14 -15 August
2014 - The Temple vs Idols - Part Two – Manna by Dorothy Callies
1 Cor. 3:16-17
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Ex. 20:3 “Thou shalt have no other
gods before Me.”
From 2
Corinthians 6:16a, Paul asked a question about the idols, “What agreement hath
the temple of God with idols?” 1 Cor. 8:4 “… we know that an idol is nothing in
the world, and that there is none other God but one.” During the research and I
came to the part of studies about God’s response to idolatry. I just felt like
we need to know and understand more about God and the history involved about
the idolatry.
The history of
the Israelite was all too often the history of idol worship. God became very
angry with His people for failing to destroy all of the idols in the Promised
Land. The history tells why God allows their enemies to gain power over them
until they cried to God for help and He delivered them during the time of
Judges.
Why was idolatry
so attractive to the Israelites? There’s several reasons. The Israelite were
surrounded by heathen nations who believed that the worship of several gods was
superior to the worship of a single God. In other words, having more than one
god was better.
There were
several kinds of pagan idols that “promised” the Israelite with their needs
that they find it more appealing or desirable. For this reason many were
willing to serve these idols. But according to Scripture, these idols worshiper
were giving honor to demons.
One history I
would like to share that had puzzled me as to why God allowed the army of
Assyrians to destroy northern kingdom of Israel. The idolatry of the northern
kingdom went on unhindered (giving a chance to repent through the prophets’
warning of coming destruction to their nation) for nearly two centuries. 200
years? That’s a long time to wait. (ref.
2 Ki. 17:6-18)
Finally, God’s
patience ran out, and He allowed the Assyrians to destroy Israel’s capital and
to scatter the ten tribes. For the rest of the Israelite who remained, the
soldiers were allowed to stay on and to rape many women in order to infiltrate
their races. This was the reason the Jews would not go through Samaria. There
was a mixture of races, Gentile and the Jews. The Pharisees and the religious
leaders considered them, “the unclean race.”
Why couldn’t God’s
people turned away from idolatry after 200 years of warnings? Micah, for
example, criticized the leaders of God’s people for their violence and
materialism, while at the same time the leaders were feeling secure that no
evil would befall them as long as they had the symbol (Temple) of the Lord’s
presence among them. (ref. Micah
3:9-11) Micah
prophesied that God would teach them a lesson by destroying Jerusalem with its
temple.
This was a
warning to the New Testament Christians not to take advantage of God. Paul
said, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Let us examine our hearts to be
true to the Holy One of Israel and ask God for forgiveness and put away any
idols that offended God.
To be continued.
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