In I Corinthians 8 – 10 Paul addressed the issue of some believers engaging in a practice that is thought by the “strong” believer to be merely getting good meat at great prices by buying “leftover” meat at the temples of idols (which are not even real gods anyway), but are “misunderstood” by weaker believers who still consider eating that meat as participating in worshiping the “other god” as a “backup” in case Christ is unable/unwilling to provide everything for which we look to a god. It is “hedging your bets” by having more than one god. This matter isn’t settled until chapter 11, in the treatment of the Passover/Communion meal, with a call to each believer to “examine himself” before participating in the meal.
Hedging Bets in the Old Testament – Having More Than One Provider
The practice of hedging one’s bets by having more than one god was widespread throughout the world, and openly endorsed in Greek and Roman religious practice. It also appears in the history of believers throughout time. Here is a brief review.
Genesis 31:19. When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. Both Rachel and Leah knew of the true God by name (Jehovah, written ‘the LORD’).
“When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved (by Jacob) He opened her womb,…” Gen. 29:31. “Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery….” Gen. 29:32. She knows Jacob’s God by name, and believes that He is the one who provided for her.
After a time of barrenness Rachel “… gave birth to a son and said “God has taken away my disgrace.” She named him Joseph, and said “May the LORD add to me another son.” Gen. 30:23-24. So we see that Rachel knows of and worshiped the LORD, but also stole her father’s household idols.
These idols don’t just disappear. They make the trip to Canaan, Egypt, Mount Sinai, across the Jordan back into Canaan, and are referred to by Joshua in his farewell address.
Joshua 24:2-3, 14-15, 16-18, 19-21, 23-24. Joshua said to all the people. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants…”
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, they choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
“Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! …We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”
Joshua said to the people, “you are not able to serve the LORD….But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”
“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.”
Throughout the times of the Judges and the kings of Israel the issue of idolatry comes up again and again as the people prove to unable to worship the LORD alone. Some of the time they abandon the LORD for other gods, but several times they worshiped both at the same time.
Jereboam’s “alternate worship sites”
I Kings 12:26-30. Jereboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If the people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam…. After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt….And this thing became a sin…”
I Kings 18:21. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
Ahab and Jehoshaphat: Prophets claiming falsely to be prophets of the LORD.
I Kings 22:5,11-12, 17,23-24. But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.”
Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’” All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master…”
So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.” Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.
Zephaniah 1:4-5. “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests- those who bow down on the housetops to worship the starry host,
those who bow down and swear by the LORD and who also swear by Molech,
those who turn back from following the LORD,
and neither seek the LORD nor Inquire of him.”
We finally find out what the idols are supposed to provide, and it’s basic. Food, drink, clothes.
Hosea provides a context for Jesus’ comments during the Sermon on the Mount regarding who it is that provides for you.
Hosea 2:5, 8, 16-17 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.” … She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold, which they used for Baal. … “In that day,” declares the LORD, “…I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.”
Jeremiah 12:2 “…You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.”
17:7 (NIV) But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.
17:7 (TANAKH) Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD, Whose trust is in the LORD alone.
Hedging Bets in the New Testament – Trusting The Provision Instead Of The Provider
Among the Jews blatant idolatry is gone. The only references to the baals is to the one from Ekron, and it’s called “the prince of demons.” 2 Kings 1:2, 3,6,16, King Ahaziah is injured, and he sends messengers to inquire of the Baal of Zebub, and Elijah is sent to challenge this. That converts to Beel Zebub in Luke 11:15, where the pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebub.
The lesson seems to have been learned. But they have just replaced the idols with money that can buy that for which they trusted the idols. Jesus addresses it in the Sermon on the Mount, and He’s serious.
Matthew 7:24-34 “No one can serve two masters. … You cannot serve both God and Money.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,or about your body, what you will wear. … Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds… your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?…. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies … If that is how God clothes the grass …will he not much more clothe you, O you of little Faith? … your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We see that trust in Money to provide for you is the same as trusting an idol to provide for you.
One or the other is a backup in case God fails to provide something. Jesus applies this principle when he sends out the disciples to evangelize Israel, and to the rich young ruler.
Luke 9:3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.”
Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him. “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
He actually expects us to trust Him fully for what He knows we need. This is not about not working or being irresponsible, but rather about trusting Him instead of what he has provided to meet our needs. Deuteronomy 8:18 “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth …”
In Corinth they were coming out of a Multiple Providers culture, so some still revert in understanding to think that there is something real behind those other gods.
So we have a context for understanding that when Paul writes “…Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled” (I Corinthians 8:7) he is addressing the idea that the stronger brother appears to the weaker brother as worshiping both Christ and the idol to whom the meat was sacrificed.
He drills down on this in chapter 10:14-21.
“Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. … Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. … Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”
Joshua’s admonition to “Choose this day whom you will serve” reverberates in Paul’s exhortation. Choose ONE, not both, because you can’t serve both. Paul moves on to press the point that, although you have freedom in Christ, not everything is beneficial, and leading a brother to consider turning aside to eat meat offered to an idol, and in so doing worship any other god is certainly not beneficial. Verses 31,32, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God -”
Hedging Bets in Our Lives Today
We don’t have the baals anymore, at least not in our experiences, but we do have a big dependence on Money, and it’s subdivisions of Social Security, Medical Services and Funding of Medical Services (based on the frequency of allegations related to the other party cutting each in almost every political race in this country), and our focus on funding our retirement. If we are going to rely on these, we need to make it clear that we do not see these provisions as outside of God’s provision for us, and acknowledge openly that if that provision fails we still trust Christ to provide for us. “Everything is permissible” – but not everything is beneficial.
In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul brings this into the realm of corporate worship. We are one body, and need to recognize that we are not alone in this worship, so we should be mindful and respectful of other believers with whom we worship, avoiding offense whenever possible, but especially in the context of eating the Lord’s Supper. There is an unworthy manner referred to in v. 27, one that makes one “guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” It’s hedging our bets.
This calls for us to examine ourselves, turn away from any unbelief we find in ourselves and any other thing we may trust to give us that which we think we are not finding in Christ, and then we can participate fully in the Lord’s Supper in a way pleasing to our Christ and supportive of His body with which we meet for worship.