The Folly of Idolatory

   

                   
                                          The Folly Of Idolatry

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me ...” (Exodus 20:3-5).

Almost from the very moment the Israelites were given these commandments
from Moses, the children of Israel pursued idolatry. Furthermore,
their failure to eradicate the idolatrous Canaanites from the land of promise
allowed idolatry to become deeply ingrained in the religion of the Israelites.
As most Bible students know, the effects of the Israelite’s idolatrous practices
were disastrous. Second Kings 17 describes how the nation of Israel
was taken away into Assyrian captivity and 2 Kings 24-25 describes the taking
of Judah into Babylonian captivity. Both of these judgments were the result
of their idolatry. After the nation of Judah returned from Babylonian
captivity, they abandoned idolatry. However, in New Testament times, idolatry
was a common practice among Gentiles (cf. Acts 17:16). Nevertheless,
Gentiles learned that they must put away idolatry in order to obey the gospel
of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 10:14; Galatians 5:19-20; Revelation
21:8). It is astonishing that both Jews and Gentiles desired to worship anthropomorphic
images of wood and stone, silver and gold, resembling the
“inhabitants” of the heavens, earth and waters in light of God’s disdain and
prohibition of such acts. The Scriptures, in no uncertain terms, condemn
idolatry as an abomination before God. Samuel declared, “For rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel
15:23).

But beyond the fact that idolatry is an abomination before God is the fact of
its utter folly. The Scriptures also portray idolatry as mere foolishness when
compared to the true worship of God. For instance, the Psalmist writes,
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have
mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have
ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have
hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak
they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is
every one that trusteth in them” (Psalm 115:4-8). Isaiah adds, “Behold,
they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind
and confusion” (Isaiah 41:29). Isaiah further adds, “They that make a
graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not
profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they
may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is
profitable for nothing?” (Isaiah 44:9-10). The Lord, through Isaiah, was
stating how ludicrous it was to think that the same piece of wood used to
make a fire could also make an idol to which men would bow down and worship.
To “worship the stock of a tree” is to “feed on ashes” (Isaiah
44:19-20). As Isaiah points out, the folly of idolatry is that the one who
worships an idol has “a deceived heart” and “cannot deliver his soul”
(44:20).
The folly of idolatry is perhaps no better proven than in a comparison of the
evidence between the Bible and idolatry. Idolatry is based upon myth. A
myth is much different from legends and sagas or fables and fairy tales
which were invented to amuse. Mythology is the body of traditional stories
concerning gods and goddesses, supernatural beings and the heroes of a
given culture, with whom humans may have relationships. It is often intended
to explain the workings of the universe, nature or human history.
Myths combine religious purposes with explanatory purposes and have been
widely used in literature. There are many examples of mythological gods
from various ancient cultures, and as one might imagine, mythology varied
from culture to culture, and from nation to nation.
Egyptian gods and goddesses were depicted as men and women with animal
heads and often having human weaknesses and imperfections. In Egyptian
mythology, animals were sacred to certain deities and viewed as incarnations
of them. In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped and revered (domestic cats
were mummified at death). They associated it with the Moon and it was sacred
to the goddesses. This dedication to mythology caused an Egyptian
household to shave their eyebrows when a cat died and to shave their entire
bodies when a dog died. On the other hand, the religion of the Canaanites
focused on fertility and therefore included gross immorality. Its myths were
structured around the agricultural cycle. Their gods and goddesses were
brutal and highly sexed and religious rites employed fornication between the
unmarried to stimulate the gods and goddesses. This sexual employment
was believed to have granted fertility to the land and livestock.
The chief Canaanite god was Baal. He was the principal Canaanite sky,
weather and fertility god. His name was originally applied to various local
gods (i.e., Baal-peor). Baal is depicted in the form of a bull or a man. He is
known as Prince; Lord of the Earth; Lord of Rain and Dew; and god of
springs, sky and fertility. Baal was one of the many gods of the Canaanite
pantheon and their chief god until exile. Myth portrays Baal as god of the
sky and rain struggling with Mot (drought and death god). Baal was of primary
importance in Palestinian agriculture. He is portrayed as bloodthirsty
and highly sexed. The erotic element in his worship was said to stimulate
him to mate with Asherah, his consort, thus bringing rain and fertility to the
land. The Hebrews were strongly attracted to Baal worship. Ahab and Jezebel
in Israel actively promoted a form of Baal worship that was imported
from Phoenicia. Athaliah (the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel) married into a
royal family, usurped Judah's throne, and promoted Baal worship in Judah
until her death.

Asherah appears as a goddess by the side of Baal, whose consort she evidently
became, at least among the Canaanites of the south. She was the
goddess of fertility and love and her full name is Lady Asherah of the Sea.
She is one of the Ugaritic mother goddesses. She is known, in the Bible, as
Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth and linked with other fertility goddesses such as Venus,
Aphrodite, Ishtar, and Inanna. Asherah's worship involved sexual excesses
intended to stimulate rain and quicken the ability of animals and people
to reproduce. She was invoked in childbirth and planting time. Her figures
were made of wood and she was associated with sacred trees or groves
of trees. She was symbolized by a pole or tree found beside the altar in a
Canaanite high place of idolatry and depicted as an unshaped piece of wood
or a naked, curly-haired goddess riding a lion and holding lilies and serpents.
The equipment for idolatrous worship, probably Phoenician in origin, was the
“high place.” It was crowned by the altar, the standing pillars and the images
of the Asherah. The worship, interwoven with the concept of the fertility
of the land, became a fertility cult. The chosen symbol of the cult was
the trunk of a tree. This explains the prohibition against the planting of
trees by the altar of the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 6:25, 28, 31).
The goddess of the cult was Asherah, who also appears as the mistress of
the sea. The prophets of Israel roundly condemned the worship of Asherah
and commended those kings who destroyed her shrines (1 Kings 15:13-14;
2 Kings 17:10; 21:3; 23:4).
From earliest times people have tended to choose high places for their worship,
whether of the true God or of the false gods that man has invented.
The worshipers chose an exposed site where the “god” was likely to see
what they were doing and to perform there some act comparable to what
they wished their god to do for them. In Canaan the high places had become
the scenes of orgies and human sacrifice connected with the idolatrous
worship of these imaginary gods; and so when Israel entered Canaan they
were told to destroy all high places (Numbers 33:52). Israel’s failure to destroy
them resulted in idolatry.
Before Solomon built the temple, there was a mixed condition of worship.
The tabernacle with most of its furniture was at the high place at Gibeon
though David had brought the ark to Jerusalem. Solomon offered sacrifices
there and God heard his prayer, granting him great wisdom (2 Chronicles
1:1-13). Later some godly kings, including Hezekiah (31:1), destroyed the
high places, but others, including Manasseh, relapsed and rebuilt them
(33:3). Through the godliness of Josiah, especially after he had heard the
Law read (2 Kings 22:8-20), the judgment was delayed until after his death.
God’s attitude toward the godly kings depended largely on their attitude toward
the high places.