I shared with you a few weeks ago that the Lord has impressed me to preach more on the topic of idolatry. The reason why is because I’ve been convicted that idolatry is a huge distraction that Satan uses to lure us off the path to God. The devil will use any means possible to hinder our relationship with the Lord and even ruin our families; and thus, destroy the abundant life that Jesus promised. This morning we will be looking at idolatry in 3-D, as I share the three tragic consequences of idolatry or “sacrificing unto idols,” presenting you with three “D” words. The three “D” words that I’m going to be using are Dispossession, Desolation, and Death; and I encourage you to be listening for them as we go along.
Idolatry Leads to Dispossession (vv. 24-25)
24 Because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols; 25 therefore, I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live.
There are three major statements we need to consider in verse 24. The first one is this: “Because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes.” Today, people despise God’s statutes – or His Law and moral standards – so much so, that they are subscribing to moral relativism, believing that we define our own ideas concerning right and wrong. In order to do so, people have to dismiss the authority of the Bible. When we claim that the Bible is no longer our source of truth, that is in essence despising God’s statues; and when we despise His statues, we refuse to execute His judgements and rules; choosing instead to execute our own rules, doing only what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do.
The second statement we need to consider in verse 24 is this: “They had . . . profaned My Sabbaths.” When God’s statues begin holding less weight and authority for us, we begin ignoring some of His commandments. The fourth of the Ten Commandments is “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (cf. Exodus 20:8-11). In Exodus chapter 20, it takes 4 verses for God to explain this commandment, so it must be important. The Sabbath is significant, because it reinforces the first three commandments, in which God spoke about worshipping Him and staying away from idolatry. The Sabbath is when we set aside time to honor God; and when we fail to keep the Sabbath, verse 24 says that we “profane” it.
The word profane means, “to misuse” or “to treat with irreverence or contempt.” So, how do we “misuse” the Sabbath? Well, when we fail to observe the Sabbath, we take a step backwards to disobey the first three of the Ten Commandments, which warn about committing idolatry. In fact, the very actions of exalting our own reasoning above God’s Law, and choosing to work or perhaps pursue recreation on the Sabbath, is a sign that we are serving other gods; in particular, the gods of money and self. This leads to our third statement in verse 24: “Their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.” Perhaps we’re not serving wood or stone carvings, but we do serve idols when we devote more of our time and resources to something other than God.
Verse 25 says, “Therefore, I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live.” When we begin rejecting God’s commandments and following after idols, the Lord will give us up. First of all, God will give us up to our own reasoning. The “statutes that were not good and judgments by which they could not live” were the ones forged from their own sinful desires. Any society that tries to establish laws apart from a moral standard will write statutes that are unjust; ones by which people cannot live. This is the direction the United States is heading right now as a result of moral relativism. And the second way, in which God will give us up, is by withdrawing His presence and protection from us.
So, to summarize these two verses, idolatry can be understood as serving oneself; and the first tragic consequence of serving oneself rather than serving God, is that idolatry leads to dispossession; meaning, God will give us up.
Idolatry Leads to Desolation (v. 26)
26 And I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the LORD.
Here we see another tragic consequence of idolatry, as the people went so far as to cause “all their firstborn to pass through the fire.” In Deuteronomy 18:9-10, God warned the Israelites, saying, “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire.” Leviticus 18:21 is a little more specific. It says, “You shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” So, this act of passing children through the fire was done in the name of Molech.
Molech was a Phonecian god, to be precise. The website GotQuestions.org says, “Molech worship included child sacrifice or ‘passing children through the fire.’ It is believed that idols of Molech were giant metal statues of a man with a bull’s head. Each image had a hole in the abdomen and possibly outstretched forearms that made a kind of ramp to the hole. A fire was lit in or around the statue. Babies were placed in the statue’s arms or in the hole. When a couple sacrificed their firstborn, they believed that Molech would ensure financial prosperity for the family and future children.”(1)
I want you to note something from the information I just read. It stated, “They believed that Molech would ensure financial prosperity.” So, Molech was about money. Here in America we are literally sacrificing our children unto a god through abortion, which claims to the lives of nearly 1,460,000 babies each year.(2) The god we sacrifice to is the god of money. The income for the abortion industry is well over 1 billion dollars, and that’s just the business from the abortion clinics. And many mothers are choosing to have an abortion simply because they don’t want to spend the money on raising a child. It all comes back to money; but let’s move aside from the topic of abortion.
