Forbidden Worship
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Forbidden Worship
Forbidden Worship
Our worship must not reverse God’s order
Last week, we began Deut 4, where Moses is continuing his speech to the younger generation of Israelites, the ones who were young at the beginning of the wandering in the desert, as well as some who were born during that time. Moses had commanded obedience, ultimately the obedience being to God, because the commands Moses was giving were from God, not from Moses.
After speaking on the topic of obedience and making a strong case for why the Israelites needed to remain obedient to God, now Moses moves into an extended portion of his speech on idolatry, which is our study this morning. Moses will explain to the people why they are not to make idols, some of the consequences of idolatry, and finally, what to do if you are guilty of idolatry. So as I read be aware of those three themes in today’s passage. The reasons we must not make or worship idols, the consequences of worshiping idols, and what to do if we are guilty of worshiping idols. And hopefully as we study this passage together this morning, we will all find an application in our own lives in regards to this very important topic.
“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
“When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
A constant reminder is found throughout scripture, and that constant reminder is that we are supposed to give ourselves constant reminders to serve and obey the Lord. So here Moses says, “Watch yourselves very carefully.” Remember he had just previously made a dissertation on the importance of obedience, and in light of that, he puts in a therefore. So in light of the importance of obedience, therefore, watch yourselves. Watch yourselves in this particular way, he will be going on, that you do not fall into idolatry.
Paul now begins to give reasons why idolatry is wrong. Now, sometimes we are simply told to obey something, even though we may not understand the reasoning. But here Moses is giving us reasoning. God is reasonable with us. Isaiah 1.18 says Come, let us reason together. So Moses begins to explain why making idols is an affront to God. He starts out saying that first of all, you do not have a picture or image of God to make an idol of in the first place. You saw no form. God did not reveal himself to the people as a creature. They only heard his voice from the midst of the fire.
So first off, if we are determined to make an idol of God, whether an image or a statue, the only way we could come up with any ideas is in our own mind. Never mind that Michaelangelo and others have depicted God in human form, here we can clearly see that this is forbidden. He isn’t an old man reaching his finger out as portrayed in the Sistene Chapel.
Having no form, God is spirit, scripture tells us. Jesus said: John4.24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Since God has no form, people are not supposed to act corruptly by making a carved image. Now Moses gives several specific examples: male or female, likenesses of animals, likeness of birds, fish, and so on. then he continues to say not only should you not make images of things on the earth, but also things above:
And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
This is very interesting, the specific examples Moses gives here. In fact, if you have done any amount of study of the creation account in Genesis, some of this language seems familiar. I believe Moses here is intentionally drawing us back to the creation, so that we can make a proper association and understand his reasoning of why we must not engage in making idols that represent the things of the creation.
Created things should not be worshiped over the creator, so Moses says don’t worship the sun and stars, because they are created. Sounds like day one and day four of the creation. He says don’t worship fish or birds. Sounds like day five of the creation. He says don’t worship animals, or people, male or female. Sounds like day six of the creation.
So in the creation account, we see again and again that God created. He created, theologians say, ex nilo, out of nothing. He spoke the world into existence, so there is nothing in all creation that deserves our worship, but only the one who is the creator. Idolatry makes a mockery of God’s order of things.
God was above man, above heaven and earth and all creation. He put man in dominion over the earth, meaning that animals and all of nature is subject to the care and concern of man. We are supposed to take care of it. Subdue it. So what happens when you take the order God set and reverse it? Idolatry is taking that which is supposed to be lower than man, subject to man, under the care and concern of man, and turning it into an object of worship. No one who worships the creation can also properly worship the creator at the same time.
When we marvel at a massive building, we wonder who the architect is. When we experience a well-planned community, where the roads and traffic, the utilities, the parks, everything is ordered and beautiful, we realize that there is a talented person or team overseeing all of it to make it work so well. When we see a beautiful garden, we give the gardener credit for her work and understanding of plant life to make it so beautiful. When we see other artistic expressions, we give credit to the artist.
