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What is idolatry? How does God feel about it? Let's explore God's Word and see for ourselves what He has to say about it.

But first let us define what idolatry really is.

Definition from the American Tract Society Dictionary:

IDOL, IDOLATRY
 
The word idol signifies literally a representation or figure.  It is always employed in Scripture in a bad sense, for representations of heathen deities of what nature soever.  God forbids all sorts of idols, or figures and representations of creatures, formed or set up with intention of paying superstitious worship to them, Ex 20:3,4; 34:13; De 4:16-19; 7:25,26.  He also forbids all attempts to represent him by any visible form, Ex 32:4,5; De 4:15; Ne 9:18.
 
The heathen had idols of all sorts-paintings, bas-reliefs, and all varieties of sculpture-and these of many kinds of materials, as gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, potters earth, etc.  Stars, spirits, men, animals, rivers, plants, and elements were the subjects of them.  Scarcely an object or power in nature, scarcely a faculty of the soul, a virtue, a vice, or a condition of human life, has not received idolatrous worship.  See STARS.  Some nations worshipped a rough stone.  Such is the black stone of the ancient Arabs, retained by Mohammed, and now kept in the Caaba at Mecca.
 
It is impossible to ascertain the period at which the worship of false gods and idols was introduced.  No mentioned is made of such worship before the deluge; though from the silence of Scripture we cannot argue that it did not exist.  Josephus and many of the fathers were of opinion, that soon after the deluge idolatry became prevalent; and certainly, whenever we turn our eyes after the time of Abraham, we see only a false worship.  That patriarch's forefathers, and even he himself, were implicated in it, as is evident from Jos 24:2,14.
 
The Hebrews had no peculiar form of idolatry; they imitated the superstitions of others, but do not appear to have been the inventors of any.  When they were in Egypt, many of them worshipped Egyptians deities, Eze 20:8; in the wilderness, they worshipped those of the Canaaites, Egyptians, Ammonites, and Moabites; in Judea, those of the Phoenicians, Syrians, and other people around them, Nu 25:1-18; Jg 10:6; Am 5:25; Ac 7:42.  Rachel, it may be, had adored idols at her father Laban's, since she carried off his teraphim, Ge 31:30.  Jacob after his return from Mesopotamia, required his people to reject the strange gods from among them and also the superstitious pendants worn by them in their ears, which he hid under a terebinth near Shechem.  He preserved his family in the worship of God while he lived.
 
Under the government of the judges, "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim.  They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, and served Baal and Ashtaroth," Jg 2:11,12.  Gideon, after he had been favored by God with a miraculous deliverance, made an ephod, which ensnared the Israelites in unlawful worship, Jg 8:27.  Micah's teraphim also were the objects of idolatrous worship, even till the captivity of Israel in Babylon, Jg 17:5; 18:30,31.  See TERAPHIM.
 
During the times of Samuel, Saul, and David, the worship of God seems to have been preserved pure in Israel.  There was corruption and irregularity of manners, but little or no idolatry.  Solomon, seduced by complaisance to his strange wives, caused temples to be erected in honor of Ashtoreth goddess of the Phoenicians, Moloch god of the Ammonites, and Chemosh god of the Moabites.  Jeroboam, who succeeded Solomon, set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel, and made Israel to sin.  The people, no longer restrained by royal authority, worshipped not only these golden calves, but many other idols, particularly Baal and Ashtoreth.  Under the reign of Ahab, idolatry reached its height.  The impious Jezebel endeavored to extinguish the worship of the Lord, by persecuting his prophets, (who, as a barrier, still retained some of the people in the true religion,) till God, incensed at their idolatry, abandoned Israel to the kings of Assyria and Chaldea, who transplanted them beyond the Euphrates.  Judah was almost equally corrupted.  The descriptions given by the prophets of their irregularities and idolatries, of their abominations and lasciviousness on the high places and in woods consecrated to idols, and of their human sacrifices, fill us with dismay, and unveil the awful corruption of the heart of man.  See MOLOCH.  After the return from Babylon, we do not find the Jews any more reproached with idolatry.  They expressed much zeal for the worship of God, and except some transgressor under Antichus Epiphanes, the people kept themselves clear from this sin.
 
As the maintenance of the worship of the only true God was one of the fundamental objects of the Mosaic polity, and as God was regarded as the king of the Israelitish nation, so we find idolatry, that is, the worship of other gods, occupying, in the Mosaic law, the first place in the list of crimes.  It was indeed a crime, not merely against God, but also against the fundamental law of the state, and thus a sort of high treason.  The only living and true God was also the civil legislator and ruler of Israel, and accepted by them as their king; and hence idolatry was a crime against the state, and therefore just as deservedly punished with death, as high treason is in modern times.  By the Jewish law, an idolatrous city must be wholly destroyed, with all it contained, De 13:12-18; 17:2,5.
 
At the present day, idolatry, prevails over a great portion of the earth, and is practiced by about 600,000,000 of the human race.  Almost all the heathen nations, as the Chinese, the Hindoos, the South Sea islanders, etc., have their images, to which they bow down and worship.  In some lands professedly Christians, it is to be feared that the adoration of crucifixes and paintings is nothing more nor less than idol-worship.  But when we regard idolatry in a moral point of view, as consisting not merely in the external worship of false gods, but in the preference of, and devotion to something else than the Most High, how many Christians must then fall under this charge.  Whoever loves this world, or the pursuits of wealth or honor ambition, or selfishness in any form, and for these forgets or neglects God and Christ, such a one is an idolater in as bad sense at least as the ancient Israelites, and cannot hope to escape an awful condemnation, Col 3:5.

cont.