The Apostle Paul said to Timothy, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, [and] lovers of money” (2 Timothy 3:1-2), and he admonished that some will even forbid to marry (1 Timothy 4:1-3). So, as people become lovers of themselves and lovers of money they will refuse to get married. This is happening more and more; and when you talk to people who refuse to marry, they will tell you it’s because they don’t want to be burdened with children or family; that they want to do what they want to do and have financial freedom. So, what does it go back to? It all goes back to the gods of self and money; or rather, time and money. It’s interesting to note that the ancient Greek culture of North Africa worshipped Molech, and they renamed him Kronos,(3) who became the Greek god of time and the father of Zeus.
Our children are our future; and as a nation, we are losing our future through abortion and through people refusing to marry. When Israel sacrificed its children unto Molech, which we could identify as the god of money, God pronounced them unclean and they were made desolate. They were made desolate and few in numbers as their population was decimated through child sacrifice.
How many of us who actually chose to get married have considered that we could be sacrificing our children too – and I’m not talking about literally? Are we sacrificing time with our children and family as we pursue the things of self, such as our hobbies; or as we pursue money, working and obsessing to obtain more money than we really need to live on? Or working for extra cash to pay for our expensive recreational activities, and all that goes with it – which all goes back to the god of self? So, let me ask you: “How does sacrificing our children in pursuit of worldly gain affect our personal and family life?” Well, listen as I share something else about Molech, and then I’ll tell you.
Molech worship occurred in a narrow ravine outside of Jerusalem called the Valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10). 2 Chronicles 33:6 says of King Manasseh, “He caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.” After the Babylonian exile, the Valley of Hinnom “was turned into a place for burning garbage and the bodies of executed criminals.” The website GotQuestions.org says, “Jesus used the imagery of this place – an eternally burning fire, consuming countless human victims – to describe hell, where those who reject God will burn for eternity (Matthew 10:28).”(4) So, the place where the Israelites sacrificed their children unto Molech was so horrific that Jesus used it as an image of hell!
In 1 Timothy 6:9-10, Paul said, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Paul said those who desire to be rich stray from the faith, and drown and become pierced through with many sorrows. So, when we worship the god of money, sacrificing unto Molech to this very day, our life becomes as what Jesus described – that place of destruction and torment. The Bible speaks of a real place called hell; but when we pursue idols, we can easily create a living hades for ourselves!
So, to summarize verse 26, as we sacrifice our children and family in pursuit of the gods of time and money (which time and money are a modern manifestation of Molech) our life is made desolate, barren, empty and devoid of any positive legacy. So, the second tragic consequence of serving oneself rather than serving God, is that idolatry leads to desolation; or rather, barrenness.
Idolatry Leads to Death (vv. 27-29)
27 Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD: In this too your fathers have blasphemed Me, by being unfaithful to Me. 28 When I brought them into the land concerning which I had raised My hand in an oath to give them, and they saw all the high hills and all the thick trees, there they offered their sacrifices and provoked Me with their offerings. There they also sent up their sweet aroma and poured out their drink offerings. 29 Then I said to them, ‘What is this high place to which you go?’ So its name is called Bamah to this day.”
When the Israelites sacrificed unto idols, this would often occur on what verses 28 calls “the high hills.” In 2 Kings 16:3-4, we read of King Ahaz, who did not follow the ways of the Lord, that “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.” The “high hills” were the “high places” located in the mountains, where the people not only sacrificed unto idols, but they worshipped the hills and the trees as well. We see people today worshipping nature, referring to it as “Mother Earth.” Keep in mind that Molech, as Kronos, is “Father Time.” So, people are still worshipping the same gods today.
