11 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals, 12 and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked Yahweh to anger. 13 So they forsook Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. 14 And the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken and as Yahweh had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed. – Judges 2:13
Who (or what) is Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth? (there are several other names that idol is known by). Basically the female version of Baal. Basically a form of demon based higher power that would give the porn industry that is creeping into social media. advertising, and public schools moral justification.
image source: Penn Museum
Author: No, I am not going to give you some explicit sexual imagery. You’ve already had enough.
It was in the era about 1000 BC, when this part of Israel’s history took place. For those of you who do are not familiar with the Old Testament, you should know that despite being a people chosen by God, they were not immune to the disastrous effects of sins. God chose to judge the Israelite many times because of their falling away from worshipping their Protector and Liberator. Though in the case of the Israelites, God has always persevered a remnant of people to continue to serve as an example of not only God’s righteous judgment but also God’s mercy, faithfulness and covenant keeping. He promised Abraham’s seed to flourish and a Messiah in the line of David. He promised to defeat death and form an everlasting kingdom.
Here God makes known his plans to King David:
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will come forth from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will reprove him with the rod of men and the strikes from the sons of men,15 but My lovingkindness shall not be removed from him, as I removed itfrom Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’” – 2 Samuel 7:12-16.
Despite God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac Jacob, and David, there were several times Israel would suffer the consequences of their blatant disobedience to the laws. Yet a faithful remnant would rise up from defeat and/or exile as a sovereign reminder that God remains in control and His Word will be fulfilled.
Sinful humans have always sought to break free from the legitimacy of God because in the world ruled by satan and our fleshlly worldly nature is prone to sin (For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward – Job 5:7) , it’s easy to drive a society overboard with unrestrained sin fashioned as freedom.
I believe it was Rousseau, the French 18th Century philosopher who developed the idea that freedom without the exercise of virtue is not freedom at all, it’s slavery, it’s bondage to sin itself. If he didn’t deliver that quote, then I’ll take partial credit (LOL).
That’s the whole idea of idolatry and especially idolatry that distorts and destroys God’s intended use of sex and marriage and reshapes it into the sin-du-jour. People create their own “god” to give them the “freedom” to sanctify their own twisted concept of right and wrong, and if you look at it from society to society, the promotion of sexual deviancy is typically widespread. To varying degrees, whether it’s promiscuous sex, adultery, sex trafficking, slavery, child abuse, the furthest reaches of human depravity are tested without absolutes moral restraint.
Creating a god of your own making is not any different spiritually than creating a wooden image and worshipping it. There’s a great passage in Isaiah 44 that illustrates to foolishness of worshipping idols and it is codified into absolute moral law in the 1st and 2nd Commandments.
In case you needed a refresher:
7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
8 ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol—any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
9 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
10 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. – Deuteronomy 5:7-10
No, you cannot be a follower of Christ and not be unchanged, remaining in the same deviant sexual behavior as you had done as an unrepentant sinner. Transformation of those things you hold dearest in your heart are replaced by the treasuring those things of God. This change comes with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To remain untransformed in your former sin, you would be no more closer to God as the back sliding Israelites who turned their ungrateful selves away from Yahweh while worshipping at the Ashtaroth poles and burning children to Baal.
In simple terms, what is wrong with elevating the sexual act to a level of corporate worship? Just for a second, putting aside the fact that Baal and Ashtaroth worship also involved human sacrifice, the relationship is downplayed when the sexual act is made supreme. Remaining consumed by feeling, particularly erotic feeling, works contrary to the immediately assessment of a reaction and need for some self-awareness, a need for courageous action or escape from a foolish temptations. In full blown temptation, lies become acceptable, truth is dishonored and the consequences become irrationally irrelevant. Yet many people live their lives in this realm.
In God’s law, the relationship is supreme and the sexual act is a blessing that is heightened with the intimacy of faithful commitment – i.e. Marriage. There ought to be more emphasis in this in Christian eduction. Sexual attraction and satisfaction is a creation of God and is good, in the right context. Study the Song of Solomon.
There’s a strong link to sexual immorality and child sacrifice, also human disfigurement, the very destruction of that which is designed in the image of God. Pagan worship, like Baal and Ashtaroth are an indication that society is drifting off the deep end and often a symptom of a nation already in the midst of God’s wrath (Romans 1: God’s wrath on unrighteousness). Once this level of satanic influence gets a group on society, as the Kingdoms of Judah illustrate in the Old Testament, even after the rise of Kings who “walked in the ways of the Lord” the cultural infection is so deep, the evil practices can be easily reignited into society’s moral collapse by a King who “did not walk in the ways of the Lord.”
Despite what history will write about the society you live in, the Word of God exhorts each family to stand for God. Leadership starts with individuals, in families with the parents. Individuals are called to Christ and are called to work in concert, not to wait for a change in a church or a government.
Humans are made in the image of God and children are held in high regard. God admonishes child sacrifice as a form of worship and certainly condemns murdering children, even child disfigurement, for grotesque motivations. It only gets more satanic when the practice is institutionalized.
There’s a difference between self-sacrifice and self-centered behavior. There’s a difference between sacrificing your needs to serve others in love compared to sacrificing others to serve your own selfish needs. It this world there will be struggle and moral conflict..
A disciplined pursuit to know what is right is important otherwise we will be brainwashed by the same media that is allowing more and more unregulated pornography to drift unabashed into public arena.
I would argue that, a callousness towards illicit sex and murder further distracts the human mind as to the significance of God’s Son sacrifice on the Cross. We are not called to sacrifice our children but we are to look towards and understand the significance of the One who willingly sacrificed Himself in accordance with the will of the Father, whose self-sacrifice was motivated by love of His creation with the purpose being redemption of sinful man back to right relationship with God.
The theme of the weekly blog is to highlight the Gospel coming from different angles It is repeated for your benefit if you are open to it. I offer redundancy with purpose.
Jesus Himself proclaim he came to save sinners. If you are righteous in your mind and do not see the need for a Savior, regardless of the reason, then it is likely you will not see a need for a Savior. If that is truly the case, Jesus did not come and die for your sins. That should be an alarming realization, honestly, one that most people will fail to recognize. It’s an alarm that the religious people in the following passage did not see being blinded by their self-righteousness whether it had to do with anything related to, in some cases, the effectual worship of sexual immorality or some other sin. More than likely it was related hypocrisy, to outward appearances of righteousness, when the inner man was merely a hollow shell, or as Jesus described as “white-washed tombs.”
30 And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” – Luke 5:30-32
Believe in the right One, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be saved.
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel from the late Pastor John MacArthur, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
All quoted excerpts have footnotes removed, usually from Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), sometimes from New International Version (NIV), on rare occasion the Amplified Bible (AMP).
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6.8.24
Great post.