Delusions

The prophet Jeremiah watched the young men of his generation trudge up into the hills to worship a delusion.

Lots of young men traveled the paths up into the high places around Israel. They wanted to worship an idol that would guarantee their health, wealth, and well-being. They all lost their way. The idol consumed them.

Jeremiah wasn’t a smug know-it-all. He had been chosen to be the voice of God’s compassion to those young men:

“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

I have lived in my community nearly twenty years now, and I have had a front row seat to many who have worshiped the delusion of alcohol and drugs. 

Substance abuse is common here, as it probably is everywhere.

Even the children in my Sunday school have tried smoking marijuana. They have seen their parents give younger siblings alcohol in their baby bottles because they think it is funny. They think that alcohol will numb their pain. Drugs will make life more fun.

It’s a delusion they believe will guarantee their health, wealth, and well-being. It is their panacea for all of life’s ills.

Oh sure, in more lucid moments, they know it isn’t true, but there they go, trudging up that hill again, only to be lost in the orgy of people who are doing the same thing.

And many of them have permanently lost their ability to think clearly.

They hear voices. They see things. They live in paranoia and fear. The delusion is killing their ability to tell true from false. They can’t think clearly. Sometimes, they can’t remember what has happened for days at a time or what they might have done while they were delusional.

Before recoiling in horror or shaking your head in contempt, come join me in this front row seat. 

We all trudge up the hill to worship some idolatrous sin. Perhaps your substance of choice isn’t methamphetamine, but you get high on your relationship with your significant other. Maybe you never touch alcohol, but maybe you get drunk on entertainment. Perhaps it’s food. Maybe it’s power, or money, or pride. 

My front row seat to the gradual slide into delusion for others has helped me see my sin a lot more clearly. All idols kill. All sin makes us delusional. We all wander on paths away from the Lord, gradually losing our way. (All we like sheep, Isaiah wrote.)

We have been faithless, but the Lord God calls to us in a moment of clarity, calling us to return to Him. 

Like the young men in Jeremiah’s day, let us say, “Behold, we come to You, for You are the Lord our God. Truly the hills are a delusion, just orgies on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is our salvation.”

He can rescue us from the fog of delusion and show us His truth, if we are willing to let Him separate us from our idols. 

Let us return to Him so that He can heal our faithlessness and destroy our delusions.