= Idolatry

== What is Idolatry?

=== Idolatry vs. False Prophecy
* 1. Failure to Prophesy: Deu 18:21-22
** 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—
** 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

* 2. Prophetic Status Contingent on Idolatry: Deu 13:1-3
** 1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
** 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
** 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

=== The question of ignorance
One way to fall into idolatry is to be ignorant of the Torah; this is the typology of Eve's misunderstanding. Being ignorant of the Torah, one may draw wisdom from a source that is not God and thereby commit idolatry. Is this an unfair assessment? It says "I have taught you, so that you may do..." and "How will you know a word the Lord has (not) spoken?" and "I have told you so that I may punish you," and "The people say Amen!" (Psalm 106, Deu 27) therefore Israel cannot be ignorant nor is it unfair.

As for the nations of the world, they shall at least ask "To whom has the arm of the lord been revealed?" (Isaiah 53) for on that day "You will know I am the Lord." -- for 'Is it only a light matter that Israel is a light to the nations' and "Thus saith the Lord Almighty; In those days my word shall be fulfilled if ten men of all the languages of the nations should take hold - even take hold of the hem of a Jew, saying, We will go with thee; for we have heard that God is with you." (BST Zec 8:23) for "Then he said, 'May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?' He answered, 'For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.'" (Genesis 18:32)

=== Faith vs. Works
* 3. Typology of Idolatry
* '...if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known,' (A God neither you nor your fathers have known. but,) ... 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. (Deu 13:2-4)

* 4. Hard warning
** 6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, (I.E. Not a prophet, but this specific person,) ... entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
** 7 some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
*** I.E. if you are enticed to serve, but not go after, by this specific person (ex. Christmas, Easter, etc.)

* 5. Typology of Idolatry 
** ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
*** I.E. service by action and not just assignment of worship or ecumenical authority.
*** (A service, or a 'god' which you have not known,'

* 6. Typology of 'you have (not) known;'
** Deu 4
*** 3 Your eyes have seen..
*** 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, ... that you should do them ...
*** 9 "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, ...
*** 15 "...Since you saw no form...
*** 34 "...all of which 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 is God; there is no other besides him.
*** 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

== Idolatry typologized as Prostitution
Drawing away into foreign worship was typologized as prostitution not least because of the actions of Midian.

* Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors. (Hosea 9:1 ESV)

* 2 “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. (Jeremiah 2:2 ESV)

* Jeremiah 3:6-10 (ESV)
* 6 The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?
* 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
* 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
* 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.
* 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

* My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. (Hosea 4:12 ESV)

=== In the manner of Solomon
<blockquote>1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

6 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.

7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.

8 And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.

9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,

10 And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.

11 Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.<cite>1 Kings 11:1-11 (KJV)</cite></blockquote>

For more information see [[Davidic Covenant]] ex. 2 Chronicles 6:16 "...if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.'"

== Idolatry as Rebellion
As was in the days of Cain, Tubal Cain, and Lamech. For Noah said,

* 24 ... "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."
* 26 He also said, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem."
* 27 May God extend Japheth’s[b] territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth."

As we see, Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan came together to war against God, saying;

* Genesis 11:3-4
** 3-4 They said to each other, ... "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

This was a war of desperation; they were damned, as Cain was, to die after seven generations; in the manner of Cain's descendants warring against God by (creating instruments of war and destruction) and leading people into Idolatry by corrupting worship of the creator into worship of the creation;

* Genesis 10:8-9
** 8 Cush was the father[c] of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth.
** 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”
** 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in[d] Shinar.[e]

And in what manner did Nimrod war against God?

* Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind."

Therefore Nimrod succeeded in the lie of "No, Man is God (I am God)" and "Thou shall be pure by the spilling of human blood," (Institution of human sacrifice as vicarious atonement). And the particular mark of his corruption was "See, this is my holy vessel (holy spirit), and this is my son, and they (he) is (now) God, and you shall worship (them) him." and in this manner he preserved his throne by appropriating it as holding the ecumenical authority of God. His nation and all that followed him were then set up in direct opposition to God and his nation, Israel.

