Deut. 32 v 12 - What is meant by foreign god?

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Permalink Reply by Larry on August 12, 2009 at 10:31am

It is speaking of putting other things or people in front of God. Making them more importaint than God. In a modern setting you shouldn't be worshiping things other than God. Some worship money, some worship sports figures, some worship the things that they own. We should set our eyes upon God and rely on him for all. When finances become an issue we get myopic on the fact that we don't have enough money, or we have lotts of money. When anything else becomes the focus of our life we have craeted it as a God. Our life begins to revolve around it. Can your check book deliver you from poverty? No.
Can Oprah deliver you from sin? No. These are a couple of examples of things we allow to get between us and God. This is what the scritputes are speaking of.

Permalink Reply by Cameron on August 13, 2009 at 12:41pm

The first thing you have to consider is the context that this commandment was written in. The Israelites had just spent around 400 years as slaves in Egypt, a land that was rampant with worship of foreign gods. For example, Re was considered to be the sun god and was worshipped so that he would continue to allow the sun to shine on the land of Egypt. Why? Because the sun is what allowed the crops to grow, therefore feeding the people. So, the Egyptians reasoned that if they angered Re by not honoring him, he would take away the sun and they could no longer grow the food they needed to survive. In ancient Egypt, it was very difficult to have children. Many mothers would die in child-birth and most children wouldn’t survive past the first year due to sickness and infection. Because of this, Egyptian mothers would wear special amulets that were meant to ward off evil spirits that cause sickness, most of which had the eye of Horus, whom they believed had the power to protect them. They would also place statues of a deity known as Bastet, who was thought to be the goddess of the home of pregnant women and would protect them. The Egyptians placed their trust in these “gods” who were man-made and completely powerless. They would revolve their lives around these false deities that offered them no real benefit or power other than temporary relief from the circumstances in their lives.

When God was commanding the Israelites not to have any foreign gods, the focus of the command was not on the statues or man-made images, but rather on their trust. In layman’s terms, He was saying “Trust me, not your traditions and rituals.” (ie, lean not on your understanding…) He was telling them that He wanted them to trust Him completely to provide them with all they needed. The whole reason the Egyptians invented the gods and deities is because it is easy to control a manmade god (or at least maintain the belief that you have control). If what you wanted didn’t happen, then you didn’t do enough and you just try harder until you appease whatever god you’re seeking so that they’ll give you what you want. It’s easy to operate under that system because it doesn’t really require us to put our trust in anything other than ourselves. It’s dependent on your ability to seek rather than God’s ability to bless. Additionally, if we are given something because of what we have done then it is no longer a blessing, but rather a wage we have earned. To be paid a wage insinuates that the one paying you (ie, a god) owes you a debt and must repay.

God was calling the Israelites to be different by requiring them to put their faith in an external factor by believing God would bless them just because He could and that He owed them nothing, while they owed Him everything. It required them to have faith in His character, not their works. Based on that context, an idol is ANYTHING that shifts our trust and adoration from His character to our activities/traditions. We may not worship Re or any of the other mythological gods from the past, but we have replaced them with more subtle things like psychology, reasoning, medicine, and the like. Are these things bad? Not necessarily, but we often run to these things before we ever consider God. And the reason that God made this an important rule is because what we truly worship and appreciate will ultimately be what owns us.

Permalink Reply by Remi Allison on August 13, 2009 at 2:24pm

Very Well said Cam!!!

Permalink Reply by Kimmy 09 on August 13, 2009 at 4:38pm

wow...thank you for this insight....

Kimmy 09 said:

Larry said:

It is speaking of putting other things or people in front of God. Making them more importaint than God. In a modern setting you shouldn't be worshiping things other than God. Some worship money, some worship sports figures, some worship the things that they own. We should set our eyes upon God and rely on him for all. When finances become an issue we get myopic on the fact that we don't have enough money, or we have lotts of money. When anything else becomes the focus of our life we have craeted it as a God. Our life begins to revolve around it. Can your check book deliver you from poverty? No.
Can Oprah deliver you from sin? No. These are a couple of examples of things we allow to get between us and God. This is what the scritputes are speaking of.

Permalink Reply by Kimmy 09 on August 13, 2009 at 4:43pm

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow....I got it...this is powerful...thanks

Camotastic said:

The first thing you have to consider is the context that this commandment was written in. The Israelites had just spent around 400 years as slaves in Egypt, a land that was rampant with worship of foreign gods. For example, Re was considered to be the sun god and was worshipped so that he would continue to allow the sun to shine on the land of Egypt. Why? Because the sun is what allowed the crops to grow, therefore feeding the people. So, the Egyptians reasoned that if they angered Re by not honoring him, he would take away the sun and they could no longer grow the food they needed to survive. In ancient Egypt, it was very difficult to have children. Many mothers would die in child-birth and most children wouldn’t survive past the first year due to sickness and infection. Because of this, Egyptian mothers would wear special amulets that were meant to ward off evil spirits that cause sickness, most of which had the eye of Horus, whom they believed had the power to protect them. They would also place statues of a deity known as Bastet, who was thought to be the goddess of the home of pregnant women and would protect them. The Egyptians placed their trust in these “gods” who were man-made and completely powerless. They would revolve their lives around these false deities that offered them no real benefit or power other than temporary relief from the circumstances in their lives.

When God was commanding the Israelites not to have any foreign gods, the focus of the command was not on the statues or man-made images, but rather on their trust. In layman’s terms, He was saying “Trust me, not your traditions and rituals.” (ie, lean not on your understanding…) He was telling them that He wanted them to trust Him completely to provide them with all they needed. The whole reason the Egyptians invented the gods and deities is because it is easy to control a manmade god (or at least maintain the belief that you have control). If what you wanted didn’t happen, then you didn’t do enough and you just try harder until you appease whatever god you’re seeking so that they’ll give you what you want. It’s easy to operate under that system because it doesn’t really require us to put our trust in anything other than ourselves. It’s dependent on your ability to seek rather than God’s ability to bless. Additionally, if we are given something because of what we have done then it is no longer a blessing, but rather a wage we have earned. To be paid a wage insinuates that the one paying you (ie, a god) owes you a debt and must repay.

God was calling the Israelites to be different by requiring them to put their faith in an external factor by believing God would bless them just because He could and that He owed them nothing, while they owed Him everything. It required them to have faith in His character, not their works. Based on that context, an idol is ANYTHING that shifts our trust and adoration from His character to our activities/traditions. We may not worship Re or any of the other mythological gods from the past, but we have replaced them with more subtle things like psychology, reasoning, medicine, and the like. Are these things bad? Not necessarily, but we often run to these things before we ever consider God. And the reason that God made this an important rule is because what we truly worship and appreciate will ultimately be what owns us.