What’s the true connection between “IDOL WORSHIP” and God’s seeming violent reaction toward it?

Exodus 20:4-6

“You shall not make yourself any graven {refers to the household gods of idolaters. “Every nation and city had its own gods. Yet every family had its separate household or tutelary god.” } image [to worship { A title of honor, used in addresses to certain magistrates and other of respectable character.} or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me,But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments."

THIS COMMAND IS VERY CLEAR TO ME, IS IT NOT CLEAR TO YOU? 

HOW COULD ANYONE "MISINTERPRET"THIS CLEAR STATEMENT AGAINST HAVING PERSONAL OR NATIONAL IDOLS TO WORSHIP (Give credit for life) or BOW DOWN TO (Give over control of life too).

WHAT DO THESE "MILLIONS AND MILLIONS" OF IDOLS AROUND THE WORLD MEAN IN THE BIG PICTURE OF WHAT GOD SEES?

KEEP IN MIND THAT THERE WERE "NO IDOLS WHATSOEVER"BEFORE THE FLOOD!

Why ?

I believe that the CLOSER that one gets to the time of Adam & Eve, the greater the PURE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LIVING GOD'S EXISTENCE & PRESENCE IS BOTH "FELT BY THE SENSES"and "SEEN WITH THE PHYSICAL EYES".

BUT THE FARTHER YOU GET FROM THE TIME OF THE GREAT FLOOD, AFTER GOD CAME DOWN TO "CONFUSE THE LANGUAGES & SPREAD MAN OUT INTO ALL THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE PRESENCE OF GOD DIMINISHED IN THE "PRESENCE OF MAN" AND MAN ONLY "PASSED GOD ON AS A STORY OF THE PAST.

THAT STORY TELLING WAS PASSED ON FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR MAN TO RECALL GOD.

THEY "INVENTED IDOLS" FROM THE "MYTH" and THE FACT OF GOD MIXED TOGETHER.

IDOLS BECAME THE REPRESENTATIVE'S OF WHAT GOD WAS TO THOSE WHO TOLD THE ANCIENT STORIES AND FROM "INNOCENT INTENTIONS", FROM HEARTS THAT WISHED TO WORSHIP THE GOD OF ANCIENT HISTORY WAS BORN AN ABOMINATION THE BIBLE CALLS "WILL WORSHIP".

This is where we actually worship our own reason,and understanding of God as we see him,rather than what the bible teaches about God.

{From our MINDS are born false idols, the reflections of those mis-understandings.}

Exodus 34:14

"For you shall worship no other god; for the Lord, Whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God,"

NOW, LOOK CAREFULLY AT THIS VERSE ...GOD'S NAME IS IMPASSIONED, IN OTHER WORDS HIS "AUTHORITY TO DO WHAT HE DOES AGAINST "IDOLS" IS IMPASSIONED, HE'S VERY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS AND WILL NEVER BACK DOWN!

NOW ASK YOURSELF WHY IS HE SO IMPASSIONED ABOUT THIS?

Deuteronomy 4:24

"For the Lord your God is a consuming{Burning; wasting; destroying; expending; eating; devouring.} fire, a jealous { An Impassioned} God."

Deuteronomy 6:15 

"For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous {IMPASSIONED} God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from the face of the earth."

WHY?

Because of IDOLS!

Deuteronomy 32:16,21

"They provoked {Excited; roused; incited; made angry; incensed.} Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations they provoked Him to anger....They have moved Me to jealousy {IMPASSIONED} with what is not God; they have angered Me with their idols. So I will move them to jealousy {TO BE IMPASSIONED TOWARD} with those who are not a people {GOD PLACED THEM IN THE HANDS OF THOSE WHO "INVENTED" THEIR FALSE gods,to show them that these gods could not save them from his judgment!}; I will anger them with a foolish { Nation without UNDERSTANDING, A} nation { that WORSHIPS OTHER GODS THAT MY PEOPLE "THINK" ARE GODS,THAT ARE "NO GODS"}.

1 Samuel 15:23 

"For rebellion {An open and avowed renunciation of the authority of the government to which one owes allegiance; or the taking of arms traitorously to resist the authority of lawful government; revolt. } is as the sin of witchcraft{ The practices of witches; sorcery; enchantments; intercourse OR interaction of powers of deception with the devil}, and stubbornness {Perverse and unreasonable obstinacy; inflexibility } is as idolatry { The worship of idols, images, or any thing made by hands, or which is not God.

Idolatry is of two kinds

the worship of images, statues, pictures, made by hands; and the worship of the heavenly bodies,the sun, moon and stars, or of demons, angels, men and animals. Excessive attachment or veneration for any thing, or that which borders on adoration. } and teraphim (household good luck images).

