Browsing Tag

Idolatry

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep: The Snake and the Son

Posted on November 2, 2020

Thanks to Cheryl McIntosh, of Cleburne, Texas for phoning in her great observation about the carving of graven images. You will remember that in Numbers 21, God actually commanded the making of a graven image. The brazen serpent was that to which the people must look if they’d been bitten by the poisonous snakes that were the punishment inflicted for constant and rebellious grumbling against Jehovah and Moses. 

Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth (hates) this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died (vs 4-6).

If indeed the very carving of images (likenesses of any part of nature) was prohibited in the first verses of Exodus 20 and in Leviticus 26 and in Deuteronomy 4, then the forming of this serpent would have, in any other circumstance, been sinful. It would have been comparable to the offering of Isaac on Moriah. It was only right that one time, because God had commanded something that would have otherwise been sinful. It would have been similar to God’s telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. If (and that’s a big IF) the command in these passages prohibited any carved likenesses, then certainly the One who gave the command had the right to make any exceptions at any time, simply by His command. 

The most shocking thing about this whole snake incident is revealed much later and in a cursory mention in 2 Kings 18:4: 

He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.

They worshipped the image! Eight hundred years later, Hezekiah destroyed the snake because it was an object of worship! Astounding and very telling. God knew these people and, of course, as always, His prohibitions in Exodus 20 were for their own good and with the object of their holiness and ultimate salvation through the Christ. 

The snake was really all about the Son, too. It was about love.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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 3:14-16).

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Image Worship vs. Mental Idolatry

Posted on October 29, 2020

Of course, the worship to an inanimate carved image in addition to or instead of worship to Jehovah has been an abomination since the beginning of time and continues to be. There are scores of passages, practical examples and implications throughout the Holy Text that make this an obvious truth. 

I did want us to see four  passages this month, from our New Testament that show that image worship continued to be a cultural bane in the first century and was a temptation as heathen people, formerly deeply entrenched in image worship, came to know the truth about the singularity  of Jehovah and His church. 

Those verses are these: 

Acts 17—Paul’s discourse on Mars Hill obviously takes its trajectory from His viewing the numerous images in Athens. He uses their idolatrous worship to contrast the image service with obedience to the one true God to Whom they had given the nod in their statue “To the Unknown God.” From this passage it is obvious that the statues were tangible and plentiful in Athens and they were sinful. 

I Corinthians 10:20-33— In this context, there’s a strong condemnation of tangible altar sacrifices to inanimate gods: 

“But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.”

This passage is a comparison to the altars of the holy priests of the Israelite system, so this condemnation is specifically about the worship of the inanimate. It is very strong. 

Revelation 9:20,21 speaks of those who failed to repent of worshipping idols made of silver and gold. The mention of the metals from which these gods were formed makes us certain the passage is referring to image worship. 

Acts 15 is the context of the Jerusalem meeting and verse twenty says this: 

“But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”

While this passage does not specifically say “images” rather than “idols of the heart”, it is contextually speaking of Gentile worship to mythical gods represented by graven images. 

Now there are many verses about idolatry in the New Testament that would prohibit both image worship and mental idolatry (giving my heart’s devotion to some entity of this world). But these plainly imply the wickedness of image worship.

The hardest part of abstaining from idolatry for us, as Christians in the 21st century, is getting our focus out of the temporary allurements and onto the service of Jehovah and the hope of heaven. At the same time, there still exists literal, physical image worship in our world today and our repudiation of such should never be questioned by those around us. 

The Lord our God is One Lord. (Ex. 6:4)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep Israel: Next Stop–Jeroboam’s Altar at Dan

Posted on January 15, 2020

Viewing the actual site of the unearthed and reconstructed high place of Jeroboam was one of the ironically low and high points of the trip.  I was amazed that I was viewing here the ruins/reconstruction of the physical result of this amazing declaration by Jeroboam:

It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. (1 Kings 12:28)

Rebellious Jeroboam, first king of Israel following the division of 1 Kings, the one who led the rebellion against Rehoboam was clearly paving, for the 10 tribes of Israel, the path to laziness, ease, idolatry and ultimate ruin. He built two gold calves and set up an altar on this hill in Dan and called the people whom God had rescued over and over again, to worship the images in this very place. I wonder how/if Jeroboam would have altered the course if he could have peered through the lens of time and seen this mound of ruin where God’s followers still today lament over the bold departure from the Will of the Sovereign One. I wonder if he would have changed his mind about moving the “mound” of worship to Dan, if he could have known that people 3000 years hence would be reading over 20 passages in the Old Testament in which Jeroboam was described as the sinful one who led Israel into idolatry. I wonder if he would have placed the altar for idol worship in Dan if he had known that the tribe of Dan would be omitted from the genealogies of 1 Chronicles or from the listing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7.

