Leaning, Idolatry, and Trusting Christ
In this series, I take our law homily from our church gathering each week (The law homily is where we read from the law of God and let His law examine our hearts so that we can be a tender-hearted and repenting people), and I post them here for your edification. Here is this week’s law homily on the prohibition against mental idolatry.
“BATACH:” A CALL TO RADICAL DEPENDENCE
In the opening words of the Ten Commandments, God issues a clear directive: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). This command strikes at the heart of what it means to truly trust God - to give Him our undivided loyalty and devotion. The Hebrew word translated as "trust" is batach, which vividly portrays leaning one's whole weight onto something, relying upon it entirely.
To batach, to genuinely trust and lean wholly on God, requires letting go of all other supports. It means making Him alone the unrivaled object of our faith, confidence, and reliance. The Hebrew conveys the precise image of shifting our total weight onto the Lord's sure and sturdy foundation.
Imagine a hiker navigating a treacherous mountain pass. The path is narrow and unstable, and hazards loom. Each step poses the real peril of slipping into the abyss below. But this hiker has something to batach in—a sturdy walking stick to lean on, to transfer their total weight to, providing confidence amid the dangers. Without that trusty stick, every stride would be reckless and could prove catastrophic. With it, the hiker can journey safely by bataching, leaning on its unwavering strength.
Such radical dependence is the picture of truly bataching, of genuinely trusting in God. This life is treacherous; the way is strewn with difficulties and unsettling circumstances. To attempt walking it alone, self-reliant, and grasping at flimsy, false supports is to court disaster. But when we batach in the Lord and deliberately transfer all our weight onto His strength, wisdom, and promises, we can journey confidently, no matter the rocky terrain or hazards we face. Our feet remain firmly planted by wholly relying on the immovable foundation of God's faithfulness.
The heroes of Scripture model this kind of reckless trust for us. The Israelites batached in God as they walked through the parted Red Sea on dry ground. David batached as he faced the giant Goliath, declaring his confidence was in the Lord's deliverance. The prophet Habakkuk resolved to rejoice in God's salvation no matter what calamity befell, saying, "Yet I will batach in the God of my salvation." These examples reveal that bataching is more than intellectual assent; it is the deliberate, continual transfer of one's whole situation and weight onto the Lord.
FORSAKING FLIMSY IDOLS
In stark contrast, we often lean on the flimsy reeds of wealth, power, status, or human relationships for security. We treat these temporal things as idols, putting our hopes in them rather than God alone. Like grasping at loose handholds, this misplaced trust will ultimately fail us, for these false gods cannot bear the weight of our fears, longings, and need for certainty. Only God is the forever immovable Rock on which we can safely lean all our cares and concerns.
Bataching requires an utter forsaking of self-reliance. It means being like a toddler making that paradigm shift of letting go - that scary moment when they release their white-knuckled grip on the furniture to place their complete trust in their Father's embracing arms. So we, too, must relinquish our stubborn need for control, our tendency to try carrying burdens ourselves, laying everything down to embrace our heavenly Father's strength and care alone.
Yet this degree of unswerving loyalty is what we so profoundly resist. The reasons for our lack of trust run deep, to the core brokenness and unbelief of the human heart. We may not bow to golden calves, but we all fashion idols, putting our hopes in temporal things instead of God. Like the Israelites who grumbled against God's faithfulness after their deliverance from Egypt, we allow fear, pride, and self-reliance to erode our trust in the only One worthy of it.
At the root of this idolatry are the hissed lies we have believed since Eden - that God is not good, that He is holding out on us, and that we know better how to conduct our lives. So we grasp for control, striving to be self-made instead of surrendering to God's perfect plans. We look to money, resources, and skills for security rather than the Maker and Sustainer of all things. We make career success, romantic relationships, or the approval of others our identity and worth rather than Christ alone.
In doing so, we break the greatest commandment - to love the Lord our God with every fiber of our being. Our actions reveal idols of self-reliance, fear, and unbelief despite our professions of trusting God. Like Peter, our gaze shifts from Christ to focus on the storm, looking to temporal things for rescue instead of our faithful Lord. This unbelief assaults God's glory, arrogantly dismissing His all-sufficiency as if He were not enough. It must be confessed and repented of.
But thank God He has not left us alone in our idolatry and need! In His rich mercy, He has provided the way for us to batach in Him through the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. Though we have stubbornly rebelled, choosing to be our own kings and saviors, God has not abandoned us but has made a way through the cross for unworthy sinners to be reconciled to Himself.
LEARNING TO LEAN ON CHRIST
Christ alone is our sure and steady foundation, the eternal Rock on which we can safely lean with all our sins, fears, hopes, and eternal destiny. On the cross, Jesus took our depraved idolatry and unbelief upon Himself, suffering God's wrath in our place as the one final sacrifice for sin. And in His resurrection, Christ secured forgiveness and new life for all who would turn from their self-made kingdoms to trust in Him alone as Lord and Savior.
When we fix our gaze on the glory of this crucified and risen Christ, we find freedom from the idols that so easily entangle and trap us. In Him, we discover profound rest for our souls and the fullness of life we desperately crave. For in beholding Christ's unsurpassable beauty and grace, we find our wildest longings met - God's own presence, our sins atoned for, our identity as His beloved children, our security in His eternal kingdom, our most profound meaning, and our boundless satisfaction in Him as our greatest treasure.
So let us turn from our pitiful, self-reliant strivings to batach, to lean all our weight onto Christ, our solid Rock! Let us relinquish our stubborn grip on trying to construct our sense of worth, security, and purpose apart from Him. Only when we transfer our complete trust to Jesus can we enjoy the life, peace, and freedom He alone offers those who put their confidence in Him. Only then can we finally experience the joy of being freed from the crushing burdens of our idols to rest in the open arms of our faithful God!