In response to this worship performed in the high places, we read how the Lord called the place Bamah. In light of modern politics, this word bamah might sound familiar. Jesus said something related in Luke 10:18. He declared, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Let’s look at the two words lightning and heaven from Luke 10:18. We realize the New Testament was written in Greek; however, Jesus spoke in Aramaic, which is a form of ancient Hebrew. The word bamah means “ridge,” “high place,” or “heaven.”(5) The word for “lighting” in Hebrew is barack. So, when Jesus shared this statement with His disciples, He literally would have said in Aramaic, “I saw Satan fall like barack from bamah.”
Luke 10:18 shares something we need to grasp about spiritual warfare. In fact, Luke 10:19 (the very next verse) is where we get the expression of “putting the devil under our feet.” So, here’s what can be applied to spiritual warfare. In Hebrew, the word bamah is also the technical term for a “cultic platform,” which is the altar on which the sacrifices were made.(6) Taking what Jesus said about Satan falling from the high place, we can see that the high places on which the Israelites made sacrifices unto their false gods were influenced by the devil; meaning, they were satanic strongholds.
Satan is trying to get a foothold in our life through idolatry, so he can establish a stronghold in our mind and lead us down the path to destruction. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:4-5, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” So, the real spiritual battlefield is within the mind. You should be made aware that the term “battlefield” is another rendering of the word bamah,(7) reminding us of the battle for our mind, as Satan is ultimately seeking to get at our heart.
Our last translation of the word bamah is “funeral mound.”(8) Now, I want you to notice how in Ezekiel 20:29, the text says the place of their sacrifice was “called bamah to this day” (v. 29). The word bamah originally referred to a high place, as in a ridge or mountain, but God “called” it, the text says. He “renamed” it a funeral mound after His people repeatedly committed the sin of idolatry in that place. This tells us that offering sacrifices unto idols – giving them our time, resources, and even our family – will lead to God making a pronouncement of death.
When Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like barack from bamah” (Luke 10:18), perhaps this was a prophetic warning to say this: “In the days when the words barack and bamah are spoken aloud and have become everyday common words – the days when you see people becoming “lovers of themselves” and “lovers of money” (2 Timothy 3:2) and “forbidding to marry” (1 Timothy 4:3), sacrificing their children in pursuit of their gods; be reminded that should you, yourself, surrender on that battlefield and follow after their ways, giving in to the temptations of Satan; that your life will become a funeral mound.
So, to summarize these three verses, as we pursue our idols we will become as the walking dead; as this world – along with all its money and possessions – will suck the very life right out of us. The third tragic consequence of serving oneself rather than serving God, is that idolatry leads to death.
Time of Reflection
In Luke 9:25, Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” There are two ways to apply this verse. First of all, to the unbeliever, Jesus is saying we must be willing to give up our grip on this world before we will ever humble ourselves and ask Christ for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
The second application is to the believer and unbeliever alike. Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” Our desire to hang on to the things of this world is the same thing as idolatry; and if we continue serving our idols, then we will lose ourselves along the way, and our life will be destroyed and left in ruin.
If you’re here today knowing that you have never before confessed Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then please let go of the idols in your life. Let go of the things that you deem as more important than Jesus, the things which you hold in esteem above Christ, and the things that you’re willing to pursue at the cost of losing your eternal home. I want to encourage you to come receive the forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
NOTES
(1) “Who Was Moloch/Molech?” GotQuestions.org: https://www.gotquestions.org/who-Molech.html.
(2) Steven Pace, Sanctity of Human Life, a sermon taken from the Internet January 2003 on sermoncentral.com.
(3) “Who Was Moloch/Molech?” GotQuestions.org.
(4) Ibid.
(5) “Bamah,” Blue Letter Bible, Strong’s Number H1116: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1116&t=NET.
(6) Ibid.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
