BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, the prophets—each in his own way delivered a huge warning: Idols are not valuable or powerful, and they cannot help you at all. Trusting a wood or stone statue for life is … not smart.

Whenever Israel turns to idols, God wants them to turn back to him. He affirms that he loves and rescues them, neither of which are possible with a piece of stone. But idol worship had been normalized; it wasn’t weird to them. Some idolized the moon and stars—which, as today’s video explains, are both associated with spiritual beings in the biblical authors’ imagination.

Everyone in Israel’s surrounding world devoted time and resources to honoring their idols in order to achieve a good life. Like all of us, they want goodness but lose themselves when trying to take it on their own terms. People tend to become like the things they worship. If their god has no life, they lose their own lives, too.

Israelites, who once loved their kids as priceless gifts from God, began killing them in child sacrifices to idols. The world around them devalued human life to the point that hurting kids in order to gain something “better” seemed sensible.

Today’s reading shows Yahweh allowing people to have what they want, a world where a human life matters less than things like money, power, or social acceptance.

Enter Assyria, the big, bad empire to the north, armies daily creeping toward Israel. Menahem, a ruthless northern king, taxes people heavily to pay off Assyria. He buys little time. Assyrian warriors eventually attack and, as warned, Israel’s idols, wooden poles, metal calf statues, etc., are powerless to love or rescue. Northern Israel falls. Assyria drags its tribes into exile.

Will the southern kingdom learn from its northern sister’s mistakes?

Reflection Questions

• Meditate on Psalm 148 after watching today’s video. What have you learned from this poem about the connection between the heavenly lights and spiritual beings in the Bible?
• Review the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness in Deuteronomy 28:15-68. How do Moses’ warnings help you understand the connection between idolatry and exile?