"Because you have rejected {Thrown away; cast off; refused; slighted. } the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king."

THIS IS KEY HERE ABOUT GOD,HE WILL NOT PUNISH WHAT THAT WHICH HE HAS NOT PRE-WARNED US ABOUT,WE MUST "REJECT" WHAT GOD COMMANDS TO BE DONE OR NOT DONE BEFORE HIS JUDGMENT FALLS!

"Detestable or Extremely hateful; abominable; very odious; deserving abhorrence." An intolerant word that does not belong in the mouths of enlightened people. Or does it ?

We live in an era where native religions are looked upon with respect and interest, almost with longing. Native American religions are the current fad in the US, while in Britain there is a renewed interest in the religion of the ancient Druids. One question that is not asked very loudly is, "What does the true God think of these religions?"

Scripture indicates that God takes false religions with extreme seriousness, since they pose a great threat to the purity of his people's faith.

Canaan was populated by a conglomeration of many emigrant peoples, there were many variations and some local deities, not to mention the many gods worshiped in Egypt.

Dagon was worshiped by the Philistines. Chemosh, Milkom, and Molech are probably different names for the same god worshiped by the Ammonites which involved child sacrifice.

Baal and Ashtoreth

The chief Canaanite fertility gods, however, were Baal and Ashtoreth. Baal (the son of El) was revered as the god with power over rain, wind, clouds, and therefore over fertility. Ashtoreth was a Semite goddess derived from the Babylonian god Ishtar. As worshiped locally in Canaan, she was the consort of Baal, and supposedly brought fertility to the people who worshiped her.

While temples are occasionally mentioned, Canaanite worship often took place in open-air sites at the tops of hills, referred to in the Bible as "high places." Usually there was a masseba or stone pillar erected as a symbol of the male deity and an asherah representing the female counterpart, some sort of wooden pole or image of the goddess. In front of these was a sacrificial altar.

Cult Prostitution

Craigie and Wilson describe some of the worship:

"Characteristic of Canaanite fertility ritual is the association of male and female 'holy ones' (cult prostitutes) with temples and shrines of the fertility deities. By joining in the activities of cultic sexuality, common people could participate in 'stockpiling' fertility energy, which ensured the continuing stability of agricultural as well as human and animal productivity. 

Archaeological excavations in Canaanite locations have uncovered temples with chambers where sexual activity took place. Also, many iconographic representations of the fertility goddess with exaggerated sexual features have been discovered. The influence of the fertility cult was widespread; it was combated fiercely in Israel as alien to the covenant faith (e.g. Hosea 1-3)" (P.C. Craigie and G.H. Wilson, ISBE 4:100).

But an even greater danger than the detestable practices of Canaanite religion, were the assumptions that underlay them, which were diametrically opposed to the worship of Yahweh. We need to consider carefully how the worship of the true God differed.

Monotheism

We take monotheism, the worship of one God, for granted. But the Israelites lived in a culture, both in Egypt and now in Canaan, where many gods were worshiped. The First Commandment was clear:

"You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). 

The great saying of Israel, the Shema, became its hallmark and identifying feature down through the centuries, even quoted by Jesus (Mark 12:29):

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

The TRUE Christian understanding of the Trinity is also monotheistic. We believe in a tri-unity, "God in three persons.

But Canaanite religion challenged this monotheism, and Israel was constantly tempted to worship additional gods for added "insurance" against bad crops or infertility of herds JUST IMAGINE,HAVING TO HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH AN ANIMAL TO PRODUCE "FERTILITY" for your herds...that is what these gods demanded of their worshipers.

Idolatry

Another earmark of the worship of Yahweh was that He was invisible.

Paul's doxology in 1 Timothy 1:17 summarizes this unique understanding of the true God:

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen" (KJV).

" Even though various prophets have had visions of God, "No one has ever seen God {IN HIS COMPLETE REVEALED GLORY}, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1:18). 

He lives in glory, glory so unapproachable that Moses could not see God's face but only his backside (Exodus 33:20-23), and speaking to him left a glow on Moses' face (Exodus 34:29).

Though God is spoken of in various places in Scripture as having human attributes -- the hand of God, the arm of the Lord -- these are figurative, anthropomorphisms, just as is the reference to him sheltering his people under his wings (Psalm 91:4).

According to Jesus, God is spirit, not flesh (John 4:24) and must be worshiped that way.

The miracle of the Incarnation is that "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Failure to understand the invisibility and immortality of God is serious. In our day, Mormons misunderstand this. They teach that God the Father had a body just like us. Their God is intensely physical.

What does this have to do with idolatry? 

