The Joyful Obliteration of Idols Text: 2 Chronicles 31:1
Introduction: Worship Precedes Warfare
We live in a sentimental age. It is an age that believes tolerance is the highest virtue and that strong convictions, particularly strong religious convictions, are the greatest vice. Our culture wants a Jesus who is a celestial guidance counselor, a divine therapist who affirms everyone and judges no one. But the Jesus of the Scriptures is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. He is the one who comes not to bring peace, but a sword. And when His people truly worship Him, when they truly see His glory and holiness, the inevitable result is not a quiet, private piety. The result is a holy war against all that stands against Him.
What we see in our text is the necessary fruit of true revival. King Hezekiah had just led the people in a magnificent Passover celebration. For weeks, they had been steeped in the Word, in sacrifice, in confession, and in joyful praise. They had renewed their covenant with the living God. And what is the first thing they do when the party is over? They don't go home and put their feet up. They don't form a committee to discuss their feelings. They go out, and with a holy zeal, they begin to tear down, shatter, cut in pieces, and utterly destroy every last vestige of idolatry in the land. This was not vandalism. This was liturgical warfare. This was the practical application of the first commandment.
This passage is a direct assault on the modern evangelical temptation to separate worship from obedience, and belief from action. We are quite happy to have our worship services, our praise bands, and our inspirational speakers. But the moment the sermon calls for the smashing of idols, whether they be literal statues or the more subtle idols of the heart and culture, we get nervous. We start talking about being winsome. We start worrying about offending people. But the people of Judah, fresh from the presence of God, were not worried about being winsome. They were filled with a holy intolerance for anything that usurped the place of Yahweh. Their worship had consequences. Their doxology led directly to iconoclasm.
We must understand this principle: true worship always purifies. It purifies the heart, and then it purifies the home, the church, and the land. If our worship does not lead us to identify and destroy the idols in our lives and in our culture, then we have not been worshipping the God of the Bible. We have been worshipping a tame god, a god of our own making, which is simply another idol that needs to be shattered.
The Text
Now when all this was completed, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, shattered the pillars, cut the Asherim in pieces, and tore down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until the destruction was completed. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession.
(2 Chronicles 31:1 LSB)
The Unstoppable Consequence of True Worship
Let us examine the first clause:
"Now when all this was completed, all Israel who were present went out..." (2 Chronicles 31:1a)
The timing here is crucial. This is not a random act of religious fervor. It is the direct and immediate consequence of the great Passover. The phrase "when all this was completed" links the iconoclasm that follows to the covenant renewal that preceded it. They had spent weeks consecrating themselves, hearing the law, offering sacrifices, and singing praises to God. They had been reminded of who God is: holy, jealous, and worthy of exclusive devotion. And they had been reminded of who they were: His covenant people, redeemed from bondage for the express purpose of worshipping Him alone.
This is the divine pattern. First comes grace, then comes gratitude, and that gratitude expresses itself in radical obedience. God did not say, "Clean up the land, and then I will accept your worship." He said, "Come and worship Me," and the result of that worship was a people who could no longer tolerate the presence of idols. Their spiritual eyes had been cleansed by the Word and the sacrifice, and they now saw the pillars, the Asherim, and the high places for what they were: cosmic treason. They were abominations. They were spiritual adultery.
This is a profound lesson for us. We often try to reform our lives or our culture through sheer willpower, through political maneuvering, or through moralistic nagging. But lasting reformation is always downstream from revival. Lasting reformation is the fruit of a people who have been captivated by the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When a man truly sees God, he cannot help but hate his sin. When a people truly worship God, they cannot help but hate the idols of their age. The smashing of idols is not the precondition for revival; it is the evidence of it.
A Thorough and Ruthless Purgation
Notice the comprehensive nature of their work.
"...shattered the pillars, cut the Asherim in pieces, and tore down the high places and the altars..." (2 Chronicles 31:1b)
This was not a half-hearted, polite suggestion. The language is violent and absolute. They "shattered" the sacred pillars, which were phallic symbols associated with the worship of Baal. They "cut the Asherim in pieces," these were wooden poles or trees dedicated to the Canaanite fertility goddess. They "tore down" the high places and the altars. These were not places of neutral, generic spirituality. They were rival worship sites, explicitly forbidden by God, who had commanded that He be worshipped only in the place He chose, which was Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12). Even when these high places were used to worship Yahweh, they were an act of disobedience. It was syncretism. It was worshipping the true God in a false way, a way He had not commanded. This is the very essence of what the regulative principle of worship protects us from.