To us today, the altar at Dan shouts an ultimatum: Reverence or ruin.

For those in our religious world today who think it unimportant to work (yes, work) to make our worship pleasing to its Sovereign audience, the altar of Jeroboam stands as a sentinel warning. Worship which disintegrates to an arena of human fulfillment, rather than obeisance (literally, worship means crouching before the high one) to the Infinite One, the path is destruction and omission from eternal blessings.

In practical terms, may we be  diligent to put the “work” aspect of our worship in the hearts of our children and at the center of our homes. We do this by preparing for it, praying about it in terms our kids can understand, laying aside our generous contributions ahead of time (and our children’s), making all efforts to be there on time and to be fully engaged, and making sure there is no laughter and visiting with friends during worship. It’s figuratively keeping our worship in Jerusalem and always refraining from “high places” of our own devising.

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: A Frog for your Wallet

Posted on January 18, 2018

A quick study of the history of Hawaii reveals the profound influence that the Bible had on the historically pagan culture in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The Hawaiian islands, united under King Kamehameha in 1810, were ruled by his wife and son following his death. It was this pair, Queen Ka’ahumanu (the wife of the deceased King) and King Kamehameha II, who abolished the country’s pagan religion along with its practice of human sacrifice. Soon afterward, the first missionaries arrived from New England and began to teach about Jesus. By the year 1823, the queen herself requested to be baptized, along with six high chiefs. At this time, prostitution and drunkenness became illegal in Hawaii. By the year 1840, the country’s new constitution read:

“It is therefore our fixed decree,

I. That no law shall be enacted which is at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or at variance with the general spirit of His word. All laws of the Islands shall be in consistency with the general spirit of God’s law.

The Word of God, though not always presented in its purity, was having a profound influence on the culture in the islands.

I spent a few days last week in Honolulu and then boarded a plane for American Samoa, where we’ve been blessed to be invited to teach for the Nu’uuli and neighboring congregations here in Samoa. When I got seated on the plane I opened the airline magazine placed in the seat pocket in front of me to read a feature story celebrating eastern idolatry and its popularity on the island of Oahu. The article was entitled “New Year’s Cleansing” and it read (in part):

Folks are lined up at 8 am on New Year’s Day, almost around the block. Rock concert? Hangover clinic? Hardly. This is the New Year’s blessing at the Daijingu Temple of Hawaii at Nu’uanu, purifying all comers for the New Year as early as possible. Rev. Akihiro Okado waves a stick festooned with slips of white paper over bowed attendees, reciting a chant in an archaic form of Japanese used solely by Shinto  priests. 

The article continued:  You don’t have to practice Shinto or even be human to get the blessing. People bring their pets, too. Once people (and pets) are cleansed they head on over to nearby stalls to buy omamori or amulets to keep on blessing them through the year. They buy little charms for traffic safety to hang from the rearview mirror of their cars or tiny gold frogs to keep in their wallets or purses so that they will always have money. There’s a also a “home security triple pack” that, hung properly in three places in your house, protects from fire, ensures peace and brings prosperity in the home. Instructions make it clear that you hang these with tape and not with a tack. In order for these to work, they must be destroyed yearly by temple clergy and new amulets must be purchased yearly after the cleansing. Many people donate hundreds of dollars to the temple to purchase amulets for family members and friends who cannot afford or do not wish to purchase their own for the new year.

It’s interesting to notice that those who come for cleansing are not required to live pure lives. They are just required to bow down before the priest to get the cleansing. It’s telling that the blessings they are counting on are independent of any truth or of any choices made by the intellect of the comers. They are counting on little gold frogs for prosperity and little strips of paper for home safety–frogs and strips of paper that will never require anything of them, except (for those who purchased their own) the money they paid for the privilege of carrying them around for a year prior to turning them in and re-buying them for the next year.

Psalm 115:4-8 comes to mind:

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.

Those little gold frogs are the works of greedy men’s hands. They have little frog mouths and little frog legs and tiny little frog feet. They have little frog eyes. But they cannot see inside that man’s wallet. They do not croak inside that woman’s purse. They cannot jump out of her change purse or his pocket. And those people who make and sell the little gold frogs?…Those who buy and trust in the power of the little gold frogs?…They are just like the little gold frogs. Their existence will be spent in the darkness, powerless to avail any good or accomplish any worthwhile goal. And, in the end, they, too, will be destroyed, but in everlasting fire.

Hawaii was onto something when its monarchy abolished pagan worship back in the early 1800s.  It’s sad that the islands have come full circle and, once again, find something to celebrate in idolatry, the ultimate affront to the real Giver of every good gift.  It’s tragic that so many choose to believe in the power of something so utterly impotent. But there is nothing new under the sun. The Psalmist had it right all those years ago.