Idolatry stems from a basic misunderstanding of the immortal and invisible spirit-nature of God. It tries to depict God in a physical way so he can be visualized and worshiped concretely. 

In the Ten Commandments God gave very specific commands against this:

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" (Exodus 20:4; KJV).

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness had no physical God in its "Holy of Holies," only an ark, which represented his throne. The absence of an image on this throne was a telling reminder that the true God transcended a desert tent. Even Solomon, when dedicating the glorious temple in Jerusalem, prayed, "The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27)

The Protestants stripped sanctuaries of any kind of decoration. They KNEW that the Catholic images of the saints had become idols to be worshiped in and of themselves.

Catholic theologians counter that the Church has always taught that these images are not to be worshiped, but to serve as reminders.

BUT that's the exact same thing ALL IDOLATERS SAY ABOUT THEIR FALSE WORSHIP!

Nevertheless, there is always the danger that we will try to HARDEN God into an image or icon or statuette which we can venerate.

That is what Israel's neighbors were doing with their household idols and the statues of their gods at their high places. And this danger of idolatry is always a threat to a true understanding of God. 

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen" (1 Tim. 1:17).

Detestable

While we may be "Forgiving and tolerant, the very survival of the people of Israel depended upon them being intolerant of the religions around them. Most of us in the Western world live in pluralistic societies that are governed as a democracy, where the majority rules.

We cannot understand ancient Israel unless we understand it as a completely different kind of nation, a theocracy ruled by a king -- God himself (and through human kings who are to rule on God's behalf). A theocracy cannot tolerate other religions any more than a democracy can tolerate organizations whose aim is the violent overthrow the constituted government. If we tolerate subversives and traitors to our government, we sow the seeds of the destruction of our way of life. Treason against the king in a theocracy is worship of another king or god, and cannot be tolerated.

The Bible refers to these false gods as detestable. God, through Moses, commanded them, "Completely destroy them -- the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites -- as the LORD your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy. 20:17-18. See also Genesis 15:16; 2 Kings 21:11; Ezra 9:1; 1 Kings 11:5-7; 1 Kings 14:24; 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 23:13; 2 Chronicles 36:14; Ezra 9:11; Judges 10:6.)

The beliefs and practices of the Canaanites were not only detestable, they also defiled and degraded the people who practiced them { The LAND ITSELF WAS COMPLETELY POLLUTED BY THEIR SEXUAL AND HUMAN SACRIFICE and After a list of sexual sins, God commands the Israelites in Leviticus:

Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways { In incestuous copulations and marriages, in adultery, corporeal and spiritual, and bestiality , God made laws against unnatural lusts, sodomy and bestiality, sins not to be named nor thought of without the utmost abhorrence imaginable, Lev_18:22 "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. "

Lev 18:23 

"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion"...OF WHAT ? Think about this for a moment,sexual sins with men can lead them to mental confusion by the very "spiritual nature" of sex..so HOW MUCH MORE WITH ANIMALS!"

Other sins level men with the beasts, but these sink them much lower. That there ever should have been occasion for the making of these laws is bad enough, since they were published by God to men that they should ever have been broken is even more disturbing, it is the perpetual reproach and scandal of human nature; and the giving of men up to these vile affections was frequently the punishment of their idolatries; so the apostle shows,

Rom_1:24 

"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:" }, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws."

 

The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.

" And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you (Leviticus 18:24-28).

These seven nations of the land of Canaan, which God ejected out of their land to make room for the them, and on account of the above shocking common vices which abounded among them; so the land they dwelt upon was defiled by there personal & national sins, even the land called for vengeance on them as Abel's blood called out to God, as even loathing its inhabitants.

Think about how you would feel as a parent if all your training and loving personal touch were being consistently threatened by an outside source every time you released your children into the hands of their school by "DETESTABLE" teaching about unnatural things TAUGHT AS NORMAL EVERYDAY OCCURRENCE THAT SHOULD BE TOLERATED AND ALLOWED TO HAPPEN AS A NATURAL LOVE BETWEEN CONSENTING ADULTS. 

How would you feel about that happening to you? 

WELL THAT'S JUST WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO GOD, HIS PLANS ARE BEING CONSTANTLY OVERTHROWN,NOT BY SATAN; BUT BY HIS OWN CHILDREN...CAN WE HONESTLY TRY TO CONVINCE OURSELVES THAT GOD HAS NO RIGHT TO BE "JEALOUS" AND POSSESSIVE OF HIS OWN CREATION, JUST AS YOU AS A PARENT ARE OF YOUR CHILDREN?


Idolatry in the Pentateuch: An Innertextual Strategy

 A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry 

The Baal Conspiracy: An Expose' of Everyday Idolatry 

The Idolatry of Black America 

At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry Workbook