You're listening to a bonus episode of the Daily Article podcast, presented by the Denison

Forum and featuring Dr. Jim Denison.

Hi, I'm Jim Denison, the Denison Forum, and this is the Daily Article Special Edition

for April 27, 2020.

Today's special edition will be different. Rather than focusing on something in the news

which calls us to fight fear with faith, will focus on a single verse in scripture that calls us to do

the same. Over the weekend, I came upon this statement in Leviticus 26.1, you shall not make idols for

yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured

stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. As I read this verse, I sensed the

clear leading of the Holy Spirit to reflect on it. These reflections became this podcast, as I became

convinced that this ancient command speaks to every dimension of our lives and world.

Leviticus 26-1 was obviously relevant in a day when Israel's promised land would be filled with

Canaanites worshipping Baal, Astareth, Molek, and a host of other idolatrous deities.

But how is it relevant to us?

One of the foundational principles of Christian theology is that the Bible is the word of God, not just that it was the word of God.

Its words are as relevant today as when they were first inspired. Hebrews 412 says that it is living and

active. It has present tense authority to speak divine truth into our lives and culture. And yet

Jews and Christians are seldom confronted today with the temptation to set up a figured stone in your

land. In my many trips to the Holy Land, I found the Jewish people to be tempted far more by secularism

and materialism than by apparent religious idolatry.

It's the same in America and Europe.

I've been preaching for 44 years, but I have yet to preach my first sermon against physical idols.

...