Flee From Idolatry
“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”
By: Walter Giddings
November 30, 2025
Who are “them” in 1 Corinthians 10:5-6?
p 5 But with many of them God was
not well pleased: for they were over-
thrown in the wilderness.
c 6 Now these things were our exam-
ples, to the intent we should not lust
after evil things, as they also lusted.
“They were overthrown in the wilderness.”
Why does the Apostle Paul rehearse this Ancient History of The Hebrews, in Exodus from Egypt, marching in their order as The Twelve Tribes of Israel, Jacob’s Heirs? (Verse 6). “These things were our examples.” Many American pulpits have told us those “Jews” in the wilderness were under the Old Covenant! We are under the New Covenant. We are under Grace!
Did Noah find “grace in the eyes of the LORD”? Is every lust, “lust after evil things”? Or are there lawful lusts as well as unlawful lusts? What about the lawful lust of a husband for his wife? If he loses that, she will doubt and then be suspicious! Is Paul’s topic unlawful lusts or “lust after evil things”?
Of what does Verse 7 remind us in this season of the year?
7 Neither be ye idolators, as were
some of them; as it is written, The
people sat down to eat and drink,
and rose up to play.
First Corinthians chapter ten.
What time of year does American Israel sit down “to eat and drink,” and rise up “to play”? Verse 7 says “as it is written”! Where do we find this written?
(Mark 1 Corinthians 10) (Exodus 32:1). To what event did the Apostle Paul refer, when he wrote, “As it is written”?
And when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down out
of the mount, the people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron, and
said unto him, Up, make us gods,
which shall go before us; for, as for
this Moses, the man that brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, we wot
not what is become of him.
In what kind of mood were the people, when they confronted The High Priest? “UP! make us gods, which shall go before us!” Do we see the imperious command from the assembly unto Israel’s Chief Priest! Was that respectful? Or were they in no mood for anything other than their demand?! And who are “the people”? Yeah, who are those guys and what do they want? Did they say, “Make us gods, which shall go before us.” Did the Apostle Paul identify them in 1 Corinthians 10:1, when he wrote to all the Corinthians that were churched, “… I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; ...” Does that sound like Ancestry to us?
Does this seem like this is not going to go good?! In Exodus 32:2, Aaron the High Priest, in the absence of Moses, orders the wives, sons and daughters to bring to him all their golden earrings!
p 3 And all the people brake off the
golden earrings which were in their
ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
c 4 And he received them at their
hand, and fashioned it with a gra-
ving tool, after he had made it a mol-
ten calf: and they said, These be thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt.
Who is “they”? What did “they” say? Did “they” say, “These be thy gods, O Israel”? Do we recall that “O Israel” were given The Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20? How does the 1st Commandment read? Have we read, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”?[Verse 3] Pastor Jerry of Christian Reform Fellowship used to call breaking The First Commandment “Entry Level Sin”! He would ask, if we continue to break The First Commandment, what difference does it make if we are breaking any of the other Commandments?
How damaging is Idolatry to our Personal Relationship with The LORD God of Israel in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master?
Does The Damage get even worse?! Shall we look at this Quote again (?): “These by thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 20:2). Come again! Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt?
2 I am the LORD thy God, which
have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exodus chapter twenty.
(Deuteronomy 5:6). Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt?
6 I am the LORD thy God, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage.
Deuteronomy chapter five.
How dangerous is idolatry? Do we recall that The LORD God of Israel married Israel at Mount Sinai? When Israel goes a whoring after the golden calf, and the pantheon of gods accompanying the golden calf, is that Adultery?! (Exodus 34:14). Did Israel commit adultery against her lawful Husband The LORD God?
14 For thou shalt worship no other
god: for the LORD whose name is
Jealous, is a Jealous God.
Exodus chapter thirty-four.
His Name is “Jealous”! Is God’s Jealousy the perfect example of Divine Jealousy?
If God is Israel’s Husband, would He have a right to be jealous over her? Is Marriage a Covenant? Has The LORD God of Israel ever been a covenantbreaker? Is The LORD God of Israel’s record of Covenantkeeping incapable of wrong? Do we wish American Israel could approach unto that?! If we were willing to “cease from our own works” [Hebrews], would Jesus do his good works through us?
(Back to Exodus 32). Are the Hebrews in the wilderness hiding from God? Did “the guilty pair” [Selection 67 in our 2nd hymnals] do the same thing? Adam and Eve covered their nakedness/sin, hid from The LORD God among the trees, and engaged in blame shifting (led by you know who!)! [If we fail to remember who “you know who” is, we will cover that Scripture at the end of this Lesson (if your pedagogue does not forget!). Shall we read Verse 5?
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built
an altar before it; and Aaron made
proclamation, and said, Tomorrow
is a feast to the LORD.
