Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday,
September 22, 2017
The first commandment is dealing with idolatry in the soul, while the second commandment deals with overt idolatry.
Both of these commandments deal with the doctrine of idolatry.
- The worship of a physical object or objects as God.
2. Inordinate attachment or extreme devotion to something.
The scripture teaches that idolatry begins in the mind and proceeds to overt practice.
Shiggaon = in the Hebrew or the mental breakdowns where believers have no spiritual strength and no doctrine resident in their soul and so they immediately accept a substitute, in most cases a cheap substitute.
Eze 14:7 "For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from me, sets up his idols in his heart,
- The worship of a physical object or objects as god
2. Inordinate attachment or extreme devotion to something.
The bronze serpent was the means which God used to reveal His Son, TLJC, to the congregation of Israel.
It was the means to bring them to an expected end,....which was a personal relationship with Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God.
Joh 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."
Joh 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
Heb 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
They began to worship the means that God used to reveal himself rather than God Himself = a form of idolatry.
The children of Israel made an idol out of that which God used to deliver them and heal them = Neshushtan.
Scar tissue of the soul and hardness of the heart precedes the function of idolatry.
The Bible also teaches that demonism and demon possession is caused by idolatry in ZEC 10:2 and that idolatry is called the devil's communion table, 1Co 10:19‑21.
ZEC 10:2 For the teraphim [objects of deity] speak iniquity, And the diviners see lying visions, And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep, They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.
Because idolatry is related to both scar tissue of the soul and emotional revolt of the soul, it produces psychotic and neurotic conditions, JER 50:38.
JER 50:38 "A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, And they are mad over fearsome idols."
The worship of idols and false gods or religion is one of the main reasons for national disaster and famine.
The Hebrew word mad is halal which means to act insane, to live in arrogance.
Dr. William Gesenius says on page 226 that this word which is in the hithpoel stem means to be mad and to be foolish.
JER 50:38 "A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up! for it is a land of idols, and they are mad over fearsome idols.
The Theological wordbook of the Old Testament by Harris, Archer and Waltke says in vol 1, page 219 that this word halal, translated mad, means the irrational aspect of insanity.
They said that halal is the opposite of chokmah, which of course means doctrine.
"Most instances exhibit an application to irrational thought processes."
Idolatry also motivates the whole realm of sexual sins in the Phallic cult, Eze 22:1‑16, 23:37‑49.
Jer 9:14, "But they have walked after the stubbornness of their heart [the scar tissue of their hearts] and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.