Continuing through the story of Scripture after Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel splits into two. The next several hundred years are generally consumed with faithlessness and idolatry in various forms often stemming directly from the leadership of the kings. While we may not bow down to physical idols, we can learn a great deal about how our hearts tend toward them through a few passages in 1 Kings.

In general, idolatry doesn’t overwhelm us in one fell swoop. Instead, we fall to the creep of idolatry in our lives. Little by little, idols vie for more of our hearts’ loyalty. It’s like a bad smell that creeps in over time in your apartment. You may never even recognize it until someone comes over and its full power knocks them over. Idols creep in over time and we need God’s Word and His people expose them in our lives.

Three kings—Jeroboam, Asa, and Ahab—give us some insight into how idols may be hiding in our lives.

1. Rationalized Idolatry (1 Kings 12:25-33)

Having just become king over the newly formed split kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam is feeling the intense pressures of leadership. He had actually been called by God to lead this newly formed kingdom, so the weight of responsibility he felt was probably crushing at times. In order to lead the people of this new kingdom well, he believed they needed a place to worship God that was disconnected from the kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem. So he built places of worship and setup golden calves… big mistake. But how did it come to that point?

Jeroboam had rationalized that his calling to lead from God required this action or he would fail at what he was called to do.

How often do we find ourselves rationalizing sin, specifically idolatry, due to our “calling”?

2. Oblivious Idolatry (1 Kings 15:9-15)

Sometimes we become so caught up in the way things have always been in our culture or in our churches that we are completely unaware of the idolatry that is going on around us or we are actually joining in ourselves. This seems to be what happened to Asa. When he came to power, tons of reforms needed to happen, and overall, Asa did a great job leading the people back to the Lord. Yet, some of the high places remained (these were places of worship out of line with God’s intention). Since Scripture says that Asa followed God faithfully, the high places don’t seem to be an area of intentional sin but rather blindness.

Asa was oblivious to this vestige of idolatry continuing in his country because it had become so commonplace.

What idols or sins have become to commonplace that you are oblivious to their existence?

3. Ambivalent Idolatry (1 Kings 18:21)

Finally, in one of the most famous encounters between a king and a prophet—Elijah and the prophets of Baal—Elijah calls out the ambivalence of King Ahab and the people of Israel. They were “limping between two different opinions.” They tried to serve both God and Baal. The problem is, as Jesus points out in the Gospels, we can’t serve two masters. Going back and forth is not an option.

What idol in your life causes you to waver from following God?

The creep of idolatry is real and subversive. Will you recognize it in your own life and fight back against it for the sake of wholehearted commitment to Jesus?