My first visit to Cuba was as though I had traveled through a time tunnel. The cars were all 1950s American or 1980s Russian. The buildings in Havana, most of which were built prior to Castro’s revolution in 1959, were crumbling. A store I went into had almost nothing on its shelves. The people were incredibly industrious and gracious, but their government was failing them.
It’s far worse today, as Robert Worth’s new Atlantic article shows. Titled “The Collapse of Cuba,” its subtitle reports, “The withering of the state is shocking to behold.” While Cuba’s Communist government has always blamed America for its problems, the Cubans Mr. Worth interviewed disagreed, each without exception blaming their leaders for their suffering.
Fidel Castro tried to build a state on atheistic socialism with himself at its center. Cuba is a tragic study in the fallacy of such idolatry and illustrates the fact that “those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast hope” (Jonah 2:8).
This is a principle worth contemplating today, for the sake of our nation and our souls.
“Solomon built a high place for Chemosh”
I was reading 1 Kings 11 recently and came upon a surprising passage. The text tells us that “King Solomon loved many foreign women,” and “his wives turned away his heart” (vv. 1, 3). Consequently,
Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods (vv. 6–8).
In response, God told Solomon he would “surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant” (v. 11), a division that occurred when Solomon’s son Rehoboam took the throne and Jeroboam led the ten northern tribes to rebel against his rule.
Here’s the part that struck me: If you and I were alive at this time and aware of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the murder he arranged to conceal it, we might consider his sin to be more horrific than his son’s idolatry. But God disagrees. In his view, worshiping any God but the one true God is a sin worthy of the most severe judgment.
Is this because he is a divine egotist? His Word states, “You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). Concerning idols, the Lord warns us, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5).
What does this say about God and about us?
The foundational sin of fallen humanity
I believe we can make sense of God’s “jealousy,” not by attributing it to weakness in his character, but by connecting it with the consequences of serving any God but the one true God. Consider:
- Creation requires a Creator, what Aristotle called the “unmoved Mover.” Our God must be the Supreme Being in such a universe, or there is another deity more supreme than he. St. Anselm called God “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” The psalmist testified, “I have seen a limit to all perfection” (Psalm 119:96), but our God cannot be so limited and still be God.
- Because God is the Supreme Being, worshiping any other deity is choosing to serve something less than the best. In fact, since no other gods exist in reality, idolatry serves a myth and a mirage rather than the highest reality there is.
- Worshiping and serving the one true God as our only Lord and king positions us to experience his best for our lives as his Spirit moves in and through us (Ephesians 5:18). A loving father cannot bless that which harms his children. Conversely, when we worship God, his Spirit is able to mold us into the character of Christ (cf. Romans 8:29).
- Such worship is the foundation of all biblical morality. The “fruit of the Spirit” is manifested in lives fully yielded to the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). The capacity to obey God’s will is given to us as the Lord empowers those who walk intimately with him.
- Consequently, idolatry is the foundational sin of fallen humanity, while worshiping the one true God is the foundational commitment of a flourishing Christian life.
“The line dividing good and evil”
Idolatry is the service of anything or anyone but God. For example, “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” are “idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). Rebelling against God “is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23; cf. 1 Peter 4:3).
The problem comes when I want such idols in my life as a means to becoming my own god (Genesis 3:5). The changes required to repent of my will to power and live with holistic holiness come at a cost that sometimes seems greater than their gain.
In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously wrote, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
The good news is that the Holy Spirit will empower us to surrender our hearts to our Lord. God honors the free will with which he created us, but if we ask him to mold our will to his own, he answers our prayer and enables our obedience. Holiness is his work in our lives, not ours. The love for God that empowers us to seek such holiness is the “fruit” of his Spirit in our yielded hearts (Galatians 5:22).
St. Augustine warned,
“Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshipped.”
How will you respond to his warning today?
NOTE: I encourage you to join me in praying daily for our Cuban sisters and brothers in this time of extreme difficulty. Let’s ask God to help and protect them and for his Spirit to use their incredible courage and faithfulness to lead many to Christ. I also encourage you to consider our longtime ministry partner, Proclaim Cuba. I have been with them many times in Cuba, pray for their leaders daily, and love and trust them completely. I hope you’ll join me in praying for them and supporting their vital work.
Quote for the day:
“Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God; it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God.” —Timothy Keller
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