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Excusing the Shiny Parts



“You must burn their idols in fire, and you must not covet the silver or gold that covers them. You must not take it or it will become a trap to you, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. 26 Do not bring any detestable objects into your home, for then you will be destroyed, just like them. You must utterly detest such things, for they are set apart for destruction." (Deuteronomy 7:25-26)

I find it interesting that God is letting His people know that not only is the actual idol repulsive but the pieces of gold and silver attached to it are too. So not only were they supposed to destroy the actual idol but the gold and silver too.

... I don't know about you, but if I found a statue with real gold or silver attached to it, I would not want to destroy that gold and silver.
I could very easily reason with myself that the gold and silver are not the idol itself and could be put to much better use in my hands.

Yet, God is saying that any part of that idol is marked for destruction and IF you decide to pick and choose and bring some of it into your house, then you're marking yourself for destruction too.
That's an alarming warning!

I don't imagine I'll be finding any idols with gold or silver, so I started thinking through what this is equivalent to in today's world.

What are the idols of today's world?
What are their shiny parts?
What are we as Christians willing to negotiate over instead of absolutely turning away from?

Yeah, I know that song has some bad lyrics, but the beat is so good!
Oh, aside from the awful language and a handful of "cover your eyes" scenes in that show/movie, its a really great story!
I know that book series is about witchcraft and wizardry, but it's such a popular literature choice for kids!

There will always be "shiny parts" attached to temptations. If there weren't, then I don't imagine many of us would be very tempted.

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)

My prayer is that God would always alert me right away if I'm allowing anything evil near myself or my family; and that I would be quick to eradicate every part of it from our lives--no matter how shiny it is.

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