Idolatry, Social Injustice And Ritualism In The Bible

The Bible teaches many examples of the Sin of Idolatry, Social Injustice and Ritualism. God’s chosen prophets, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Micah and Hosea, give us insight into these topics. Through these chosen prophets a better understanding of Gods design and purpose for us can be found. Let us analyze these topics to get a better grasp of each ones meaning. Idolatry, this word is entrenched though out the Bible. To fully understand the meaning, we need to examine the word from two objective views. Idolatry as defined by the religious worship of idols (“Idolatry Dictionary.com Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary,” n.d.). The meaning of idolatry in this context is to worship the things of this world. A more definitive meaning can be better explained by Paul Helm. In his book, “Mind”, it is defined as one full of philosophical interest, involving issues of representation, identity, intention, valuation and imagination, more specifically religious issues to do with deification and worship (Helm 1995). For someone of the Christian faith, this means putting things before God is a sin. God gave Moses the commandments, the laws, that every person should abide by. These commandments are presented in Exodus 20. Exodus 20:1-4 deal with idolatry. God clearly defines in verses three and four, “You shall have no others gods before Me”, and

In Ezekiel 16, we see a great illustration of God’s divine judgement. The Bible reads,

“As I live, says the Lord God, “neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor or needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me; therefore, I took them away as I saw fit” (Ezekiel 16:48-50