I want to continue my discussion about idolatry that I started yesterday.
Why?
There are three reasons.
FIRST, out of the few sins committed for which one could be subjected to the death penalty, idolatry is one of them.
SECOND, God provides extensive treatment on this subject.
If God is going to expend a lot of words and a lot of time to warn us about idolatry, this is something we shouldn’t just lightly gloss over.
THIRD, a good portion of Israel’s history is the story of a nation in a constant struggle to fight against idolatrous tendencies.
And it wasn’t just Israel.
All of mankind struggles with this issue.
One may wonder, when the Israelites wound up manufacturing images of God in the form of cows and birds and all sorts of other things, did they really believe this is what the Almighty looked like?
The answer is no.
They didn’t believe that God looked like a cow or a bird or a soaring eagle etcetera.
Rather, to their minds, these animal figurines represented the ATTRIBUTES of God.
For example, the eagle represented the Lord who soared far above in the heavens.
Or an ox or a cow may have represented the brute power and strength of the Lord.
Yet it didn’t matter.
Verse 17 makes it clear.
NO IMAGE OF AN ANIMAL THAT LIVES ON THE EARTH, AND NO FLYING CREATURES.
There is absolutely no wiggle room here.
HASHEM SAYS THIS IS IDOL WORSHIP.
PERIOD.
Or how about that fish image that the Christians wear?
Well, take a look at verse 18.
“…or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.”
Yikes.
Now a Christian might be thinking.
“I’m not worshipping the fish symbol.”
“It’s just a symbol of the work of my Lord and Savior.”
“It represents Jesus being a fisher of men blah, blah, blah.”
Am I going to go so far as to say that the fish symbol is idolatry?
No…but I will say it is a slippery slope.
And believe me, orthodox Christianity or I should say trinitarian Christianity has done much worse by calling the Messiah, the chosen agent of God, as literally God Himself…and condemning those who don’t accept this doctrine.
It’s kind of laughable when you think about it in light of what God’s Torah and the SHEMA clearly says, isn’t it?
They misconstrue Yeshua’s words when he said “I and the Father are one and same” and “He who has seen me has seen the Father“.
They say that Yeshua was literally claiming to be God Himself when what he was really saying and emphasizing is that he was one in purpose with the Father and that he always did what his Father in heaven did.
It is always the nature of the idolatrous mind to confuse the image of God (like Yeshua) with God Himself.
And that’s my point and why it’s such a slippery slope.
When you play around with symbols, you’ll never know when you have crossed over the divine line from innocent admiration of some image to full blown idol worship.
My point is wearing a fish symbol in and of itself may not be idol worship…
…but it can become idol worship.
And idol worship is not limited to visible tangible objects.
One can worship one’s job, the beauty of the human body whether male or female, and a good portion of the world worships money and getting rich.
Are these things in and of themselves bad and idol worship?
No, of course not.
We need our jobs to pay our bills and get food.
God created the human body.
And money is extremely important and a tool that allows us the freedom to do the things we would want to do, including serving the Lord.
My point is we need to keep these things in their proper place.
They are NOT God.
The prophets struggled hard to get Israel to stop their idol worship.
Most didn’t listen.
They had deceived themselves into thinking they weren’t really committing idol worship.
But when God’s heavy hand of judgement fell on them…
…then they regretted all of the flirting with the things of the world they had engaged in.
But by then, it was too late.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Little children,
keep yourselves from idols.
Amen.”
-1 John 5:21
If you attribute any amount of holiness to whatever “symbol” you use or have… then it is an idol.
If you just use the symbol as a symbol to show people that you worship the True God… then it is just a symbol. If somebody snatches my fish emblem off the back of my truck and stomps it.. I will just get another and carry on.
Nice clarifying comment Dennis. Thanks for sharing.
What really gets me is the Catholic idea of wearing a relic. Ugh!! Carrying around a piece of a dead person’s body? Didn’t God tell us to burn the bones of the priests of Ba’al on their alters to make them unclean and desecrate them? The Catholic churches have their dead buried right under the altar of God!
Oy!
Thanks for sharing Steven. I’ve actually never been to a Catholic Church and I don’t think I ever will go. Shalom.
Steven R Bruck, you are right. Catholics are trampling the 2nd commandment of Yahweh underfoot.
Steven R Bruck, you are right. Catholics are trampling the 2nd commandment of Yahweh underfoot.