May 19, 2009
Asherah Pole
We’re currently in the process of buying a restaurant which we will then turn into a church. It would be much simpler if there wasn’t a beautiful 45 foot bar wrapping itself around one edge of the soon-to-be worship area. As you can imagine, on one side we have those who want to keep the bar intact and on the other there are those who want it completely removed. One group is arguing for a serving area, welcome center and Starbucks watering hole. The other contends it takes up too much room and it’s designed for sitting not standing. I don’t think it’s a large leap to compare the restaurant bar with the worship places of other gods mentioned in the Old Testament. King Hezekiah, “…did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.” (2 Kings 18:1-4 NIV) A bar by any other name does not a welcome center make…
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Gail;
-----Hezekiah cut down the Asherah poles because they were used for the ancient worship of the queen of heaven, and would probably continue to be so used if left standing. Some scholars believe the Asherah poles were actually just trees, or groves of trees. If this were so, then Hezekiah’s cutting them down might be more understandable as a Biblical imperative for eliminating the bar from your new facility. For a grove of trees could be useful for purposes other than worshipping Asherah. But since these poles were often referred to as having been erected, since the Phoenicians commonly made their poles of stone, and since Hezekiah not only cut down the poles but also smashed the sacred stones, they probably were not simply trees. Their being poles would seriously limit their utility to Asherah worship, especially in light of the fact that they were usually roughly carved into female shapes. There is not much else to do with them than to cut them down.
-----Both the Asherah poles and your bar are merely objects. It is the use of an object that is good or bad. A car can be used to carry you to church or robbers from a bank. When I was a child, my parents bought a car in which I heard some gentlemen had committed suicide. It often felt odd to ride in that car, and I often thought about it, but it still brought the groceries home. That the bar in your new facility was used for serving alcoholic beverages is no magic formula that it will continue to be used as such. Gideon ordered an Asherah pole to be cut down and used to fire a burnt offering. This was probably about as much other utility as could be made of it, and a particularly good use considering the insult to what it was that using it to fuel an offering to the true God made.
-----I can see the same effect made at your facility by leaving the bar there and using it for serving the Lord instead of alcohol. Think further than just serving coffee and donuts. Growth in the Lord is about knowledge and wisdom. Much knowledge and wisdom are found in books and periodicals. Where the whiskey bottles were could be many good books and reading materials. The television that entertained drinkers could run documentaries. Folks could sit at the bar, read, drink coffee, eat donuts, visit, or just watch Vegitales. And the wonderful thing about it is that there would not be a drop of liquor served. It would be like burning the old use of the bar under the new offering of spiritual growth without paying iconoclastic homage to a simple object.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
PS - Isn’t it nice to have a little conflict again? The effects of plans and objects cast amongst a group of religious people are always a bit comical.
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