Definition for idolatry from Easton's Bible Dictionary.

Idolatry
 
image-worship or divine honour paid to any created object. Paul describes the origin of idolatry in Ro 1:21-25: men forsook God, and sank into ignorance and moral corruption (Ro 1:28).
 
The forms of idolatry are, (1.) Fetishism, or the worship of trees, rivers, hills, stones, etc.
 
(2.) Nature worship, the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as the supposed powers of nature.
 
(3.) Hero worship, the worship of deceased ancestors, or of heroes.
 
In Scripture, idolatry is regarded as of heathen origin, and as being imported among the Hebrews through contact with heathen nations. The first allusion to idolatry is in the account of Rachel stealing her father's teraphim (Ge 31:19), which were the relics of the worship of other gods by Laban's progenitors "on the other side of the river in old time" (Jos 24:2). During their long residence in Egypt the Hebrews fell into idolatry, and it was long before they were delivered from it (Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7). Many a token of God's displeasure fell upon them because of this sin.
 
The idolatry learned in Egypt was probably rooted out from among the people during the forty years' wanderings; but when the Jews entered Palestine, they came into contact with the monuments and associations of the idolatry of the old Canaanitish races, and showed a constant tendency to depart from the living God and follow the idolatrous practices of those heathen nations. It was their great national sin, which was only effectually rebuked by the Babylonian exile. That exile finally purified the Jews of all idolatrous tendencies.
 
The first and second commandments are directed against idolatry of every form. Individuals and communities were equally amenable to the rigorous code. The individual offender was devoted to destruction (Ex 22:20). His nearest relatives were not only bound to denounce him and deliver him up to punishment (De 13:18-10), but their hands were to strike the first blow when, on the evidence of two witnesses at least, he was stoned (De 17:2-7). To attempt to seduce others to false worship was a crime of equal enormity (De 13:6-10). An idolatrous nation shared the same fate. No facts are more strongly declared in the Old Testament than that the extermination of the Canaanites was the punishment of their idolatry (Ex 34:15,16; De 7:1-26; 12:29-31; 20:17), and that the calamities of the Israelites were due to the same cause (Jer 2:17). "A city guilty of idolatry was looked upon as a cancer in the state; it was considered to be in rebellion, and treated according to the laws of war. Its inhabitants and all their cattle were put to death." Jehovah was the theocratic King of Israel, the civil Head of the commonwealth, and therefore to an Israelite idolatry was a state offence (1Sa 15:23), high treason. On taking possession of the land, the Jews were commanded to destroy all traces of every kind of the existing idolatry of the Canaanites (Ex 23:24,32; 34:13; De 7:5,25; 12:1-3).
 
In the New Testament the term idolatry is used to designate covetousness (Mt 6:24; Lu 16:13; Col 3:5; Eph 5:5).

 1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. {witchcraft: Heb. divination}

 Ac 17:16 ¶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. {wholly...: or, full of idols}

 1Co 10:14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

 Ga 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

 Col 3:5 ¶ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
(KJV)

cont

 Le 19:4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.

 Le 26:1 ¶ Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. {standing...: or, pillar} {image of...: or, figured stone: Heb. a stone of picture}

 Le 26:30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

 De 29:17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) {idols: Heb. dungy gods}

 1Sa 31:9 And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people.

 1Ki 15:12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

 1Ki 21:26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

 2Ki 17:12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

 2Ki 21:11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:

 2Ki 21:21 And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

 2Ki 23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. {images: or, teraphim}

 1Ch 10:9 And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.

 1Ch 16:26 For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

 2Ch 15:8 ¶ And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD. {abominable...: Heb. abominations}

 2Ch 24:18 And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.

 2Ch 34:7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. {into...: Heb. to make powder}

 Ps 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

 Ps 97:7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

 Ps 106:36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

 Ps 106:38 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.

 Ps 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

 Ps 135:15 ¶ The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

 Isa 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

Cont

 Isa 2:18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish. {he...: or, shall utterly pass away}

 Isa 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; {his idols of silver...: Heb. the idols of his silver, etc} {each...: or, for him}

 Isa 10:10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

 Isa 10:11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

 Isa 19:1 ¶ The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

 Isa 19:3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. {fail: Heb. be emptied} {destroy: Heb. swallow up}

 Isa 31:7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. {his idols of gold: Heb. the idols of his gold}

 Isa 45:16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.

 Isa 46:1 ¶ Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast

 Isa 57:5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? {with...: or, among the oaks}

 Jer 50:2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. {set up: Heb. lift up}

 Jer 50:38 A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

 Eze 6:4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. {images: or, sun images}

 Eze 6:5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. {lay: Heb. give}

 Eze 6:6 In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. {images: or, sun images}

 Eze 6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

 Eze 6:13 Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

 Eze 8:10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

 Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

 Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

 Eze 14:5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

 Eze 14:6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. {yourselves: or, others}

 Eze 14:7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:

cont