“A feast” to whom? Why(!) would Israel’s Chief Priest call the image of the calf (and any one of the pantheon of false gods accompanying it) The Great I Am?!
(Verse 6) Can this only get worse!
6 And they rose up early on the mor-
row, and offered burnt offerings, and
brought peace offerings; and the peo-
ple sat down to eat and to drink, and
rose up to play.
“And rose up to play.” What does this expression mean “rose up to play”? The Hebrew verb H6711 is, in the context in Exodus 32, translated this time “to play”. We have two Witnesses from the Hebrew Scriptures that this artistic rendering of H- 6711 tsachaq, tsaw-chaq’ accurately expresses the intent of The Author! Our 1st Witness we found in Genesis 26 when Isaac had been in the land of King Abimelech of the Philistines.
8 And it came to pass, when he had
been there a long time, that Abime-
lech king of the Philistines looked
out at a window, and saw, and, be-
hold, Isaac was sporting with Rebek-
ah his wife.
Genesis chapter twenty-six.
We may recall that Isaac had represented themselves to the King as brother and sister! (Back to Exodus 32) Our 2nd Witness we find Verses 7-8.
p 7 And the LORD said unto Moses,
Go, get thee down; for thy people,
which thou broughtest out of the
land of Egypt, have corrupted them-
selves:
c 8 They have turned aside quickly
out of the way which I commanded
them: they have made them a mol-
ten calf, and have worshipped it,
and have sacrificed thereunto, and
said, These be thy gods, O Israel,
which have brought thee up out of
the land of Egypt.
Does The LORD God fail to see what we do when we are hiding from him? Did God see, and mark everything our Ancestors did, and said?
Did the LORD our God have any trouble getting Israel “out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”? Did The LORD God of Israel judge all the gods of Egypt, while sparing Goshen, slay all the 1st born of the Egyptians at Passover, and the Egyptians hastily urged the Israelites with Substance, gold, silver, jewels and other precious things, to leave. And when Pharaoh, his soldiers, horses and chariots hotly pursued them, the LORD our God held the waters of the Red Sea as walls, and Israel passed through on dry ground, then our God threw down the same waters upon Pharaoh, soldiers, horse and rider, and chariots!!! No trouble at all! Did our God ever get Egypt out of Israel? Was that God’s Will, or Israel’s choice?
(Exodus 32:9-10). How does Adultery impact a righteous Husband? Do Adulterers still get killed in America? This is no longer done by a sentence of execution from any of our War Powers Emergency Courts! Since U.S. citizens are Enemies of the State these War Powers Emergency Courts administer their Enemies making War on each other(!) and then prosecute the survivor for murder! How well do the War Powers Emergency Courts put The Evil away from our midst?! Is God a Husband?
p 9 And the LORD said unto Moses,
I have seen this people, and, behold,
it is a stiffnecked people.
c 10 Now therefore let me alone, that
my wrath may wax hot against them,
and that I may consume them: and
I will make of thee a great nation.
Exodus chapter thirty-two.
Is God’s Name Jealous? How dangerous is Idolatry?!!
Is the Christmas Spirit the Holy Spirit or the spirit of this world? Would a fruit inspection decide the Question? What is the fruit of the Christmas Spirit?
Traffic cops hate the Christmas Season!!! The staggering increase in vehicular homicides by drunken drivers, in bar brawls, in drunken revelry, public debauchery, assault and batteries, maimed victims that must be identified and transported to hospitals, street people resisting transport to warm shelters from killer freezing temperatures, processing the paperwork that attempts to identify the frozen corpses that do not make shelter. Indeed, the staggering increase in paperwork that must accompany all this and the time to complete that paperwork wears down law enforcement resources, and the staggering increase in the commission of crimes because the criminals know the thin blue line is otherwise occupied. Is this serious fruit! There are always some who wish to interrupt the growing list of evils from America’s mixed worship! They point to all the good that is done in the Christmas season: the hungry are fed, the houseless are sheltered, the poor are given Christmas trees, toys to put under them, Hams to feed families, etc. In short, they defend America’s mixed worship!!! If we sheep are unable to admit that we are not experts at what is good, and what is evil, and if we sheep are not consulting the true expert in these matters, Our Heavenly Father, all hope of intelligent conversation is lost!!!
But if we sheep are willing to ask our Heavenly Father, we only need to return to one of the examples the Apostle Paul listed in the 1st Scripture we shared in this Lesson, 1 Corinthians 10, from our what-not-to-do list! “As it is written” we found in Exodus 32:7 where the Israelites, as rank Idolators, “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play”!!! Was their sin lusting after good things? Or was their sin lusting “after evil things, as they also lusted”? When Aaron saw the golden calf, did he build an altar before it?! Did Aaron make proclamation, and say, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD” [Exodus 32:5]? Is this prima facie, in your face Mixed Worship?!!! Do we know how The God of the Bible feels about that?