If we made out that the building was greater than its architect, or the community greater than the overseers, or the garden greater than the gardener, or the art greater than the artist, we diminish the talent, the hard work and the creativity of those responsible for the beauty in our lives. And to place any of God’s creation on a pedestal to worship it, to make it to be the thing of wonder, rather than the God who spoke it into existence, is affront to God, and insult. it is cosmic treason to make out that the creation itself deserves any kind of worship rather than the creation.
And according to scripture, this really ends up being the great charge against mankind. In Romans 1, Paul writes about what is bringing God’s wrath on the world, because of the unrighteousness of the world, Paul writes, God is revealing his wrath. And what is the culmination of the sins that bring God’s wrath? Idolatry.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
This is what ultimately brings God’s wrath on the sinful, that they have ignored him, but chosen to worship the creation. There is no excuse, nature cries out to us that there is a creator. But mankind gives no thanks to the creator, or any honor. They exchange the glory of God for images. This is the reversal of God’s proper order of things. He is on top, man under him, and creation under man, and idolatry reverses this. They take the lowest thing and make it the highest thing. The created things become objects of worship rather than the Creator. Not only does man place nature above man, it places nature above God. And sometimes they idolater will claim they are worshiping God in this, because in worshipping the creation they worship him, but this cannot be true. Why?
Because of the clear commands of scripture not to do it. If God is God, and his word tells us not to worship the creation, then we ought not to worship it. When I come home and one of my daughters shows me a picture she has made, I praise her, not the picture. I say great job to her, not the picture. Anyone creative will tell you, if they can admit it, that they very much desire to be recognized for their work.
So many artists end up frustrated because their work never gets noticed. Some people take it for granted. The artists in the family is expected to do some free work for friends. And this is what is called presumption. You are my family member or friend, you have this talent, I hope you will use it to benefit me. Or the mechanic in the family who is expected to fix everyone’s stuff just for the privilege of helping. We can understand this when we are the one being presumed upon, but we don’t understand it as well when we are the one doing the presuming.
If humans, who ultimately are created, can be frustrated by those who are presumptuous, how much more must it frustrate God when we presume upon Him? We presume he needs our help, or we presume he would be happy to have us worship his creation. Or we presume upon his kindness, mercy, and grace. Let us not be presumptuous people, not with each other, of course, but certainly not with God. The ultimate slap in the face to God is that we think he has a face to slap, or that we think we know better than he does about how we are to go about worshiping him.
Moving further into our passage, Moses gives further reason why these people, the Israelites, are not to make idols.
But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
Egypt, like many pagan nations, was filled with false gods. They worshiped just about everything you could think of. In fact, there were many temples to various animals who were worshiped as gods. It was sort of like going to the zoo, only you worshiped the animals. SO maybe one temple has a bull. It would always be a first born. You would go to see the bull, lay down a gift of food or money, and bow down to it, supposedly for some favor that god would do for you. It was always the first born. And this is important to understand, because when God finally showed his power over the gods (small g) of Egypt, it included the death of the firstborn, not only of people, but of livestock. (Ex12.29)
So not only did the pagan Egyptians wake up to the death of the first born (and scripture does not specify that it was only first born children. The firstborn could be a grown up as well). It wasn’t only the firstborn of people, but on that day, you may imagine a distraught mother or father, going to the temple of the animal deity they were accustomed to worship, to appeal to for good luck and fortune, and arriving at that temple, finding the animal that represented their god, dead as well.
The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”
You see, Gos is never going to tolerate for ever the idolatry of created men who worship created things. He brought them out of Egypt in a way that showed his intolerance towards idol worship. 20 times in Deuteronomy the people are reminded that God took them out of Egypt. They were to leave behind the evil they encountered there, primarily, the worship of idols.
Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.
