Sabbath, December 10, 2011 - "Why Israel easily worshiped Idols"

1. Genesis 1:1-4  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness

2. Our five senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste provide the very foundation that we as humans need in order to survive in this world.

3. Genesis 2:9 “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

4. Genesis 2:16-17 “…commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” 

5. Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” 

6. Genesis 2:2-3, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

7. Genesis 3:4-5, “…Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” 

8. Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

9. Genesis 2:25, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

10. Genesis 3:7 “and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” 

11. Exodus 19:5-6, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth [is] mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation…” 

12. Exodus 20:2-6 “I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of anything] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” 

13. Exodus 32:1, “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for [as for] this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” 

14. Exodus 32:2, “And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which [are] in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring [them] unto me.”

15. Exodus 32:5, “and when Aaron saw [it], he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, to morrow [is] a feast to the LORD.” 

16. Numbers 21:8-9, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

17. What do we read in 2 Kings, 18:1, 3 and 4?  Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.  He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

18. Satan knew early on with Eve that appealing to the senses would be the way to turn God’s children away from Him.  Debasement of the five senses would corrupt our mental faculties, thus also corrupting our spiritual faculties as well.  Our physical being, based on our senses, is the foundation of our mental health, which in turn, provides for our spiritual health.  When this foundation is destroyed, so is everything else.

19. When we give all and die to self, what we are doing or should do is deny the flesh…deny our lusts of the flesh, the appealing to our senses, developing temperance in our senses, so that our physical person is complete and pure, which will in turn, provide for our mental stability and heighten our spiritual faculty.  In this way, we are truly ready to give all to God and die to self.

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