Halloween Reflections

This idea or thought didn’t actually originate in my head.  I got this from a member of my men’s prayer group.  He read from Exodus and commented that he had raised this scripture in the context of Halloween as a topic of discussion in the teen boy’s group he teaches at his church.  This is what he read:

Ex 20:4-6 – You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,  but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.  NASU

There are some basic questions that Christians face when they look at this passage, which is the second of the Ten Commandments, in the context of Halloween.

• If I dress myself or my kids up am I inadvertently creating an idol?
• Is there any element of worship involved here, whether I can see it or not?
• Am I influencing others to violate this commandment by participating in Halloween like everybody else?
• Am I putting myself or my family at risk of being on the wrong end of God’s righteous jealousy?

It seems to me that we, in the church in North America, don’t take this commandment as seriously as we do the other nine.  This is really to our shame and guilt because it is the only one of the ten with a consequence attached.  As we look at this commandment we ought to be sure to understand why it is so different, so let me run through it.

We must first notice that it follows the primary command in all of scripture, the first commandment, which says:

Ex 20:3 – You shall have no other gods before Me.  NASU

So, God says that we should have no other gods before Him, and follows this with, don’t make an idol, and don’t worship idols or any other created thing or there is going to be a significant negative consequence.

This may not come across as a particularly loving statement if you don’t really connect with what God is trying to get us to understand.  After all, to the casual observer, it sounds like a threat of severe punishment at the hands of God if you even glance at any other object in a worshipful way, or craft a work of art involving a created thing.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

What God knows, and we ought to know as well, is that if our worship or affection or allegiance, meaning our hearts, are given to any person or thing other than God our souls will be perverted and will suffer some form of negative consequence.  God Himself may cause the negative consequence, or He may simply allow the natural consequences to occur.  Now let me explain why I consider this second commandment to be intensely loving and not the command of an egomaniac god.

Only God can provide us with what we need.  God has created this universe, particularly this world, for us to live in, it is He who provides the air, the food, the sun and all the other physical things we need for survival.  More important than that though, it is He who provides us each day our soul needs; for example rest, peace, encouragement, comfort and love.  And most importantly, our eternal salvation is only found in Him.  This is why if we follow or look to anything other than Him we might die, both physically and worse than that, spiritually.  So God warns us, he lovingly warns us, in this second commandment, to not create idols, which are false gods, because we will be tempted to worship them.  And if we take the eye of our heart away from God, which happens when we follow lesser gods we will get off the path of love and onto the path of destruction.

Is that not loving?

Is it not loving for Him to let us know that if we get off track by following false gods we, and our generations that follow, will suffer?  Is it not also loving to tell us what the greatest threat to our eternal security is; and that is idols?  Is it not loving to try to get us to understand that doing life His way, by not following idols, will lead to a multi-generational blessing?

As we consider how God’s lovingkindness is poured out on us through the second commandment, should we not now look at our Halloween activities from a new perspective?  Here are three simple questions that we can all address:

• Is my heart right before God in this, am I personally violating the second commandment?
• Am I participating in the idol worship of others, thereby supporting their sinful activity?
• Am I influencing others, particularly spiritually innocent people like children, in developing idol worship in their lives?

The point of even writing this blog is to get people to take a look at this issue.  Halloween can be fun, but it has a darker side too, and we all ought to be sure to pay attention to Christian fundamentals here.  In my opinion, the fundamentals that apply here are:

• Love God, with all our heart.  (Mk 12:30)
• Love others and ourselves.  (Mk 12:31)
• Worship God alone.  (Dt 6:13, Lk 4:8)

It might be good to remind ourselves of this instruction from God found in Deuteronomy:

Deut 6:13-15 – You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.  You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.  NASU

This is basically a restatement of the first and second commandment, and it serves us here as a final reminder of how strongly and seriously God takes the issue of idol worship.

Let’s all look at our Halloween practices in the light of the second commandment!