Recently I noticed a large bill poster for a clothing company with a picture of a teenager in a new dress and the only text on the poster was in large capitals OMG. The great god consumerism using the name of the Almighty to sell dresses, I found quite offensive.

 

We are such consumers in the West myself included, bombarded by adverts even in times of debt showing us things we cannot afford but immediately want, the new ad for John Lewis which depicts a woman's happy life from infancy to old age almost to  seems to suggest that all through her life the dependable icon is a store. We have made things our idols, we seek comfort and pleasure from them, security and peace and even though somewhere deep down we know they can offer us none of that we still buy more and more.

 

I have in turns been entertained, enchanted and amused by the story of Jonah and the whale but when I read it today a phrase I have never noticed before jumped out at me.

"Those who cling to worthless idols

forfeit the grace which could be theirs" Jonah 1 vs 8

 

God is not condemning us for  our idol worship but he is saying look what you are missing