Terah
The graven image of the Golden calf was not just superstition but plaid a practical role in governing and binding the people.
Abraham which teach another way that was not the way of Nimrod and Babylon. Idol worship is also associated with fornication as a metaphor.[2] The statues are a symbol of the authority of the men who run systems of idol worship.
We are told in Joshua 24:2 that Terah worshipped idols. Some would interpret that ancient writings state that he was in the business selling idols. But what he was selling was an idea of welfare through a civil system with offices held by persons who managed that welfare. Terah, a descendent of Shem, taught the people to be respecters of persons.
Abraham, like Polybius understood that these systems of welfare would degenerate the masses and give to much power to rulers.
These statues represented the offices of a diverse system and members would have a statue to show their membership and who their patron or benefactors were.
The legend is that Abraham took an ax and destroyed all but one of his father’s idols placed the axe in the hand of the largest idol blaming it for the deed.
Terah was under Nimrod, who reportedly put him in a smoking and fiery furnace. He did the same to Abrahams brother Haran. Abraham survived but Haran did not.[3]
There has always been two social safety nets or welfare types. One is a snare and a trap and the other is the way that sets the captive free.
Terah a man of influence
Abraham was the heir of his father Terah who was the son of Nahor and a descendant of one of Shem's five son Arpachshad (אַרְפַּכְשַׁד). Terah is mentioned in Genesis 11:26–27, Book of Joshua 24:2, and 1 Chronicles 1:17–27 of the Hebrew Bible and Luke 3:34–36.
Abraham had a disagreement with Nimrod, a son of Kush and descendent of Ham, was a "mighty provider"[4] who offered benefits to the people of Babylon. Those dainties and benefits offered by Nimrod at his civil tables of social welfare were a snare that brought the people back into bondage. Abraham saw a need for something different. There was a compilation of hundreds of ancient Hebrew scriptures and legends including Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash.
The conflict involved idols and strange fire and a furnace that consumes.[5]
Terah was heir to Shem through through Arpachshad and Abraham became heir to his father in his old age. When Abraham was born, Nimrod was concerned about his own claim to power. When Abraham was challenging Nimrod there was an attempt on his life or maybe his soul.
"Offer me money...
Power, too, promise me that...
Offer me anything I ask for...
I want my father back ..."
- Inigo Montoya in the Princes Bride
More visions and dreams
There were vision, dreams and prophecies concerning Abraham and things to come.
“Our king and our god! Wherefore art thou in fear by reason of a little child? There are myriad upon myriad of princes in thy realm, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and overseers without number. Let the pettiest of the princes go and fetch the boy and put him in prison.” [6]
Abram departs
Abram had left Ur and also the city of Haran which were city states. He also avoided other city-states like Sodom and Gomorrah and divided himself and his altars from the Turtledove and its goddess of the welfare state.
What was he doing and why was he able to defeat whole armies that had just conquered these city State governments when he was neither a king nor ruler?
What was Abraham really doing?
Did he form a free "Polis" through a network of Altars of freewill sacrifice that strengthen the bands of a free society by nurturing the social bonds through the voluntary practice of pure Religion?
Terah the heir
Terah was rich and loyal to Nimrod but Nimrod feared that his sons would not be loyal top the ancient ways of righteousness. Nimrod quest for power took precedent over the ways of Shem.
The Midrash[7] has Abraham thrown into the fiery furnace of Nimrod over a dispute about what and how to worship. Or possibly this was done by his lieutenant, Yoktan.[8]
That furnace is part of the vision that Abraham. People have not understood because they too sit in darkness. Fortunately there is a lamp for those who choose to see. The whole vision of Genesis 15 is about forms of worship.
People can consent[9] to have one purse even though it runs toward death.[10]
Idols for hire
In Joshua 24: we see that, "2 ... Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods."
So this verse recounts that Terah worshipped idols and Nimrod too.
Idol or idolatry is from the Greek word eidololatreia.[11] It is from two words. The first is from word meaning image, shape or fashioned and the second part is from a word that means "service rendered for hire".
What is this idol thing and what is the significance of graven images of the ancients and today and the modern Church?
How does someone worship or serve a statue or is the statue representative of a status and relationship with what or whom the statue represents?
Knowing who the gods are and what it means to bow down and serve them should give us an idea of how Nimrod the mighty provider came to power. How does any power or tyrant come to power but by weakening the people and making them dependent upon their rulers.
It was prophesied that Abram would be heir to the earth, trustee like Adam and eventually Shem. Nimrod tried to have him killed as a child and later in a dispute over systems of worship.
Idol worship is commonly misunderstood just like the Altars of clay and stone. Paul tells us that idolatry is covetousness.[1]
Idol worship is also associated with fornication as a metaphor.[2] The statues are a symbol of the authority of the men who run systems of idol worship.
