“You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.”-Deuteronomy 4:15-18
Keep in mind when Moses warned the Israelites to not construct any images that would represent God…
…He was NOT speaking out against making images of the pagan gods the gentiles worshipped.
No…he was specifically talking about constructing images in the form of the natural things on our planet whether it be animals on the ground, creatures that fly in the air or things that swim in the sea…and this would include images of human beings as well (a command that Catholic Church seems to have obviously overlooked).
We should never forget it is precisely because of the failure to keep this command that thousands of Israelites ended up dying in the Wilderness and this wasn’t just a one-time event.
The people would over and over again fall into idolatry.
Why is idolatry so incredibly harmful?
The short answer is that idolatry is harmful because it offends a HOLY God.
It is so bad that God says anyone who commits idolatry deserves the death penalty.
Now the longer answer as to why idolatry is so harmful is because it is so insidious in its nature.
It is dangerous on a number of levels and sneaks up on you like an undetected cancer that becomes deadlier by the day.
It’s not like the Israelites woke up one day and all of a sudden said “Hey, let’s start worshipping idols today!“
You and I both know that’s not how idolatry works or how any habit of a deadly nature works.
It’s kind of like smoking or overeating.
You can’t see the effects right away…so you figure a couple of cigarettes here and there or eating a whole bag of Doritos here and there isn’t so bad after all.
But then one day you wake up and find out you have lung cancer or that you’re now obese and have diabetes.
That’s kind of like how it happened with the Israelites.
They engaged in a little idol worship here and there and when God hadn’t struck them down yet, they figured “Everything’s okay. God’s not angry with me or offended” and so they committed yet another idolatrous infraction.
Finally, one day, they found themselves in exile and wonder what in the heck happened.
It’s not like they weren’t warned.
God sent them many prophets pleading with them to stop their idolatry.
Unfortunately, the general response of the people was pure ignorance.
When accused of idolatry, the people responded with…
“What are you talking about?! “
“We all love and worship God?”
“All these little images and symbols we have lying around in our homes aren’t doing any harm”.
Yet, when God exposed their sin and judged them, the people knew instantly why.
They were guilty and they knew it.
We’ll continue this conversation the next time we meet.
Richoka.. what about things and stuff like .. boats, cars, electronics, tv, houses,, etc.. can my these things be idols?
Yes, I agree that these things can be idols.
Richoka.. do idols necessarily need to be man made images in order to be consider an idol?
Nope. You can worship your job or even certain ungodly philosophies.