“And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;” (Zephaniah 1:5)
This verse is a continuation of the previous one (verse 4) where God pronounces that He will stretch His hand against idol worshippers. Malcham was the name of an idol worshipped by the Ammonites and Phoenicians in the Bible. God is pointing out in this verse that there are spiritual hypocrites who want to cover all their bases. They worship the sun, the moon and the stars, then they also worship and make oaths by the LORD and also make oaths by Malcham. Notice that LORD is all capitalized, meaning the Self-existent and eternal Jehovah, Jehovah the LORD, God of Israel.
Jesus spoke of this duplicity. Our hearts can only truly have one love. For most unbelievers, their god is self. They serve themselves and live totally for their own pleasure. They may not bow down to self, nor do they bow down to any idol image, but neither do they bow down to the Lord. They live mainly for themselves. There are others who do worship an idol named mammon. This idol is the worship of the things of the world, money, fame and position. They do anything possible for the attainment of these things. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13)
Satan came to Jesus as He fasted and tempted Him to worship mammon. Jesus recognizes the idol of mammon and declares, “...Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (Matthew 4:10) In reading the passages of the temptation of Jesus, lots of details were not written, but we can imagine, that this was truly a temptation for Jesus. He is the King of Kings who had come from the glories of heaven to the bondage in this earthly flesh and the world. Jesus fasted to prepare for His public ministry. He allowed nothing to deter Him; not satan, not his temptations, not persecution and not fear of the death He would have to endure for the redemption of man.
Paul wrote to the Romans that we become servants to what we yield. Do we yield to the temptations of ease and become totally negligent in those things which we must do at home, work or in our obligations to others? Do we totally become idols of ourselves that we place ourselves before all others, even those who need us? Do we pursue riches and fame to the detriment of our families and friends, using people only as pawns for gain and to advance ourselves? “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16) Chasing riches and fame is a bondage that is never satisfied.
God requires complete worship and giving of ourselves to Him. God is jealous for us and will not share us with others or the world. We cannot please God in spreading our worship around, on ourselves or any other person, thing or idol. “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10) In giving of ourselves to the Lord and becoming His servants, He lifts us up as His children and part of the His divine family. The Lord satisfies the soul with peace and His Presence, no longer in bondage to sin and death, but free to righteousness. “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” (Romans 6:18) When the soul is in bondage to sin, that is the only thing he can do, sin. He has no choice. He cannot do good. But in Christ, we have the freedom to choose. Yes, we have the freedom even to choose sin, but it would be foolishness to return to the bondage of sin and death when we now are bearing fruit that is holy and we have eternal life. (Romans 6:22) Our new nature in God will not allow us to return to sin.
The Lord requires us to leave the things of the world. They are a trap for sin. We are not able and do not have the capacity to love God and love the world also. (Matthew 6:34) So we have this command from the Lord as written by John. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1John 2:15-16)
In the end, all will see their foolishness in following after the world and idols. They will see the Lord in His glory and exalted above all and everything that man desired. And all will worship Him. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
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