Jesus tells his disciples when he appoints a kingdom to them that they are not to be like the governments of the world that exercise authority one over the other. [12]
To desire to eat the dainties at the welfare tables of those city-state]]s would be a snare and a trap. Such systems weaken the masses until the degenerate becoming little more than human resources leaving their children cursed as surety to debt.
Terah had difficulty seeing this because he was a respecter of persons but Abraham received a vision. Genesis 15
If the people do not understand Abraham and his vision nor his altars of clay and stone they may find themselves in under tyrants and back in the bondage of Egypt if not Mystery Babylon.
Footnotes
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Covetousness is idolatry
- Colossians 3:5 "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:"
- Ephesians 5:5 "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
- 1 Corinthians 5:10 "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."
- For it is written that the tables of dainties provided by rulers of the world are a snare because they cause the masses to bite one another through government systems of legal charity which are covetous practices which are a form of fornication or adultery where the people are devoured as merchandise, curse children and are "entangled again in the yoke of bondage" with the aid of the false religion of the whore who rides the beast.
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 Fornication, adultery and idolatry
- Colossians 3:5 "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:"
- Ephesians 5:5 "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
- 1 Corinthians 5:10 "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."
- Psalms 106:38 And shed innocent blood, [even] the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
- Ezekiel 16:36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
- Proverbs 2:16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;
- Proverbs 20:16 Take his garment that is surety [for] a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
- ↑ Bereshit Rabbah meaning "The Great Beginning" or "The Great Genesis" is a religious text from Judaism's classical period, Bereishit Rabbah 38:13. "Haran died in the presence of Teraḥ his father in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans” (Genesis 11:28)
- ↑ Genesis 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
- ↑ Consuming fire
- Deuteronomy 4:24 "For the LORD thy God [is] a consuming fire, [even] a jealous God."
- Deuteronomy 5:25 "Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die."
- Deuteronomy 9:3 "Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God [is] he which goeth over before thee; [as] a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee."
- Hebrews 12:29 "For our God [is] a consuming fire."
- Matthew 5:22 "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire(consuming fire)."
- ↑ The Legends of the Jews: From the Creation to Jacob, Vol. 1, Chapter V
- ↑ Midrashis (Compilation of Aggadah or Haggadah from hundreds of legends including Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash.) Literally means "telling, tale, lesson" and is also an ancient commentary on Hebrew scriptures. The earliest Midrashim come from the 2nd century AD, although much of their content is assumed to be older.
- ↑ Biblical Antiquities of Pseudo-Philo 6:16-17, first or second century CE. The story is actually an early legend found in commentaries on Genesis by Rabbah.
- ↑ Consent Not
- Exodus 20:3 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
- Exodus 23:32 "Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods."
- Deuteronomy 7:2 "And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, [and] utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:"
- Deuteronomy 7:16 "And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that [will be] a snare unto thee."
- Deuteronomy 13:8 "Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:"
- Numbers 30:2 “If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.”
- Judges 2:2 "And ye shall make no league [covenant] with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?"
- 1 Kings 20:8 "And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not [unto him], nor consent."
- Psalms 83:5 "For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:"
- Proverbs 1:10 "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."
- Proverbs 6:2 “Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.”
- Proverbs 13:20 "He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed."
- Ecclesiastes 5:5 "Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay."
- Hosea 6:9 "And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness."
- Zephaniah 3:9 "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent."
- Matthew 5:33-37 “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”
- Matthew 15:18 “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.”
- Luke 14:18 "And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused."
- Romans 7:16 "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good."
- 1 Timothy 6:3 "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, [even] the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;"
- 1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
- James 5:12 “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and [your] nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”
- ↑ Altars of Sacrifice
- Exodus 17:15 “And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:”
- Exodus 20:24-26 “ An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.”
- Jude 1:11 "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots(not "unspotted" like Pure Religion) in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;"
- Revelation 2:14-17 "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication ("to permit one’s self to be drawn away by another into idolatry"). 15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it]."
- ↑ 1495 ~εἰδωλολατρεία~ eidololatreia \@i-do-lol-at-ri’-ah\@ from 1497 and 2999; n f AV-idolatry 4; 4
- 1) the worship of false gods, idolatry
- 1a) of the formal sacrificial feasts held in honour of false gods of the temples providing Public religion.
- 1b) of avarice, as a worship of Mammon
- 2) in the plural, the vices springing from idolatry and peculiar to it
- 1) the worship of false gods, idolatry
- ↑ Not exercise authority
- Matthew 20:25 "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you:..."
- Mark 10:42 "But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you:..."
- Luke 22:25 "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye [shall] not [be] so:..."