Their actions were thorough. They did not just put a fresh coat of paint on the high places. They did not repurpose the Asherah poles into something more culturally acceptable. They obliterated them. This is what God commands His people to do with idolatry. "You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire" (Deut. 7:5). Why? Because idolatry is a spiritual contagion. It is a cancer. You do not negotiate with cancer. You cut it out, completely and ruthlessly.
We must ask ourselves: where is this spirit today? We have made peace with a thousand idols. We have high places dedicated to materialism in our homes. We have Asherah poles of sexual immorality broadcasting into our living rooms. We have altars to self-esteem in our schools and even in our churches. And our response is often one of quiet accommodation. But this text calls us to a different standard. It calls us to identify the idols and, by the grace of God, to shatter them, cut them in pieces, and tear them down.
A Unified and Widespread Reformation
This was not the work of a few radicals. It was a corporate movement that extended beyond their own borders.
"...throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until the destruction was completed." (2 Chronicles 31:1c)
The reformation began in Judah and Benjamin, the southern kingdom, but it did not stop there. Fired with zeal, they went into Ephraim and Manasseh, territories of the northern kingdom which had already been decimated and exiled by the Assyrians. This was an act of missionary zeal. They were reclaiming the land for Yahweh. It shows us that true revival is never content to stay within its own neat boundaries. It overflows. It seeks to bring every area of life and land under the dominion of Jesus Christ.
And notice the beautiful phrase that concludes their work: "until the destruction was completed." They did not stop when they got tired. They did not stop when it became difficult or unpopular. They persevered until the job was done. This is the kind of dogged, persistent faithfulness that God honors. It is the opposite of our modern, project-based, short-attention-span Christianity. They understood that the land had to be thoroughly cleansed before it could be truly fruitful. They were not just getting rid of the idols; they were preparing the ground for blessing.
Returning to Rightful Order
Only after the land was purged could normal life resume in a state of blessing.
"Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession." (2 Chronicles 31:1d)
This final clause is packed with theological significance. After this great national act of repentance and purification, the people were able to return to their possessions. There is a direct link between obedience and possession, between holiness and inheritance. When Israel tolerated idolatry, they were constantly in danger of losing their land, their possessions, and their lives to their enemies. The idols they worshipped could not save them. But when they returned to Yahweh in wholehearted obedience, He secured their inheritance for them.
Their work and their property were now set on a new foundation. They returned to their cities not as citizens of a compromised, syncretistic nation, but as the cleansed people of God. Their daily labor, their family life, their economic activity was now re-contextualized. It was all to be done for the glory of the one true God, in a land that had been purged of His rivals. This is what it means to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When we put worship first, and when that worship leads to the destruction of our idols, then all these other things, our possessions, our security, our daily bread, are added to us.
Conclusion: Smashing Our Modern Idols
It is easy for us to read a passage like this and commend the zeal of ancient Israel, while remaining completely blind to the idols in our own midst. We may not have literal Asherah poles in our backyards, but our culture is saturated with idolatry. The state has become a new Baal, promising security and salvation in exchange for our absolute allegiance. Entertainment has become our Asherah, a goddess of pleasure and distraction we serve for hours every day. Our own autonomy, our right to define ourselves and our own reality, has become the ultimate high place, where we sacrifice our children on the altar of self-fulfillment.
The response required is the same. We need a revival of true worship, a fresh vision of the holiness and majesty of the triune God. We need to be so captivated by His glory that we are filled with a holy disgust for the cheap, tawdry idols of our age. And that worship must lead to action. It must lead to the shattering of these idols, first in our own hearts and homes. It means turning off the television. It means teaching our children the fear of the Lord, not the wisdom of the world. It means refusing to bow the knee to the dictates of a secular state when it commands what God forbids.
This is not a call to violent revolution in the streets, but it is a call to a thorough and ruthless spiritual reformation. It is a call to be a people so devoted to Christ that we can no longer tolerate His rivals. When we, like Israel, complete our worship, we too must go out. We must go out into our lives, our communities, and our culture, and in the power of the Spirit, we must tear down every argument and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). Only then, when the destruction of our idols is complete, can we truly and securely return to our possessions, living as the blessed and obedient people of God in the land He has given us.