On the heathen

 

Jeremiah 10:5

King James Version

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: 

they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. 

Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, 

neither also is it in them to do good.

God was adamant.

He did not want His people consorting with the heathen.

His prophet Jeremiah spoke best of what is an abomination to the Lord.

Jeremiah 10:1-4 

King James Version

10 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, 

O house of Israel:

2 Thus saith the Lord, 

Learn not the way of the heathen, 

and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; 

for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: 

for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, 

the work of the hands of the workman, 

with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; 

they fasten it with nails and with hammers, 

that it move not.

Jeremiah 10:8-9 

King James Version

8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: 

the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, 

and gold from Uphaz, 

the work of the workman, 

and of the hands of the founder: 

blue and purple is their clothing: 

they are all the work of cunning men.

Jeremiah 10:11 

King James Version

11 Thus shall ye say unto them, 

The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, 

even they shall perish from the earth, 

and from under these heavens.

Jeremiah 10:14-15 

King James Version

14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: 

every founder is confounded by the graven image: 

for his molten image is falsehood, 

and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, 

and the work of errors: 

in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

Apart from the lifelessness and vanity in such gods, our Lord had very good reason we not consort with the heathen.

They turn our hearts away from God.

God is a GOD of LIFE.

The heathen's gods are an insult to the GLORY that is GOD.

1 Kings 11:1-6 

King James Version

11 But king Solomon loved many strange women, 

together with the daughter of Pharaoh, 

women of the Moabites, 

Ammonites, 

Edomites, 

Zidonians, 

and Hittites:

2 Of the nations concerning which 

the Lord said unto the children of Israel, 

Ye shall not go in to them, 

neither shall they come in unto you: 

for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: 

Solomon clave unto these in love.

3 And he had seven hundred wives, 

princesses, 

and three hundred concubines: 

and his wives turned away his heart.

4 For it came to pass, 

when Solomon was old, 

that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: 

and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, 

as was the heart of David his father.

5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth 

the goddess of the Zidonians, 

and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

6 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, 

and went not fully after the Lord, 

as did David his father.

We must not cause our Lord grief.

True born again followers don't.

For every step, is a step behind Christ, our true God.

The Holy Spirit shows us the way.

Related material:

Idolatry

Updated 24 November 2022