Breaking the Idols of Your Heart: How to Navigate the Temptations of Life (Paperback)
Breaking the Idols of Your Heart : In our thirst for significance we, like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, give our lives our time, talents, strength, heart to anything we think will give us worth and purpose: Power. Relationships. Money. Pleasure. Work. But worshiping these idols has a high cost and still doesn’t bring the fulfillment we long for.
In Breaking the Idols of Your Heart Dan Allender and Tremper Longman illuminate for us the Teacher’s warnings and, after all his activities, his final radiant conclusion: Meaning and purpose come only when God is truly the center of our life and the object of our hope. Using a compelling fictional narrative at the start of each chapter to encourage reflection on our own life and the lives of family and friends, the authors lead us through Ecclesiastes to help us recognize and exchange cheap pursuits for the only One worth pursuing.
Ecclesiastes is not an easy book to read, because transferring our worship from money, power and fame to God is not an easy road to travel. But as the Teacher discovered and wrote down for us, it leads to one conclusion: life lived abundantly, in freedom, hope, purpose, meaning.
Breaking the Idols of Your Heart: How to Navigate the Temptations of Life (Paperback) Review
Dan B. Allender and Tremper Longman III have put together one of the most unique devotional books I’ve come across in Breaking the Idols of Your Heart. Allender, a professor of counseling, and Longman, a first-rate Old Testament scholar, combine fictional narrative with biblical exposition as well as pastoral wisdom to introduce the reader to the subtleties and complexities of perhaps the most puzzling book in the Old Testament. Each chapter is divided up in two sections. Allender creates a narrative in which the reader can relate to the troubled lives of the characters in the first, and Longman interprets and applies the "teaching" of Ecclesiastes in the second. Some of the story line is tedious and Longman’s ideas don’t quite fit with it (or even make sense), but the tag-team approach brings the wandering pontifications of Ecclesiastes to life and poses good questions for self-examination and the end of each chapter. Their conclusion: the book of Ecclesiastes is an "idol buster."
In it they examine the following "idols"–those material goods of creation–that are pursued in "life under the sun:"
-Chasing after power: we never are fully in control
-Chasing after relationships: they always disappoint
-Chasing after work and money: it will always leave us frustrated and wanting more
-Chasing after pleasure: it is always fleeting
-Chasing after wisdom: never an adequate guide
-Chasing after spirituality: usually ends in legalism and condemnation
-Chasing after health and wellness: life ends in decay and death
It is important to note that each of these "idols" are good things in of and themselves. Being on top of life, living in community, working hard, saving money, enjoying the pleasures of life, obtaining wisdom, cultivating spiritual discipline, and living healthy are all very good and wonderful things that everyone should pursue. Yet the dark point of Ecclesiastes is that our pursuit of these things "under the sun"–that is without the fear of God–ends in futility.
There are many ways to interpret Ecclesiastes, but Longman takes the view that there are two authors at work, not just one. Many believe Solomon at the end of his life penned the book, but that is unlikely because the style of Hebrew writing is from a time long after he passed. Interestingly enough, Solomon’s name is never mentioned in the book. The consensus is that a wise editor, who in admiration for Solomon collected his sayings and ideas and organized them under the name of "the Teacher" who muses on the futility of life. The editor’s voice is found in chapters 1:1-11 and 12:9-14, which functions as bookends to the Teacher’s gloomy reflections. Verses 12:13-14 capture the point of the book:
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the [duty] of every human being.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
Longman makes the astute observation that Ecclesiastes is a reflection on the Curse. In fact, the Hebrew words for "meaningless" translated into the Greek Bible of Paul’s time are the same ones that are used in Romans 8:20 where Paul says the created order was subjected to "frustration." Longman uses Romans 8:18-28 as the principlizing bridge between the Old and New Testaments for his application of New Testament themes to what he calls "life above the sun." In each chapter he shows how life above the sun transforms our pursuits of the created order:
-Control leads to surrendering to God’s authority
-Relationships lead to trust in God’s love
-Work leads to laboring and giving to God’s kingdom
-Pleasure points to the eternal reality of God’s presence
-Wisdom creates a humble curiosity to know God
-Spirituality embraces a God who transcends our systems of merit
-Healthy living celebrates life and alleviates fear of death through the hope of resurrection
I heartily recommend this title to anyone who is struggling to reconcile the experience of day to day drudgery with Jesus’ promise of abundant life.
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