“What is Idol Worship?”
The Children of Israel were not to worship Pharaoh. They were not to worship Moses or Aaron. And they were not to worship iconic images. They were to worship an invisible God. God forbade the Israelites from allowing anything, even religious icons, to come between them and Jehovah, hence the clause, “I am a jealous god.” Remember the story of the brass serpent Moses held up when the children of Israel were being killed by the fiery serpents?
“8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 21:8-9)
It was intended that the object remind the children of Israel of Christ being lifted up upon the cross:
“13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:13-16
However, when they turned to idol worship, rather than the brass serpent reminding them of Christ being lifted up upon the cross, they began to worship the image of the brass serpent. It was no different than any other idol made of wood or stone or metal. Rather than reminding them of God. It replaced God. They worshiped the thing created rather than the creator. King Hezekiah was blessed when he destroyed the brass serpent:
“3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. 4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. 6 For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.” (2 Kings 18:3-6)
To the minds of Western Christians, idol worship seems foreign, something they would never do, but the story above illustrates the subtle attraction of idols. It isn’t always easy to worship an invisible God. We, after all, are tangible beings, weighted down by gravity and stalked by red toothed entropy. We live in the valley of the shadow of death. We like personification.
How many of us carried a rabbit’s foot in our pocket as a child or wore a lucky charm or developed odd habits to ward off superstitions. Do you knock on wood? Pour salt over your right shoulder? Religious observance and superstition wear the same clothes.
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