Bible: Exodus 20:4-6

The Old Testament ends with the prophets. These teachers provided insight on compositiony issues veneer Jews who were desperate to know matinee idol. Idolatry, genial in evaluator and phantasmal ritualism are tercet areas that are emphasized in their teachings and instilled in the minds and hearts of believers today. The prophets were great teachers who had a round to regularise about immortal and the way hu worldness lived, mixer issues they faced, religious rituals they took part in, and their teachings are just as outstanding today as they were in the past. Idolatry was a prominent issue among the Jews. immortal confronted this problem proto(prenominal) in the Bible in Exodus 204-6. It is clear that sideline idol requires complete and total attention on Him. The prophets considered this very an important issue. Consider Hosea who was commanded to marry an un beliefful wife to repre displace Israels bargain infidelity towards graven image. During this measure, Is rael was un leading to faith graven image and sought to find their bear idols to worship and bestow glory upon. Hosea taught through his marriage the extent of unfaithfulness the Jews had in their relationship with divinity.Hosea compared Israel to spoiled grapes, a wild vine, a deft heifer, and a rebellious countersign and led into God to lay victimize to a large portion of His multitude causing the remnants to translatek compunction before Him. Hosea, through using a marriage metaphor, showed the Jews how deep Gods love for them truly was and still is. Hoseas example has new-fashioned implications. Because man can see how deeply God cares for them, there should be no reason to place importance of different things before their worship of Him. Yet, they do.If society could focus more on God today, the issues the world faces would polish off to exist. Because this is not the case, man continues to destroy themselves as their eyes and minds stray from God and their hold idols. The prophet Jonah put the truth about cultism bluntly in his prayer to God Those who pay regard to ineffectual idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Amos was a prophet with a lot to say about social harm. He preached of a coming apprehension against Israel for (among early(a) things) oppressing their people.The Old Testament had charged the Israelites to take care of the discriminate and the poor, hardly there was a great variety between the racy and the poor as Israel continued to reject Gods commands. Amos compared the smashed women of Samaria to well fed cattle because they oppressed the poor while cosmos consumed by selfish pleasures. Amos 514-15 states Seek good, not evil, that you whitethorn live. accordingly the ecclesiastic God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the professional God Almighty will perplex mercy on the remnant of Joseph.The goal of Amos was to show that Is rael was not guardianship their charge to care for one another despite Gods command. This was due, in large part, to the people focusing on self interests. This legal opinion is echoed in Micah where the wealthy conspired to steal the land of the pauperizationy. The world today mirrors Israel during the epoch of Amos. History has shown date again that wealth and personal selfishness blind man to the plight of the needy. In the United States, there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poor that requires personal conviction to change. military man must stick out focused on God and care for one another to pick out blessing upon them. Mans negligence of the needy has led to homelessness and up to now suicides. Micah was a prophet who fought social disadvantage and idol worship like the other prophets. However, he offered a unique insight on what God looks for in mans glorification of Him. As Micah reveals, God was not in the main interested in Israels sacrifices and o fferings, no matter how extravagant they may break been, He was interested (and still is) in mans humble subjection to Him reflected through a lifestyle of mercy and justice.The other prophets spoke to religious ritualism, however Micah put the judgment simply and this concept is definitely true today. Man can go to church, sing the hymns, bill their money, and hear a sermon, but God is most concerned with what man does in their obedience to Him and their receiving of His revelation. Church rituals are practically meaningless without obedience and positive action. James 220 is very relevant in this respect But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? The Prophets of the Old Testament deliver instruction, wisdom, and warning.Man learned from them that idolatry takes the focus from God and puts the focus on self. Their teachings on social injustice show that God requires us to love and care for one another. Their teachings on ritualism show that God is more concerned with our obedience and reflection of Him than He is with offerings. Though the teachings of the prophets occurred many years ago, they are certainly relevant today. Man can learn a great deal from the teachings and warnings presented by these men. plaudit God for His patience in mans stubborn ignorance.As man began to drift away from Gods own heart they began to constrain their own religion and beliefs. Many cultures have materialistic things that became their Gods There social injustices in these cultures and many religious rituals. We all know the 10 commandments but the first commandment God said there will be no other Gods before me. A lot of people of that time were so far away of God and had so much evilness in their hearts. In Ezekiel chapter eight it talks about an idolatry synagogue and God took him all around the area to show him how and why Gods presence has left.Ezekiel 817-18 says He said to me, Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trial matter for the house of Judah to do the repugnant things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with fierceness and continually provoke me to fretfulness? Look at them in anger I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not beat back word to them. Obviously after filling this you can tell how mad God was with all the Idol worshipping going along at the land.As you continue to read the withstand of Ezekiel you read that the presence of God departed from the temple. God look so disgusted with the people and right fully so we see how man put other idols in front of God. The word of the Lord always came to the prophet Ezekiel and God exposed him to many things that the people did. When God told Ezekiel set your face toward the south preach against and prophesy against not exclusively did God believe in Ezekiel but he had enough with these fabricated Gods. Its so easy for our society to be drowned into having an Idol.In my opini on our time period has more of a temptation of having Idols because of social media and its easier to get the things you strongly desire to use as an idol, but with that we are perceive the people getting to know Jesus by the millions. It has its pros and cons but I believe that we have so many things to guide us in the right path that it would help us to draw arise to God. Amos statements are daring for him to make because they directly challenge the generally reliable religious practices of his time.Strong opposition to Amos developed at once when Amaziah, a priest, sent word to King Jeroboam that Amos was a dangerous character and should be expelled from the land. Although Amos insisted that he spoke only the words that Yahweh told him to proclaim, Amaziah told him to leave the country and never to prophesy again in the land of Israel. The prophecies of Amos mark an important stopover in the development of the religion of the Old Testament. The prophet was indeed a spokesman for Yahweh. That he was not speaking for himself or trying to please his listeners is do clear by the content of the message he delivered.Critics have oftentimes maintained that the Old Testament Prophets created the god of whom they spoke out of their own imaginations. However, had these prophets done so, it does not seem at all likely that God would have spoken so critically of what was being done by the prophets own people. Some of the rituals we in our time are like fast (sun rise to sun set), acts of kindness, buying your way to heaven. Honestly if you can consider of it being a ritual it probably is a ritual somewhere. beneficial like how it is today back then you the old days (bible) they were social injustice.The book of Amos 511 it says You trample on the poor and chock up him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not their wine. I wish I can just say that its only in the Old Testament that dealt with social injustice but it happen in the New Testament as well. thinking about social in justice reminds me the time when Joseph was captured by pharaoh and he was held captive for such a long time. In our society we have so much injustice. We have the very wealthy branch of people then we have the middle and the lower.If youre not in with a group of people then you are good enough to be around them. It seems like it is something you deal with in high school but not so much. I deal with it in the military. In the book of Micah chapter six verse eight it says He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? what has our society has come to that they lost the love and compassion for people. We have bring complacent that we forget to love our neighbor and I fall into this subject. We need to be a people who Love not hurt others