 

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Hosea: Leaving and Hurting

Posted on April 8, 2013

HoseaI guess Hosea has to be the Old Testament book that just hurts the God-loving reader most. It just reaches down into my soul and grips my conscience when I think about God hurting like a pure husband whose wife seeks sensual pleasures with other men. Glenn and I have counseled many times with these men (and women) who find themselves in a spot in life where their own deaths would be far preferable to the hurt they are forced to endure. But this figurative marital unfaithfulness was committed, not against a sinful mortal, but against the loving and completely righteous God. God wanted Israel to know His hurt, His anger and the passion in His pleas as he begged her, as a nation, to turn back to the One who loved her as no other ever would.

A very significant descriptive verb is found at the beginning of the book in verse three of chapter one. “Departing” is that word. When the Holy Spirit tells us that Israel had departed, we understand that Hosea was prophesying, not to alien sinners…not to those, like Ninevah in Jonah’s day–comprised of                                                                                                                           Gentiles. But Hosea was called to go and marry the harlot, so that he could understand and articulate the pain and the pleas of God with regard to His own favored people; a people who had turned their collective back on His goodness and mercy in favor of the lifeless idols built by men.

As I read Hosea today, it’s really hard to believe. It’s a stretch for me to think about people who knew that He had delivered them initially from slavery in Egypt following ten devastating plagues against the enemy, parted the Red Sea and later the Jordan, provided manna and quail in the wilderness and later allowed them to dwell in a land flowing with milk and honey in houses they did not build as they ate fruits from vineyards they did not plant. God was the “Husband” who had faithfully provided for them in wondrous and loving ways.

I know this application from Israel’s ingratitude is probably overused, but it just really is unsettling to me to think about the parallels in the body today. Are we so different when we forsake him today? After all, we claim to believe the Bible. We believe the Messiah left heaven and came to a dirty, sin-stained world in our behalf. We believe he purposed to die and, in fact, did suffer the most cruel form of torture and execution for our transgressions. We believe the tomb was empty and that angels said, “He is not here, for he is risen” (Lk. 24:6). We claim membership in the one eternal organization existing on earth today. We say that we believe He will come in the clouds and that we will rise to meet him in the air and that there’s a place around his throne reserved for his faithful. We say that we understand the Bible that each of us now owns to be miraculously and verbally inspired; a direct revelation from the Holy Spirit. We, at least, in theory, believe it to be authoritative for our practices and decisions. When we hold the Word, know the fellowship, remember the cross, and rejoice about that empty tomb… how is it that we have any less for which to be thankful than did Israel? How is it that we have any more license than did they to become mingled with and influenced by the culture around us–the culture that fails to respect the holiness of our God?

But we do. We so often let the culture dictate our passions. We get very excited about sports. I mean we get passionate about them while we can hardly keep our eyes open during Bible classes and worship. We stay up late with friends on Saturday nights, knowing full well that it will be at the expense of our full focus in worship to God on Sunday morning. Crowds of students on Christian college campuses have plenty of energy to party through the weekend, but do well to make it to worship on Sunday morning, rarely making the effort to attend Bible classes or be a part of visitation teams or evangelistic efforts. Some have amazingly loud voices for musical celebration shows like Makin’ Music at FHU or Spring Sing at Harding, but offer God half-hearted praise that’s barely even audible when they assemble for worship. We can discuss “Duck Dynasty” with our friends. We can talk about “Dancing with the Stars” or “Downton Abbey” or a litany of other shows. We can talk about movies that are often laced with sensual material or profanity and we can talk about books that are about romance or that perhaps even border on the theme of bestiality. But we are not as comfortable discussing the scriptures. We can pay fifty or a hundred dollars for a purse without batting an eye, but have no pang of conscience when we drop a twenty in the collection plate on Sunday morning. We worry about whether or not we will look okay in a swimsuit, but not about whether or not wearing one might present a stumbling block in the spiritual path of a brother or even a stranger. In fact, the beach and the pool are such prominent places in our summer excursions that we prefer not to think about the possibility of sinning in the process of enjoying them. So we just don’t. And we don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not we can find a place to worship on those travels, either. If there’s a convenient congregation and it’s fairly easy to find out what time they meet, we may go on Sunday morning. But, if it requires effort and a drive and getting up early, we’re okay with just going on Sunday night when we get back home, if we do get back home in time. And, if our consciences begin to hurt us when we’re traveling to that family reunion or sports event on Sunday morning, we can always stop the car for a few minutes and read a scripture and say a prayer on the way. We sometimes even give ourselves a pat on the back and convince ourselves that we’re “being a good influence on our teammates” if we have a prayer on the field or the track or the lake, even if we are forsaking the assembling of the saints in deference to a ball game, a race for the cure or a bass tournament.

