October 4, 2011: Idolatry

Introduction

Weekly Scripture

Jeremiah 19:1-5 ¹ This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests ² and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, ³ and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. ⁴ For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ⁵ They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. ⁶ So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

Discussion Points and Questions

• What is this scripture addressing?
•  Idolatry

Verse 1:

• Here we see that these statements are coming directly from God
• Previously Jeremiah had visited a potter (ch. 18)
•  God spoke about he can mould Israel as a potter moulds a clay pot
• As a clay pot is beyond moulding once it has hardened, so was Israel’s spiritual setting[a]
• Shattering it in the presence of the spiritual leaders indicated Israel’s impending doom

Verse 2: The valley of Ben-Hinnom

• Contemporary place of Molech worship
• Molech was an ancient Semitic god[b]
• Today the term refers to someone or something demanding a costly sacrifice
• Molech had the head of a bull and body of a man[c]
• Idol’s stomach was hollow for a furnace
• When furnace was hot enough, infant was placed in the arms of the idol
• Under King Josiah, shrine was destroyed and valley used for burning garbage and cremating criminal bodies

Verse 3: The key message to be delivered from God

• The news would be so shocking that whoever heard it would be physically agitated

Verse 4: Cross reference 2 Kings 21:16[d]

Verse 5: The act of sacrificing children is so contrary to God’s nature, that it did not even “enter my mind”

• A few weeks ago, Pastor Jon made a profound point about child sacrifice in our society
• 105 427 abortions in Canada in 2001
• Canadian Institute for Health Information: 32351 abortions in Ontario (2007)[e]
• POWER Report: 51060 abortions in Ontario (2007)
• 2/3 of infants & toddlers watch 2 hours of TV per day[f]
• Average 6 year old will have spent more time watching TV than talking to their father for their entire life[g]

Verse 6: God’s warning to the people of Israel

• Do you think that God is warning our society today?
• How?

Group Discussion

• What are you potentially worshiping in the place of God?
• What can you do to place God first?

 

Resources:

1. Harrison, R.K., Jeremiah and Lamentations: Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah

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[a][a] Harrison, TOTC Jeremiah and Lamentations

[b] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch

[c] http://helpmewithbiblestudy.org/8Sin/IdolotryTophethBeatingDrums.aspx

[d]2 Kings 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.

[e] http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/eReview_March_10_11.pdf

[f] http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

[g] American Academy of Pediatrics