Warning Against Heathenish Idolatry
Deuteronomy 4:15-20
Take you therefore good heed to yourselves…


I. THE ORIGIN OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY. The result of a "corruption" (Per. 16). Not a stage in the advance upwards from fetishism, etc.; but, as inquiries are tending more and more to show, the consequence:

1. Of a depravation of the idea of God.

2. Of a corruption of the worship of God.

3. Arising in turn from the substitution of the creature for God in the affections (cf. Romans 1:20-26).

II. THE FORMS OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY.

1. Hero-worship (ver. 16).

2. Animal-worship (vers. 17, 18).

3. Nature-worship (ver. 19).

Greek idolatry furnishes conspicuous instances of the first; Egypt was notorious for the second, so Hinduism; while Parseeism, and the early Vedic worship illustrates the third (cf. Job 31:21).

III. THE FRUITS OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY.

1. A degraded intellect.

2. Degraded affections.

3. Degraded morals (Romans 1.).

Therefore Israel must not "corrupt" themselves. - J.O.



Parallel Verses
KJV: Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

WEB: Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.




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