You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord you God in that way.

Deuteronomy 12:2-4 (ESV)

I’ve never had idols that I worshipped. Not this sense. Not that I’ve carved for the specific purpose of worship. But I’ve had things in my life that I put before God. I’m sure that, at some point, we’ve all had those things.

But what do we do with them when we turn away from them? Do we put it in a dark corner in case we might want to bring it out again to look at later? Do we put it on display and say that it no longer has a hold over us? Or do we tear it down and burn it so that nothing remains?

When we turn to God from the things that hold us back, we should utterly destroy the old thing. Like Elisha slaughtering his oxen and burning his plow. He made sure that there was nothing to go back to.

Daily Bible reading: Deuteronomy 11-13, Mark 13:1-13