The Economics of Idolatry A study of Acts 7:35 43 on the Daily Bible refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller hello good people.

Welcome to Daily Bible Refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller.

So glad that you joined me today as I continue a quest to put the audible voice of God into two million ears.

That's a million people.

By the end of 2028 we have a daily reading of the New Testament.

We use year C of the Revised Common Lectionary and we're in the lent season, the 40 days prior to Easter.

We bring this to you in a way that's understandable because we read the New Testament from the message version, relatable by giving you some points to ponder and applicable.

I'll give you an action step.

We have a prayer and we do it all in under 10 minutes.

It's all brought to you by our website, voiceofgoddaily.com the home of the Daily of the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Method here's our reading for the day from Acts 7:35 43 reading from the message this is the same Moses whom they earlier rejected, saying, who put you in charge of us?

This is the Moses that God, using the angel flaming in the burning bush, sent back as ruler and redeemer.

He led them out of their slavery.

He did wonderful things, setting up God signs all throughout Egypt, down all to the Red Sea and out into the wilderness for 40 years.

This is the Moses who said to his congregation, God will raise up a prophet just like me from your descendants.

This is the Moses who stood between the angels speaking at Sinai and your fathers assembled in the wilderness and took the life giving words given to him and handed them over to us.

Words our fathers would have nothing to do with.

They craved the old Egyptian ways whining to Aaron, make us gods we can see and follow this Moses who guided us out here miles from nowhere, who.

Who knows what's happened to him?

That was the time when they made a calf idol, brought sacrifices to it, and congratulated each other on the wonderful religious program they had put together.

God wasn't at all pleased.

He let them do it their way.

Worship every new God that came down the pike and live with the consequences.

Consequences described by the prophet Amos.

Did you bring me offerings of animals and grains those 40 wilderness years, O Israel?

Hardly.

You were too busy.

Too busy building shrines to war gods, to sex goddesses, worshiping them with all your might.

That's why I put you in exile in Babylon.

Wow.

Just a really pointed and direct passage of scripture that we're dealing with here.

It's really about some the idolatry of comfort in the ancient time and in our modern context.

And it's a challenging text, to be sure.

It's about our tendency to create comfortable substitutes for transformative faith.

Let's talk now for a moment or two about some points to ponder.

There is the seduction of visible power the Israelites demand for gods.

We can see, reflects our human tendency to prefer manageable, controllable deities over the challenging calls for justice and liberation.

In a contemporary context, this might look like preferring comfortable spirituality that doesn't really challenge things like wealth inequality, white supremacy or environmental destruction.

Ask yourself, what golden calves have we created to avoid the harder work of transformation?

A second point is the religious program versus actual liberation work.

There's a striking critique here of people who are congratulating each other on the wonderful religious program they put together.

This challenges us to examine how our churches and religious institutions might have been more focused on maintaining programs and buildings than on continuing Moses work of liberation.

Are we more invested in maintaining religious institutions than in challenging systematic oppression?

One more point.

It is about the economics of idolatry.

This text connects idolatry with war gods and sex goddesses, suggesting how false worship often serves economic and political power.

So today we might see this as worship of militarism, consumerism and political systems that commodify both people and our planet.

How do our economic systems function as modern idols?

Several things to think about there.

Here's an action step for you.

I would invite you to conduct an idle audit of your life and of your community and identify one way you may have substituted comfortable religious practices for challenging justice work.

Then take more concrete steps towards redirecting resources, time, money, energy from maintaining religious comfort towards liberation work.

This might mean such things as moving some of your giving to organizations led by marginalized communities.

Or maybe think about interchanging a church program for some direct action that impacts your community.

Or maybe just examining your own personal consumption habits.

We're going to pray in just a moment about all of this, but I did want you to know that we do have a resource for you that's going to help you read your Bible and deal with difficult passages like we had one here today.

It's the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Guide.

And it's really all about making Bible study pretty direct, straightforward kind of a process.

An ABC 1, 2, 3 process.

It's just a few pages long.

It's going to be helpful to you.

You can pick it up for free@voiceofgoddaily.com that's also where you can find over 800 episodes of the Daily Bible Refresh.

Please check them out.

Let's pray.

Oh, God, you are a divine liberator.

And we confess our attraction to comfortable gods, to spirituality that doesn't disturb our privilege.

To religious programs that substitute for justice.

Forgive us for building golden calves while your people cry for liberation.

Help us recognize our modern idols, the gods of like military might and political power and the goddesses of endless consumption.

The altar of white supremacy, the shrine of environmental exploitation.

Give us courage to topple false deities, to redirect our worship towards true justice.

To choose the uncomfortable path of transformation over the seductive way of religious comfort.

Make us restless with easy answers, uncomfortable programs and help us to be to be the people who set others free.

Amen.

Well, hey, it's always a joy and a privilege to be with you.

Love it.

I love it, love it, love it, love it, love it.

Every day we drop an episode here.

Every day we drop an episode of Daily Bible refresh.

Usually before 6am you can pick it up here and share it with others.

And we hope that you will do just that.

You can find everything you need@voiceofgoddaily.com until tomorrow then, folks.

My name is Dr.

Brad Miller.

Until tomorrow.

Remember that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.