God has put His righteousness on display for all people, including the Philistines. And yet, unless our hearts are softened to the Gospel, we will wriggle every which way in order to avoid His righteousness, and cling to the more accommodating moral standards of our idols.

Japanese lore has it that a powerful 17th century Samurai, named Ii Naotaka was caught in a violent thunderstorm unprepared in the woods of Edo near modern day Tokyo. Naotaka is said to have sought shelter under a tree near the dilapidated Gotokuji temple. While Naotaka was huddled under the tree, a cat walked by and beckoned him to follow by waving his paw. The Maneki-Neko (meaning “beckoning cat”) belonged to the destitute temple priest, and he led Naotaka back to the run down Gotokuji. No sooner had the Samurai entered the temple, than a lightning bolt struck the tree he had been sheltering under. Convinced that the Maneki-Neko had saved his life, Naotaka lavished the impoverished temple with wealth out of a heart of gratitude.

This Japanese legend is very popular among Soto Zen, Shinto and Buddhist people. So much so that it has led to the huge popularity of the ceramic Maneki-Neko cats you see waving their articulated paw from the windows of Japanese sushi bars and Izakayas, as well as Chinese restaurants around the world. The owners believe that their Maneki-Neko will beckon fortune into their establishment the way the original legendary cat beckoned fortune to the Gotokuji temple.

There are other examples of such idols among us, but it is hard to take them seriously in the modern west. They seem little more than tacky decorations for restaurants, spas and yoga studios. Even Buddha himself seems to have been repurposed into a lawn ornament. So what do we make of the Bible’s warnings not to put your trust in idols lest you become deaf, dumb, mute, blind and immobile just like them (Ps. 115:8)? How can they possibly be anything but harmless?

I spent some time in 1 Samuel 5 recently, where the biblical narrative follows the Ark of the Covenant into Philistia and we are granted a witness account of the pagan nation’s idolatry: its worship of the idol Dagon. At first read, I found myself chuckling at the primitive mind of the Philistines as their powerless idol is confronted by the one true God. After a couple of more readings, my smirk faded and gave way to a furrowed brow as I started to take note of the strong parallels between Philistine and modern day secular behaviours. After yet a few more readings (more than I care to admit to), it finally struck me… God is not merely convicting me of the folly of ancient pagans, nor even just of the godless masses of our day and age. In fact, God is at work at a much much deeper level and is diagnosing the idols lurking within my own heart.

The first layer of conviction is that back in biblical times, it was dangerous to believe in any god other than the God of the Bible. And of course, this is good and true, the Christian faith is not like other ancient religions, the God of the Bible is not one of many, nor is He transactional, He cannot be bargained with, He does not need to be appeased, nor defended. Our God is sovereign, righteous and holy.

Then comes the second layer of conviction, which is that the unbelieving world puts their faith in unreliable idols. While our neighbours may not be hauled up in their basements carving idols to worship, they may well read horoscopes, they probably rub statues, knock on wood, throw salt, they are likely to avoid rooms on the 13th floor of hotels. And our neighbours put their trust in harmful and destructive idols.

When a goal, an ambition, or a notion takes shape and grows and becomes someone’s life pursuit, when it becomes the thing that they place above all else, and they put their faith in the promise of this pursuit, and when they decide that they will sacrifice other priorities, other goals, other relationships in order to pursue this one goal, that is how an idol is born. And this idol of theirs starts to demand sacrifices: Sacrifice your time, your money. Sacrifice your relationship with your child. Sacrifice your marriage. Their idol devours these sacrifices and demands more, always more, it demands their worship, until they have fed it all that they have and they realize it never had any power to deliver on any of its promises.

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