Deuteronomy 4:15-40
Beware of Idolatry
15 “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
32 “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. 36 Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, 38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. 39 Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”
Like God’s people in Moses’ time, we have a choice to listen to lifeless idols of our own making or to God’s voice inscribed and passed down the centuries to us in the scriptures. We cod not often see anyone carving statues of people or animals to worship as the cultures then routinely did, though there are some instances still in remote parts of the earth where this continues. Most of the modern idols are simply the work of man’s hands in images of words that elevate philosophical ramblings of man’s importance or imaginations crafted into images of artistic expression of the godless mind that excludes the living God from their view and thoughts (Psalm 14:1, 10:4) as they elevate their excluding understanding above the revelation of the Divine Creator (Romans 1:21-23) and make His creation of His hand as lord over Him by their hand. These can see God’s hand in everything (Romans 1:20) yet still ignore the glaring proof in all the world and universe around themselves as they deny Him and worship them and their vain imaginations as if the universe was made by them and not God. In seeking to denounce the Creator and His word, they worship the idols of faux rationalism and intellectualism that have no power to create life in them since they are lifeless constructs of debased minds set on denial. This is the atheistic worldview that worships anything other than the Lord and Maker of them and all around themselves, a sad worship of lifeless idols substituted for the infinite glory of the Lord of the universe and hope of the world. In all this time, nothing seems to have changed. Some will hear and read the scriptures and harken to the truth of the word God speaks to us, yet many fear accountability to His judgment and refuse to bow to their Lord whose hand fashioned us all as they substitute the works of their own derivative hands made in His image to worship their own images instead of Him in whose image they have been created. The LORD reminded the people through Moses and we as well in this discourse to avoid lifelessly mute idols and listen to His voice that speaks instead. He pulled them out of the idolatry and immorality of the nations who served nothing that they might serve and worship Him alone, warning them of the consequences and reminding them of His covenant with them as His own special people , just as we are (1 Peter 2:9-10) in His Son, Jesus Christ, the exact image of God (Hebrews 1:2-3) Himself who revealed all these things to us. We have heard His voice than Moses did in the burning bush, more clearly and for a longer time, for as the Son of God, the Word of God (John 1:1-3) who created the universe (John 1:10) and us in it, He came to personally tell us these things (John 1:14) in the flesh (1 John 1:1-2) that there could be no further doubt of who to worship. He delivered Israel from the bondage in Egypt and through the wilderness with the trials and tribulations of enemies and victories, just as He now delivers us from the bondage of our wills to sin and into the promised land of the kingdom of God that is within us now (Luke 17:21) and will find itself established on the scourged and cleansed earth to come in the end of all time. There we will all worship before His face with no more lifeless idols of our own imagination as we listen to His voice in His presence (Job 19:25-27, Revelation 21:3, 22:3-4) at last. May we therefore look forward to seeing Him and abstain from bowing to any idols of our own imagination or work of our hands as we listen and heed His voice spoken in the scriptures.
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