Of course, the list could go on. Idolatry comes in varied forms. In fact, it’s anything that takes the allegiance that belongs to God. We all tend to look at the idols of others with disdain while our own idols seem innocent enough to us. So I’m writing to remind myself of the ever-present danger of something I love or enjoy or want–a lot–taking the number one spot in my heart and drawing me away from the cross and the gospel. I AM talking to Cindy Colley. It’s the challenge of our lifetimes to just mortify whatever it is in our lives that threatens to take the number one spot (Col. 3:5). It may be so simple as a video game or so complex as a career. It may be facebook. It may be a series of novels. It may pop up on my computer or it may come in a bottle. It may cost a couple of hours or a million dollars. But, if it costs my salvation, the price is far too high.

Hosea equated “departing from the Lord” with whoredom–spiritual adultery. It could be that I am part-way out the door without seeing that the devil is tempting me to leave. Have I been unfaithful to the Supreme Husband? Have I failed to keep my promises to the One to whom I am married? Can I be trusted to be there for the One who died for me? Is He patiently waiting for me at home, while I am running around with another “lover”? Does it hurt Him when He looks at my life and see that He has been one-upped by things that are so very cheap and temporal? It does…

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame (Heb. 6:4-6).

Sometimes, as I speak with women about priorities, someone will say, “But Cindy, don’t you think that God requires less actual activity in our service today and more of our hearts? Don’t you think that the New Covenant is less about being in worship, less about following rules of conduct and more about loving Him?”

The answer is yes. The New Covenant is not about ordinances and animal sacrifices (Col. 2:14). It is about Christians BEING living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1, 2). It is about my heart, soul, strength and mind loving Him (Mk. 12:36). It is about knowing that no death or life or angel or principality or power or height or depth, or any other creature can separate me from His love (Romans 8:38,39). It is about suffering with the Christ, so that I can be a partaker in His glory (II Timothy 1:8). It is about never being ashamed of the good news of the gospel, even when it crosses the culture in which I live (Romans 1:16). It is about ME being the one on the figurative altar for Him. If Christianity, according to the New Covenant is anything, it is personally sacrificial. Is it time to sacrifice a period of my day for Bible study? Is it time to put extensive facebook use on the altar? Is it time to throw a book in the trash can mid-read when I find it injects the world’s mentality into my thought processes? Should my TV time be on the altar? Is it my dress code that I need to give Him? Is it time to have a talk with my kids’ ball coaches about our first priority? Have I failed to be the kind of example of sacrifice I should be in my community? Have I lost precious opportunities to influence lost friends because I have been ashamed of the gospel? Do I need to confess this to the local body and seek accountability for my actions? It’s a deeply personal question…because our very selves, the sacrifice required today, must be sacrificed on some deeply personal altars.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Woman with an Audience, Part 2

Posted on July 12, 2010
Enter Cozbi

Families were weeping as they witnessed the hanging deaths of loved ones. The method of execution was not left to human discretion. There were no appellate courts to prolong life for the guilty. God was prosecutor, judge and jury. Twenty-four thousand were already dead. Millions were in mourning.

In this setting Cozbi enters the camp. Her appearance was a blatant and blasphemous slap in the face of God. While weeping multitudes were being humbled by the death plague, Zimri, an influential Simeonite, brought his adulteress publicly and pridefully before his brethren. In the somber setting of God’s wrath being dispensed, he displayed this whoredom before the assembly that now wept as a result of the consequences of such whoredom. Furthermore, Cozbi wasn’t just any old Midianite maiden. She was a princess of Midian. Zimri’s alliance was not only with an immoral woman of Midian. His alliance was with the influential and important idolaters (vs.15).

The Final Act

Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron was incensed by the utter defiance of Zimri. He followed Zimri to the pavilion and graphically illustrated for all of Israel, God’s disdain for his arrogance.

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel (Numbers 25:8).

God was pleased with the zeal of Phinehas. He established with Phinehas his covenant of peace. When blatant sin is in the camp today, God expects his people to address it and purify his congregation (I Cor.5). The plague was stayed and the healing process was begun. God re-ordered the smiting of the Midianites and re-issued his warnings about the beguiling nature of the idolatrous peoples of Canaan. He was preparing their hearts for the challenges that lay ahead for they were about to enter Canaan, a land they were to rid of idolatrous multitudes. How could Israel fail to recognize at this point the oneness of Jehovah and His wrath on those who would divide their allegiance?

When the Curtain Closed….
(Lessons Learned)

Joining the devils forces is a progressive decline rather than a sudden fall.

Sexual sin binds with strong cords.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).

Blatant and intentional sin must be Biblically confronted by people of God.

*This post and the previous one taken from Women of Deliverance, by Cindy Colley; Publishing Designs, Huntsville, AL
Please visit Cindy’s Blog at cindycolley.blogspot.com/