Honoring False gods of Creation

Scripture: She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Jeremiah 3:8-9

Observation: As the Lord introduces his reason for destroying Judah, he recalls Israel. The northern kingdom went down their path of idol worship, which involved three key components; the honoring of golden calves as a manmade symbol of Yahweh, the worship of Ashera as carved poll, and the worship of Baal as the god of nature. With the destruction of Israel, all three were ended there. However, as the Lord now looks at Judah, while he does see them coming to worship him in the temple in Jerusalem (though he will address that as a false act focused on the 'thing' of the ark in just eight more verses), he also sees they have jumped on board with the false gods. He declares they are "committing adultery with stone and tree," a clear accusation that they are worshiping nature and a wooden image.

Of course, when the Lord sent the Jews into exile, destroying Judah and Jerusalem in the process, mankind learned its lesson ... right? We learned that the Lord is the creator of heaven and earth, which includes all life, from the natural elements of earth itself, to individual life of born creatures including our own children. Of course ... we all learned that ...

Application: I do not believe I have commented on this before, but I saw a video the other day explaining who baal was. The god introduced to Israel by Queen Jezebel was a god of nature, and thus baal worship was just that, the worship of nature. Meanwhile, we can easily understand without much study that Ashera is a fertility goddess (her wood-pole images were phallic in several ways), and thus the worship of her is a worship of life.

Obviously, this means that worshipping baal and Ashera represents removing two of the most important attributes of Yahweh from him and giving honor to some other entity for them. However, it seems just as obvious that these two attributes are major stumbling stones for mankind, always and still. We have entire social movements focused on nothing but sexual relationships, with "identity" now tied to exactly how an individual has sex, and people who would state that the entire concept of their sexual activity is the central-most concept in their lives to the point it redefines their biology. Speaking of biology, another major movement is about how the world functions, with major conversations taking place worldwide about nature. This includes millions of people who, as the central-most concept in their lives, place 'saving the planet' or otherwise honoring nature as the mission and purpose of their own existence.

The Lord is clear, we are to worship him, for he is the creator of heaven and earth. It is the Lord that gave us life, and the entire world in which to live. The Lord handed over Israel to Assyria for honoring gods that falsely represent the cornerstones of creation. The Lord handed over Judah to Babylon for honoring gods that falsely represent the cornerstones of creation. To whom or what will the Lord hand us over for honoring gods that falsely represent the cornerstones of creation?

Prayer: Lord, you are God, the creator of heaven and earth. All that exists is from you and you alone, spoken into being, and that includes myself whom you had in your mind and your heart from the very beginning. I honor you alone. Amen.