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Apocalypse Revealed # 459
459. And idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood. This symbolically means that thus they engage in worship founded on nothing but falsities.
Idols in the Word symbolize falsities in worship, and therefore worshiping them symbolizes worship founded on falsities. Worshiping idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, then, symbolizes worship founded on falsities of every kind, and when taken in combination, worship founded on nothing but falsities. Moreover, the materials, figures, and garments of the idols among ancient peoples represented the falsities of religion on which they founded their worship. Idols of gold symbolized falsities regarding matters pertaining to God; idols of silver, falsities regarding matters pertaining to the spirit; idols of brass, falsities regarding charity; idols of stone, falsities regarding faith; and idols of wood, falsities regarding good works.
All of these falsities are held by people who do not repent, that is, who do not refrain from evils as being sins against God.
[2] Idols, which were carved and cast images, have this symbolic meaning in the spiritual sense in the following passages:
Everyone has been made stupid by knowledge; every metalsmith is has been put to shame by a carved image; for his cast image is a falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are futile, a work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. (Jeremiah 10:14-15; 51:17-18)
(Carved images are) the work of the hands of the workman... They do not speak... They are both foolish and stupid; the wood is a worthless teacher... They are all the work of skillful men. (Jeremiah 10:3-5, 8-10)
What profit is the carved image, that its maker has carved it, ...and a teacher of lies, that the maker of the lie trusts in it...? ...in it there is no breath. (Habakkuk 2:18-19)
In that day a man will cast away to the moles and bats his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship... (Isaiah 2:18, 20)
...they made for themselves cast images of their silver, idols according to their skill, all of it the work of craftsmen. (Hosea 13:2)
I will sprinkle clean water on you, that you may be cleansed... from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. (Ezekiel 36:25)
Clean waters are truths; idols are falsities in worship.
You shall judge unclean the covering of your graven images of silver, and the attire of your cast images of gold. You will throw them away as a menstrual cloth; you will call it excrement. (Isaiah 30:22)
[3] Falsities in religion and thus in worship are precisely what are symbolically meant by the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone that Belshazzar, king of Babylon, praised (i.e., worshiped) when with his great men, wives and concubines he drank wine from the vessels of gold and silver taken from the temple in Jerusalem, on which account he was driven from mankind and became as a beast (Daniel 5:1-5ff.).
And so also in many other places, as in Isaiah 10:10-11; 21:9; 31:7; 40:19-20; 41:29; 42:17; 48:5, Leviticus 26:30.
Properly speaking, idols symbolize falsities in worship springing from people's own intelligence. How a person fashions them and afterward adapts them so that they appear to be true is fully described in Isaiah 44:9-20.
Psalms 78
1
Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
5
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
6
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9
The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11
And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12
Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13
He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
14
In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17
And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18
And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19
Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21
Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22
Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
23
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25
Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
26
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27
He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29
So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
30
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31
The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
33
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34
When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God.
35
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
36
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39
For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41
Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
44
And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
45
He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46
He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47
He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
48
He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51
And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52
But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53
And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54
And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55
He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56
Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
57
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61
And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
62
He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
63
The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
65
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66
And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67
Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68
But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69
And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
70
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71
From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72
So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
