Untitled Sermon

Idolatry in OT

Synopsis

Scripture provides illustrations of idolatry from various periods in the history of the people of God. Idolatry is seen as a constant temptation for believers, especially in times of national or personal stress.

Idolatry among the Gentiles

Jdg 11:24; Jdg 16:23–24; 2 Ki 5:18; Is 36:18–20; Is 37:38; Is 46:1; Eze 8:14; Ac 14:11–13; 1 Co 8:5

Judges 11:24 (NKJV) — 24 Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God takes possession of before us, we will possess.

Judges 16:23–24 (NKJV) — 23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said: “Our god has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy!” 24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, And the one who multiplied our dead.”

2 Kings 5:18 (NKJV) — 18 Yet in this thing may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing.”

Isaiah 36:18–20 (NKJV) — 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

Isaiah 37:38 (NKJV) — 38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Isaiah 46:1 (NKJV) — 1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, A burden to the weary beast.

Ezekiel 8:14 (NKJV) — 14 So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Acts 14:11–13 (NKJV) — 11 Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.

1 Corinthians 8:5 (NKJV) — 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),

Idolatry among God’s people

In patriarchal times

Jos 24:2

Joshua 24:2 (NKJV) — 2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.

See also Ge 31:30; Ge 31:34 these household gods may have been either masks or statuettes; Ge 35:2

Genesis 31:30 (NKJV) — 30 And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”

Genesis 31:34 (NKJV) — 34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them.

Genesis 35:2 (NKJV) — 2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.

In the Mosaic period

Ex 32:4

Exodus 32:4 (NKJV) — 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

In the period of the judges

Jdg 17:5

Judges 17:5 (NKJV) — 5 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

See also Jdg 10:6

Judges 10:6 (NKJV) — 6 Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him.

In the early monarchy

1 Ki 11:10

1 Kings 11:10 (NKJV) — 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.

See also 1 Ki 12:28 The golden calves were perhaps pedestals on which the Lord was thought to sit.

1 Kings 12:28 (NKJV) — 28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

In the middle monarchy

1 Ki 16:33 An Asherah pole was probably a crude carved wooden image of a Canaanite fertility goddess.

1 Kings 16:33 (NKJV) — 33 And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

See also 1 Ki 11:7–8; 1 Ki 16:32

1 Kings 11:7–8 (NKJV) — 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. 8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

1 Kings 16:32 (NKJV) — 32 Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.

In the late monarchy

2 Ki 21:2–6

2 Kings 21:2–6 (NKJV) — 2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

After the fall of Jerusalem

Eze 8:10

Ezekiel 8:10 (NKJV) — 10 So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.

See also Eze 8:3; Eze 8:14; Eze 8:16

Ezekiel 8:3 (NKJV) — 3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy.

Ezekiel 8:14 (NKJV) — 14 So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Ezekiel 8:16 (NKJV) — 16 So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

Objects of false worship

The sun, moon and stars

Dt 4:19

Deuteronomy 4:19 (NKJV) — 19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.

See also Dt 17:3; Job 31:26

Deuteronomy 17:3 (NKJV) — 3 who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded,

Job 31:26 (NKJV) — 26 If I have observed the sun when it shines, Or the moon moving in brightness,

Other objects of worship

Dt 4:28

Deuteronomy 4:28 (NKJV) — 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

See also Dt 16:22 sacred stones; 1 Ki 12:31 high places; Is 1:29 oaks

Deuteronomy 16:22 (NKJV) — 22 You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

1 Kings 12:31 (NKJV) — 31 He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

Isaiah 1:29 (NKJV) — 29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees Which you have desired; And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens Which you have chosen.

Practices associated with idolatry

The burning of children

2 Ki 23:10

2 Kings 23:10 (NKJV) — 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.

The superstitious use of religious symbols

2 Ki 18:4

2 Kings 18:4 (NKJV) — 4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.

See also Jdg 8:27 The ephod was a priestly garment sometimes subject to excessive veneration.

Judges 8:27 (NKJV) — 27 Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

Sexual deviance

Dt 23:17

Deuteronomy 23:17 (NKJV) — 17 “There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel.

See also 1 Ki 14:24; Ho 4:14

1 Kings 14:24 (NKJV) — 24 And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

Hosea 4:14 (NKJV) — 14 “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, Nor your brides when they commit adultery; For the men themselves go apart with harlots, And offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.