Day 111 - 2 Kings 15-17 (God's Hatred for Idolatry )
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"Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria...For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God... and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree... for they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."' (2 Kings 17:5-12)
From its birth as a nation, Israel, God had given them His laws and commandments foremost of which is what we know as the Ten Commandments. Of the Ten Commandments, the first two is about having no other gods besides the Lord and about not making any carved image and bowing to those images. The Israelites repeatedly broke both commandments of God among many others.
Despite many warnings from God for the people to turn away from their idols, Israel continued in worship of their wooden images which they had set up on their altars all around them. As punishment for their disobedience, God sent Israel into Exile by the Assyrians. Several years later, God will send the kingdom of Judah into exile to Babylon.
For God to punish His people, the Jews to the extent that He would divide the kingdom of Israel that was firmly established under David, then, send Israel into exile to Assyria and later completely destroy the magnificent temple built by Solomon and send the people of Judah into exile to Babylon - God must have hated the sin committed by the Jews. As we already have seen above, that sin which God hated so much was the sin of idolatry.
Our Scripture reading for today leads me to ask the question: How do people today commit idolatry? Acoording to God Himself, idolatry means anything that man adores and worships as his god before the triune person of God in the Bible (Exodus 20:3). An idols is anything that is a man-made carved image which a person bows to in worship or prayer.
So be honest ask yourself: Is there anything that I adore and worship more than God? Could my car or my hobby or my job or my spouse and children be taking first place in my life before God? If any of the these things means more to you than God, then it is idolatry.
Ask yourself this question also: Is there any carved image that I bow and pray to? If there is, then you are bowing to an idol and you are guilty of the very same sin which God hates so much that He ordered the Israelites to wipe out the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan and then later, when Israel practiced idolatry themselves, that God sent them into exile and destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem.
If you answered yes to any or both of the questions above, you will respond in one of two ways. One, you will do nothing and continue in your idolatry and incur the judgment of God. Two, you will repent of your idolatry and destroy your idols and ask God's forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ and you will be forgiven. I pray that you will do the latter.
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