For we know the genealogy of all of Noah's sons, and Abraham came from the line of Shem; Amalek, Egypt, Moab, Midian, and so on all come from the line of Ham. For example:

* Genesis 10:14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines came).
* Genesis 10:19 ...Later the Canaanite clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah,
* Genesis 10:15 Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn..." (note, Tyre and Sidon)

As for Put,

==== Put
Epiphanius writes: "Thus Mistrem was allotted Egypt, Cush Ethiopia, Put Axum, Ragman and Sabteka and [Dedan, also called Judad], the region bordering on Garama."

Josephus writes: "Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites (Phoutes), from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut (Phoute): but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mezraim, who was called Lybyos."[2] Pliny the Elder[3] and Ptolemy[4] both place the river Phuth on the west side of Mauretania (modern Morocco). Ptolemy also mentions a city Putea in Libya (iv.3.39).

A Libyan connection has likewise been inferred from **Nahum 3:9, where it is said that "Put and Lubim" were the helpers of Egypt.** Other biblical verses consistently refer to the descendants of Put as warriors. In **Jeremiah 46:9**, they are again described as being supporters of Egypt. **Ezekiel mentions them three times: in 27:10, as supporters of Tyre (Phoenicia), in 30:5 again as supporting Egypt, and in 38:5, as supporters of Gog.** The Septuagint Greek (LXX) substitutes Libues in Ezekiel where the Hebrew Bible refers to Put. However, the LXX reads Put in Isaiah 66:19, in place of Pul in the Hebrew.

The Libyan tribe of pỉdw shows up in Egyptian records by the 22nd dynasty, while a Ptolemaic text from Edfu refers to the t3 n nꜣ pỉt.w "the land of the Pitu". The word was later written in Demotic as Pỉt, and as Phaiat in Coptic, a name for Libya Aegypti, northwestern Egypt.

A fragment of Nebuchadnezzar II's annals mentions his campaign in 567 in Egypt, and defeating the soldiers of Pu-ṭu-ia-a-man, i.e. Greek Libya (Cyrene). A multilingual stele from al-Kabrīt, dating to the reign of Darius I refers to the Put as the province of Putāya (Old Persian) and Puṭa (Neo-Babylonian), where the equivalent text written in Egyptian has tꜣ ṯmḥw "Libya". 

=== Reliance upon the Lord
The notion then of "pagan" is the "nations of the world" all of whom have been drawn into idolatry as a means of attempting to fight against God.

For all those who are against God know that they cannot rely upon God, and therfore seek protection from wordly goods versus the idea of Sukkhot, to rely upon the Lord and not upon a roof to protect you.

Those who have been damned by the Lord thus seek to war against him in various ways even simply by attempting to survive.

It is the same as the Edomites; who war against Jacob; "Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 'Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!'" - Psalm 137:7"

== Fairness of Hereditary Idolatry
IN the case of Amalek, etc. It would seem that Amalek’s actions and the consequential command to wipe them out, indicates that Amalek is considered far worse than such as Ammon and Moab. Yet, on analysis of further laws related to Amalek, a significant difficulty arises: It is evident from the Rambam(1) and Ra’avad(2) that the command to destroy Amalek does not apply if an Amalekite refutes the heretical and hateful attitude of his nation. Moreover, a genuine Amalekite convert is accepted into the Jewish people, and he is allowed to marry into the Jewish people(3)!

* 1 Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim, Chapter 6, Halacha 4.
* 2 Hasagot HaRa’avad, Ibid.
* 3 Descendants of the Amalekite Haman learnt Torah in Bnei Brak. Also see Mishbetsot Zahav, Shmuel Beit, pp.18-20, for an extensive discussion of this issue.

=== Conclusion over Fairness
As in the covenants which were not made with any particular (Jew), but individuals are responsible for their own actions, thus we see there is no "nation" from which one cannot escape, but rather it is a typology of nations and one may move from one to another as very well may be they may convert. It is only then that those of a certain insiduous nature may not (ex. convert) as they would surely do so solely to infiltrate and destroy Israel.

(Has God not spoken and will do? Ex. fulfillment of certain laws in the punishment of Solomon..)