Step 7. – Began to Worship Idols

Step 7. – Began to Worship Idols

And now they sin more and more,

    and make for themselves metal images,

idols skillfully made of their silver,

    all of them the work of craftsmen.

It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!” (Hos. 13:2 ESV)

 

I have called this series “The Downward Steps to a Fallen Israel.”  The last 6 posts have detailed the progressive steps away from God that Israel was taking in Hosea’s day.  Each step along the way, God still loved them, and was calling them back to Him.  Yet, today, we begin a look at this final step with the sad words, “And now they sin more and more”.  This step is where this progressive walk away from God ultimately leads – idolatry.

What is Idolatry?

Idolatry originally meant the worship of idols or the worship of false gods using idols.  Later, idolatry meant the worship of false gods whether an idol was used or not.  Eventually, it came to mean, “giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion which belonged to God alone” and “the giving to any human desire a precedence over God’s will”.  In other words, idolatry is:

1. Giving something or someone the honor or devotion that belongs to God
2. Replacing God’s will with one’s own will, desires, passions, etc.

We see idolatry in Israel’s history, predating Abraham:

Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.’” (Jos. 24:2 NASB)

God made it perfectly clear that this was unacceptable by devoting 2 of the 10 commandments to the issue of idolatry:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Ex. 20:3-6 NASB)

The apostle Paul tells us that greed, or covetousness, is the same thing as idolatry:

For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God. (Eph. 5:5 HCSB)

Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath comes on the disobedient (Col. 3:5-6 HCSB)

Our nation is quickly becoming a nation of idol worshippers.  No, you don’t see statues and temples devoted to false gods lining our streets, but using the 2 part definition I gave above, many people living in the USA want to:

1. Give the honor and devotion (that belongs to God alone) to any number of things, so long as it is not God
2. Replace God’s will with their own will, plans, desires, etc.

You have to ask yourself, in what ways do you place your own desires above what God wants to do in your life?  In what ways do you trust other people, including yourself, more than you trust God?  That is idolatry.

The New Testament has a more to say about idolatry:

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. (1 Cor. 10:14 NASB)

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21 HCSB)

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9-10 NASB)

Idolatry may be a complete turn from God, but He is still loves us all, and still calls even the idolater back to Him, willing to forgive:

“Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’
I have heard and observed him.
I am like a green cypress tree;
Your fruit is found in Me.” (Hos. 14:8 NKJV)