“For the same reason, do not look up at the sky, at the sun, moon, stars and everything in the sky, and be drawn away to worship and serve them; Adonai your God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky.”-Deuteronomy 4:19
Moses is continuing on with the list of things Israel is prohibited from worshipping.
He next turns the people’s attention to the fixed objects in the sky and makes it clear they are NOT to worship the stars, the sun or the moon.
While it is true that the objects in the heavens were created for divine purposes, that does NOT make them divine in and of themselves.
That’s an important distinction to make folks.
Being created for a divine purpose and being divine are two completely different things.
For example, if you’re a believer, you have been created for a divine purpose, haven’t you?
But does that make you divine?
Absolutely not.
The same goes for angels, demons, priests, Rabbis and the other elements or forces of nature.
Moses next goes on to say something quite baffling.
He goes on to say that Israel is not to bow down to the celestial objects in the sky because…
…they were allotted for worship to the other nations!
What?!
Like what in the heck does that mean?!
Okay, I don’t have the one and only definitive answer to this question.
So I’m going to have to share my opinion.
And I stress that this is my opinion.
Here’s what I think.
If one has zero knowledge of the God of Israel who incidentally happens to be the only God in existence…
…then one has no choice but to worship the creation instead of the Creator.
That makes sense, doesn’t it?
If we look at the religious history of the gentile nations, we see that that is what precisely has happened.
The gentile nations (like Japan where I’m currently living for instance), worship the objects of nature such as trees, animals, the sun, the wind and so forth.
Even the true Messianic faith, once it became overpopulated with gentiles, adopted this idolatrous trinitarian idea making the Messiah out to be God Himself.
Again, I believe there is a vacuum inside of every human being that desires to be filled via the true worship of the Creator.
However, if one doesn’t worship the Creator, then he or she has no choice but to turn to the things of nature to fill that spiritual vacuum or emptiness.
Even Paul said that the gentiles would come to know of God’s existence through His Creation.
Yet God made it clear to Israel they were different.
Since Hashem set Israel apart and since He gave them His Torah, something which was given to no other nation, Israel’s obligation was to NOT follow the ways of the gentiles.
Their duty was to worship the Creator only.
And of course, this also goes for those gentiles who have been grafted into Israel by attaching themselves to Messiah.
Finally, via this discussion, it should also now be pretty apparent that astrology is a big no-no for anyone who claims to be a true believer in the God of Israel.
I’m done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-
-his eternal power and divine nature-
-have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been made,
so that people are without excuse.
-Romans 1:20
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