Deuteronomy 4:15-20 Take you therefore good heed to yourselves… I. THE ORIGIN OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY. The result of a "corruption" (Per. 16). Not a stage in the advance upwards from fetishism, etc.; but, as inquiries are tending more and more to show, the consequence: 1. Of a depravation of the idea of God. 2. Of a corruption of the worship of God. 3. Arising in turn from the substitution of the creature for God in the affections (cf. Romans 1:20-26). II. THE FORMS OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY. 1. Hero-worship (ver. 16). 2. Animal-worship (vers. 17, 18). 3. Nature-worship (ver. 19). Greek idolatry furnishes conspicuous instances of the first; Egypt was notorious for the second, so Hinduism; while Parseeism, and the early Vedic worship illustrates the third (cf. Job 31:21). III. THE FRUITS OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY. 1. A degraded intellect. 2. Degraded affections. 3. Degraded morals (Romans 1.). Therefore Israel must not "corrupt" themselves. - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: |
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