1 Chronicles 14:12 And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire. The conduct of David, in directing that the idols of the Philistines should be "burned with fire," arose from the fervour of his religious feelings and his contempt for idolatrous usages. It must always be berne in mind, in reading of the warn between Israel and Philistia, that these, like other wars recorded in Old Testament history, were more social and religious than political. Isolated from surrounding nations, the people of Israel were providentially appointed to be witnesses to the one true God. Hence their repugnance to and hatred of polytheism in all its offensive and degrading manifestations. I. IDOLATRY IS DISHONOURING TO GOD. It is the substitution of God's work for himself. Idolaters "worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." Whether adoration be paid to the handiwork of the great Maker of all or to the workmanship of men's own hands, God is robbed of the reverence and service which are due to him alone. II. IDOLATRY m UNREASONABLE AND VAIN. How strikingly is this portrayed in the hundred and fifteenth psalm! - "They have mouths, but they speak not," etc.; "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them." It is the absurd and superstitious confidence that men have placed in idols which has rendered religion the laughing-stock of the thoughtless and superficial. III. IDOLATRY IS DEGRADING AND DEBASING TO THOSE WHO PRACTISE IT. History abounds with proofs of this. The greater the hold which idolatry has over a nation, and the more cruel, sensuous, and capricious are the deities worshipped, the more degraded is the moral condition of the community. We know well how sunk were the Philistines and their neighbours, by reason of their religion, in the depths of vice and sin. IV. IDOLATRY IS DOOMED TO PERISH AND TO GIVE PLACE TO A PURER AND NOBLER FAITH. David's "rough and ready" method of dealing with the Philistine "gods" was natural to his impulsive disposition. We are assured by inspired predictions that the time shall come when the idolatrous peoples, illumined by the rays of the gospel, shall of their own accord "cast their idols to the moles and to the bats." So far from the abolition of idolatry being the precursor to universal irreligion, we have every reason to believe that upon the ruins of heathenism shall be reared the stately and holy temple of Christianity, in which an enlightened and regenerated race shall offer unceasing adorations to the one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Saviour of all men. - T. Parallel Verses KJV: And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire.WEB: They left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire. |
    |