Last night I watched a PBS special called The Bible’s Buried Secrets. It told the story of Israel’s transition from a polytheistic people (worshiping Canaanite gods alongside the one true God) to a purely monotheistic people.
While I had to endure the standard academic explanation of the Bible’s origins (i.e. it was embellished and possibly even invented by priests in the sixth century), there was one intriguing thing that caught my attention.
Archaeologists have found more than a thousand Canaanite idols in Jewish homes and burial sites around Israel that date from before 600BC. They haven’t found a single idol in Israel that dates after 600BC.
Guess what happened around 600BC? The Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the forced exile of the Jews. This horrific event was what finally killed off the tendency of God’s people to rely on things besides God for their security and prosperity. When they returned to Israel, they worshiped God alone.
When the next crisis hits your life, you don’t need to ask God why he would allow it to happen. He’s killing off one of your idols.