Again and again in the Old Testament the prophets condemned idolatry. What was idolatry? Essentially it was worshipping an image—a statue or something that represented a god or goddess.
The people of Israel were strictly forbidden to do this. One of the Ten Commandments makes this clear: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath” (Ex. 20:4).
Israel’s religion was based on the worship of the one and only God, an invisible Spirit—not an object or a force of nature. Israel was surrounded by nations that worshipped nature gods, notably the weather-agriculture god Baal.
People concocted elaborate myths about these humanlike gods and their sexual shenanigans. Worship of such was often more like an orgy than a church service.
Today most people don’t literally bow down to an idol. But aren’t most people still inclined to worship material things—cars, homes, bodies (our own or someone else’s), the flashy images in advertising? It was this worship—this chasing after false gods—that Israel’s prophets condemned.
The upshot is this: We are supposed to worship the Creator (God), not anything created. So we aren’t to worship Baal . . . or a Mercedes or the airbrushed images in pornography, or gods with names like Wealth and Power and Popularity and Worldly Satisfaction. The idolatry problem won’t go away.
