For you trusted in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, it leads you away, and you said in your heart, “I am and none else is.” Isaiah 47:10 Leads You Away – In characteristic Hebrew style, the verb used here for “leading away” is the same verb that…
For you trusted in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, it leads you away, and you said in your heart, “I am and none else is.” Isaiah 47:10 Wickedness – How could anyone trust in wickedness? Does that make any sense at all? No one actually puts their…
otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice. Exodus 34:15 Play The Harlot – When Israel entered Canaan, it was surrounded by pagan fertility cults. The sex…
Most of us don’t realize that vast populations of the world still practice explicit idolatry. On my recent trip, I can across these images. They tell the story.
There you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, that cannot see or hear or eat or smell. Deuteronomy 4:28 You Will Serve – Israel’s occupation of the Promised Land is completely conditional. Their election as God’s people is completely unconditional. God chooses and obligates Himself in the election of Israel, but Israel must…
Christians have always been taught to avoid sin. That’s a given. But sometimes I think we trip ourselves up by not really understanding what the Bible calls “sin.” We assume that we know what we aren’t supposed to do. Murder, steal, lie, covet (that one is kind of vague but it’s on the list), use…
But you shall cut down their altars and break their images and you shall cut off their shrines. Exodus 34:13 Break – Let’s be very clear about this. What God tells us to smash into pieces is never to be put back together again. What God says we are to cut down is never to…
You shall not make for yourself an image or any form of that which is in heaven above, or of that which is in the earth beneath Deuteronomy 5:8 Any Form – God does not allow representations of His divinity in any form or image – no statues, no obelisks, no pictures, no venerated relics;…
You shall not bow yourself to them nor serve them, for I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God Deuteronomy 5:9 Bow – Serve – Idolatry comes in two related flavors. The first is shachah, to bow down in submission or reverence or worship. Hollywood has exploited this flavor of idolatry with its scenes of…
You shall not make for yourself an image Deuteronomy 5:8 Image – It’s all connected. Let me show you how. Idolatry is the substitution of devotion to something other than God. Keep that in mind as we look at a story from the life of Moses. In Exodus 33:23, God fulfills Moses’ request to see…
