Even the animals were polluted by the abominable practices of pagan worship and sacrifice.Paul makes it plain that the gods of the pagans were dumb idols (I Cor.Hab. 2:18). The idols themselves were nothing but blocks of wood, not gods (Isaiah 44:9).But that does not mean that they were nothing at all, or that there was no power involved in idol worship.
Paul says that when someone worships an idol, he is really worshiping a demon, and (therefore) Satan indirectly. On the one hand the biblical writers took a mocking, dismissive view of idols as inert pieces of wood, stone, or metal, that cannot see or hear or walk (Rev. But they also recognized that behind the idols lurk the demons they represent. When you have a chance, read the wonderfully ironic passage in Isaiah 44:9-20, where the prophet ridicules idol worshippers for making an idol and building a fire out of the same block of wood. Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lords table and the table of demons. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts (Rev. By second causes I mean the human and nonhuman agents God uses to carry out His purposes. He does according to His will in the host of heaven (Dan. We see a revealing example of that in the following scriptures. As we saw before it was probably not Satan himself, but one of his demons, that whispered in Davids ear the dangerous idea of taking a census. Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, Go and take a census of Israel and Judah (I Sam. This was not the first or the last time God used Satan and his servants to do His will. Acts 2:23; II Cor. Many times we see actions attributed to God, especially in the Old Testament, in which other Bible writers recognize human and angelic or demonic agency. Yet Stephen, in his discourse before the Council, said: Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed i t. Acts 7:52-53). Behind every dumb idol is a demon, and behind every demon is the entire hierarchy of Satans kingdom. It involved trafficking with Gods bitter Enemy and his rebellious, rival kingdom. It helps us to understand the radical measures God commanded His people to take in their conquest of Canaan. He ordered the Israelites to exterminate the tribes they conquered, often commanding the death of women and children, and even of animals. This would seem blatant, unnecessary cruelty except for the fact that the religions of the Gentiles were Satan worship. Furthermore had they grown to maturity in that environment, they would inevitably have been implicated in demon worship, with all of its polluting practices.
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