Europe became as full of idols as any pagan land. Only loyal love to Christ can save us from idolatry.
After being told briefly about the deeds and death of Jeroboam, and of his son Nadab coming to the throne (1 Ki 14:19-20), our attention is turned south to the kingdom of Judah. One would hope that things were going better there. After all, at the heart of this much smaller nation was the magnificent temple, with every exquisite detail pointing up to heaven. Not only so, but walking the streets of the capital were God-ordained priests and Levites, conversant in the Word of God. It was, in fact, “the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there” (v 21). But no. “Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel” (vv 22-24). On every hill! Under every tree! Oh what a lesson for us! The life consecrated to the Lord is the simple life, the focused life, the exalted life. Not worshiping every stick and stone, every creepy-crawly. Not terrified “of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday” (Ps 91:6). No, there is just one Person to please, one will to pursue, elevating everything we do to holy service. Abandoning the true God is the ultimate in spiritual schizophrenia, making it impossible to discern what is real and what is not. In an attempt to be free of their obligations to the God who loved them, their diverted devotions led to the slavery of perverted passions. Viva the life of faith!