Week 3 - Thursday

The False Gods of Man

and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Romans 1:23)

God has placed a basic knowledge of Himself within the hearts of people so that they might seek to know Him (Acts 17:26-27). However all throughout history, instead of worshipping God, man has invented and worshipped false gods. Man has exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for gods that are corruptible. The word incorruptible has been translated from the Greek word aphthartos and it means not subject to corruption or decay, immortal. God cannot be corrupted morally because He is perfectly holy and righteous. God will never decay physically either. He is immortal, which means He will never die. On the other hand, the false gods of man are subject to corruption and decay, both morally and physically. The Romans worshipped their own emperors as gods. The Greeks invented many man-like gods and goddesses. You don't have to read much about the Roman emperors, or the Greek gods, to see how grossly immoral they were. The Egyptians worshipped birds like the hawk and the Romans worshipped eagles. False religions have made all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures into gods. Whenever people fail to worship God, they invariably invent false gods to worship. What an insult it is to God to replace Him with a cow or a snake. Of course some people say they don't worship any God at all. But whether they realize it or not, everyone worships something. In their case, whatever has become more important to them than God, has become their god because it has taken the place of God in their hearts. Some people worship themselves, or their spouse, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or their children. A few other things people worship are money, clothes, possessions, power, sports, entertainment and sex.

This worship of false gods is called idolatry and it is a very serious sin. God gave the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel through the prophet Moses. God Himself came down to the top of Mount Sinai accompanied by thunder and lightning, fire, smoke, and trumpet blasts. God then called Moses to come up. There was a thick cloud over the top of the mountain so that the rest of the people wouldn't be able to see God, but they could still hear Him. God wanted the people to hear Him speaking to Moses so they would know for sure that these Commandments came directly from God. The first commandment God gave to Moses was, "I am the Lord your God, ... You shall have no other gods before me." The second commandment God gave deals also with the worship of false gods. It prohibits the worship of anything other than God and contains a serious warning for those who break the commandment. God's wrath against man is justified because after all He has revealed about Himself and all He has done to provide for them, people knowingly suppress the truth, they choose to continue to sin, they refuse to give God honor or thanks, and they invent and worship their own gods.

Readings for today: Exod. 19:9,16-20; 20:1-6; Isa. 46:5-9; Eph. 5:5