“Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?” (Jeremiah 16:20)
This was the worse sin Israel was to commit. There are still people who make gods of things in nature and the universe to worship. We wonder why. It’s easy to understand. Man was made for worship. We have that God made nature in us to worship and revere God. When man doesn’t know the One True God, they worship things that God has made because of the beauty, the mystery of it and because they feel God’s presence in His creation, but don’t recognize Him. God’s creation is the closest they can come to the Creator. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:25)
When a person doesn’t have a relationship with the One True God, they will worship something else. But this didn’t occur only in ancient times and with ancient peoples that didn’t know any better. In ancient times and perhaps in modern times there was the worship of Remphan known as Saturn whose star was worshipped. It was a god of the promiscuity of Solomon who had 700 wives. God condemns it and calls it Chiun. “Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.” (Amos 5:25-27) Moloch worshippers practiced child sacrifice. There is Tammuz a god of fertility and agriculture that women mourned his death at the gate of the temple. (Ezekiel 8) Mammon is a Syrian and Chaldean god of wealth and from which the word mammon is used as money, wealth, and material possessions, but which in the Bible refers to all lusts and excesses: gluttony, greed, and dishonest worldly gain.
But we need not condemn nor judge without looking within and identifying those idols in our lives. Today, modern man has idols. And even people who consider themselves Christians may have idols which they need to remove from their lives. My definition of an idol would be anything that one chooses over God. Do you choose to take a nap instead of meeting with the Lord? Then sleep is your idol. Do you choose to watch TV instead of choosing God? The TV is your idol. Whatever you choose to do in place of worship, prayer or service to God is an idol.
Self is a big and overpowering idol. God has called us to a life of sacrifice. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1) The worship of self is prominent in our culture today. We are told we have to look out for “number one.” Meekness is seen as weakness and humility as self-depreciation or self-deprecation in a very negative way.
Then there’s the case of David doting over Absalom even after Absalom killed his brother Amnon. He mourned over Absalom for three years. And although Absalom betrayed him and took the kingdom from him, yet he told his warriors to “deal gently” with him. (2 Samuel 13-19) “And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.” (2Samuel 18:5) His laxity in not punishing Absalom resulted in Absalom’s complete disregard for his father and his position as king. He undermined David and eventually rebelled against him, displaying an outright atrocity for all to see. “So, they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.” (2Samuel 16:22)
Parents who dote and are lax with their children make them their gods in God’s sight. They don’t do them or themselves any favors. The children grow up thinking they’re entitled to special treatment and rebel in terrible ways to get their own way, even turning on their parents without regard for anyone except themselves. This also is an abomination to God.
Choosing God in every circumstance is worship. Obedience is a demonstration of our love for God. “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21) Our love for the Lord should be above all else. Jesus also said, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26) The word which was translated “hate” actually means to love less in the original Greek. This is true worship of the One True God.
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