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GOD’S COVENANT FORBIDS IDOLATRY
SATURDAY, JULY 31
Deuteronomy 4:25-49

Jeremiah 16:11-13

 

“Then shalt thou say unto them,
Because your fathers have

forsaken me, saith the LORD…”

 

GOD’S COVENANT FORBIDS IDOLATRY
 
The Law of God and the covenant that He made with Israel was foremost in the mind of Moses. He repeated the need to keep away from idols. God spoke to them like no other nation since the creation of the world. God’s love for Israel made them His people and when they obeyed Him, they had the blessing of long life. Moses also laid the foundation of law and order in the new settlement.
 
Moses stressed that Israel was expressly commanded to keep away from idols. Those of their children who would turn to idolatry would provoke the Lord to anger. Idolatry is seen as the most abominable sin because it amounts to the denial of the existence of the true God. Regardless of the grave nature of this sin, it was widely practised then, and even today. The Lord knew that it was easy for the children of Israel to turn and follow the example of other nations and sin against God. He did not cease to warn them of the danger of that transgression.
 
The ultimate punishment for that transgression would be the scattering of the people among other nations. They would become strangers again as they were in Egypt. In addition, they would find themselves compelled to serve gods of wood and stone that neither could see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. The point that Moses was stressing here is that these idols have no life in themselves. They remain stone and wood, i.e. non-living objects. Anyone following these idols demonstrate the depth of their folly. However, the degeneration to this abominable practice is predictable when people are deprived of the truth.
 
Moses’ speech was prophetic. He could foresee that regardless of the consolidation of the covenant with the nation, they were not free from the temptation to draw back to idolatry. The experience in the wilderness revealed the general attitude that made the people reject God and follow idols.
 
THOUGHT: Idolatry may be in the mind of man.

PRAYER: Father, may I never yield to idol worship.

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