This is the third time Moses has brought this up in this speech. Now, some have said he was obsessing over it. Reading between the lines, though, I think we could safely say that Moses had a purpose in this. He wanted the people to learn something from his own experience. Wanting others to learn from our mistakes is not wrong. We must be careful on the extremes. We don’t want to come across as a martyr, but we also don’t want to come across as though our lives never had difficulties or trials.
Moses clearly feels a deep sense of grief over the consequences of his failure, and we discussed this already so I won’t rehash all that, but you can go back and listen to the sermon on that if you like. He has sorrow over it, but he is also holding it out as a lesson, a warning to others.
Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.
Now, there is one more reason for not creating idols implied in here, and that is that if you made it with your own hands, how can it be helpful to you? This may seem very logical, yet throughout human history people have been doing this. Both Jeremiah and Isaiah outright mocked those who make idols.
for the customs of the peoples are vanity.
A tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
They decorate it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so that it cannot move.
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.”
Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!
They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
or save him from his trouble.
Everyone helps his neighbor
and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,
and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
I won’t read it now, but Isaiah 44:12-20 has another example where he outright mocks the concept of idol worship.
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
His wrath will destroy the wicked. His power is great. The Psalmist wrote, the mountains melt like wax before the presence of the Lord. Don’t be caught up in his wrath! Don’t worship idols! Because now we will begin to see the consequences of disobedience in this arena. The consequences are death, banishment, destruction. The penalties of disobedience are very grave, very sad, very scary.
When we get to Deut 28 we will see the curse laid out, and they are very graphic and very frightening. In that chapter we see the blessing of being faithful and the curses for disobedience. Guess what? The blessings are 14 verses, the curses are 54 verses. The cost of disobedience is very grave indeed. Even to the point of hunger where a man would eat the flesh of his own children and be so greedy as to not even share it. Deut28.54-55 Also a mother would even eat from her afterbirth secretly because she lacks everything. (Deut28.56-57)
“When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Now here is irony. This passage drips with irony. If you act corruptly by making a carved image you will perish, be destroyed, and scattered. And when you are scattered, it will be to places where idol worship is the way of life. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone.
Isn’t it interesting that the Bible often tells us that the consequences of our sin is that we will do more sin? Really, it is the same thing Paul was getting at in Romans 1. Remember, they worshiped and served the creature, rather than the creator? Let’s look at that again:
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
The sin was exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things, and the consequences of that sin… is more sin. The wrath of God revealed is evident in the depravity we see all around us.
So right now a hot topic has been the parent’s rights bill in FL. All over the country they are talking about it, and reasonable people are saying, “What is wrong with protecting K-3rd from these conversations? How could anyone be this sick and depraved?”
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
So is all hopeless then? Well, no, not for everyone. For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Thankfully, Paul’s letter to the Romans doesn’t end at chapter one. It goes on to explain the gospel, the good news about salvation in Jesus Christ, and in no other name. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.
And in our passage this morning, Moses gives a glimmer of hope to Israel. Because when they would eventually fall into the sin of idolatry, if they remembered this teaching, they had a way out. If they practiced idolatry, and were scattered among the nations, and began to realize they needed a way out, then Moses provided some guiadance:
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
So long as we feel the remorse of sin and are willing to repent and turn back to God, he will welcome us back.
I’m reminded of a great song, I highly recommend if you have a music streaming service to find this and listen, it is from David Phelp’s album “Hymnal”. I won’t attempt to sing it right now, but David Phelps sure belts it out on this one. Here are the lyrics:
Oh, the matchless grace of Jesus,
That he knows my secret thoughts.
Yet in mercy offers pardon
For crimes my own hands have wrought.
Matchless grace none can't compare.
May this be the crown I wear.
Blessed assurance on my face,
Evidence of matchless grace.
Oh, the matchless grace of Jesus.
How can he forgive my past.
Breaking chains of sins' transgressions,
Praise His Name, I'm free at last.
O, the matchless grace of Jesus.
Even in death I'm not alone
Crossing Jordan, hear him saying,
"Well done, my child, welcome home."