Idol Worship...it's something that seems so foreign and out there for most Christians that it tends to not even appear on their radar. But do idols for the most part look like a little piece of wood or metal that has been dressed up by humans? What are the characteristics of idols that make them and idol? Do idols even need to be physical or can they be immaterial? What do idols have that make them appealing both to Christians and non-Christians alike? What do you do with an idol when you stumble upon it?
Exodus 20:4-6 says this:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
That is a pretty strong statement to be made by God for all of His children not to pay attention. Here is a statement from God that His people are not to make, worship, and/or serve an idol. He even goes on to talk about what will happen to those people who do decide to make an idol for themselves. Their children to the third and fourth generations will be visited or struggle with their great great great grandfathers desire to serve idols. That's too huge to ignore.
But what God simply talking about physical wooden/metal idols that are commonly though to today. It would be nice if that were the only way in which the Bible speaks of idols. When Saul decides to keep out the choices bits of the Amalekit nation for himself and he is confronted by Samuel, God, through Samuel, says, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” God says that rebellion is as idolatry. So there is much more to idolatry than simply making a piece of wood into something idolish.
