idolatry consumerism link

Gordon McConville in Exploring the Old Testament V0l. 4: The Prophets in chapter 6 (Hosea)
makes a connection between Idolatry and consumerism.
This is a connection I had not heard before.

In fact McConville even relates consumerism to Baa-worship: "trying to secure the goods of life without receiving them as God's gift."

McConville, say: "idolatry is the most serious evil, becuase it makes 'god' what is not God. Martin Luther sad: 'The confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.' "

Here is another interesting angle to the argument from The Simple Pastor and The Gospel Coalition:


"The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust. Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power through weakness and service, and comes to wealth through giving all away...Indifference to the poor and disadvantaged means there has not been a true grasp of our salvation by sheer grace."