Do we love pleasure more than we love God?!!! Has the Apostle Paul given us Aaron’s example to be on our what-not-to-do List?!!! Hello, Congregation!
In order to avoid shunning “to declare unto you all the counsel of God” we must cover two more issues! 1st,the pagan customs of Christmas are 4000 years older than the Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! (Witnesseth Jeremiah 10:2).
2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not
the way of the heathen, and be not
dismayed at the signs of heaven; for
the heathen are dismayed at them.
Why do the Heathen become “dismayed at the signs of heaven”? To answer this Question, we will engage in an exercise: we will consult an alternate transposition from the Hebrew into English. Please do not let me be misunderstood! Far be it from me to petition for a change in Translation! This is an exercise only in exploring the meaning of the Hebrew!
Thus says the LORD, Not do be goad-
ed into the customs of the heathen ..
Jay P. Green, ed. The Interlinear Bible.
(Verse 3-4). Do these Verses indicate the time of year wherein the Heathen are dismayed?
3 For the customs of the people are
vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the
forest, the work of the hands of the
workman, with the axe.
c 4 They deck it with silver, and with
gold; they fasten it with nails and
with hammers, that it move not.
Jeremiah chapter ten.
The Tree, cut out of the forest with the workman’s axe, is just as surely dead as when Adam in The Fall, descending from Immortality unto Mortality, died to God! By fastening The Tree inside the House, we institute a dead Garden in it! For the worship of the Sun God called Mithras in Persia, Saturn in Rome, Baal (Nimrod) in Babylon, and the “Dies Solis Invicti” in the Latin of Rome for Day of the Unconquered Sun God, celebrated the return from his Death at the Winter Solstice, “for the heathen were dismayed” at the death of their Sun God! All these gods were worshipped in remarkably similar Customs or Statutes of Rituals commanded by the demonic gods of the lands. (1 Corinthians 10:20). The Apostle Paul took notice of these abominable rituals in his 1st Epistle to the churches at Corinth:
20 But I say, that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice
to devils, and not to God: and I
would not that ye should have
fellowship with devils.
First Corinthians chapter ten.
“And not to God”! If the heathen of Gentiles are not sacrificing to God, to whom then are they sacrificing? Gods whom they know not?
Are the rituals of Idolatry blinding? (Mark 1 Corinthians 10). (Isaiah 44: 19). Does the habit of Sin blind us from the Truth?
19 And none considereth in his heart,
neither is there knowledge nor under-
standing to say, I have burned part of
it in the fire; yea, also I have baked
bread upon the coals thereof; I have
roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall
I make the residue thereof an abomi-
nation? shall I fall down to the stock
of a tree?
Isaiah chapter forty-four.
Who is this “none” who cannot consider in his heart, nor has knowledge or understanding to say, This is firewood for warmth, and for baking and roasting?! “Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?” The only one I ever saw, neither kneeling nor bowing to the Christmas Tree while setting gifts under it, or removing them, is the actor Chevy Chase in the Movie Christmas Vacation! He squatted on his haunches.
(Verse 20). What causes this blindness? Could it be “a deceived heart?
20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived
heart hath turned him aside, that he
cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is
there not a lie in my right hand?
Isaiah chapter forty-four.
Did “a deceived heart” cause the woman in the garden, alone with The Serpent, to switch Trees? Are we “deceived” because we do not know we have been deceived! Is this what is happening to those we love when they stubbornly continue to do the commandments of false gods?(John 14:15).
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John chapter fourteen.
Do our families and friends believe they are keeping Jesus’ commandments when they fulfill the customs of false gods?! Are they completely clueless they are having “fellowship with devils”? (1 Peter 4:3). What was that like for us, before The Holy Spirit convicted and quickened us to search His Will and keep His Commandments?
3 For the time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will
of the Gentiles, when we walked in
lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revellings, banquetings, and abomi-
nable idolatries.
First Peter chapter four.
Does Our Heavenly Father remember our Iniquities? Does this Scripture say:
“… and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 10:17] But we remember them! If we dwell too long on remembering our “sins and iniquities”, do we begin to get this peculiar and distinct feeling of an incredible loneliness? That disappears quickly when we begin to think on “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,” etc. [Philippians 4:8] Is our capacity, to recall our sins and iniquities, prima facie, in-our-face evidence, of the convicting Power only The Holy Spirit has? Could we try to do HIS job with our families and friends?
(1 Corinthians 10:14). This is the Signature Scripture for our Lesson.
14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee
from idolatry.
First Corinthians chapter ten.
Are we to be absolute fugitives from Idolatry? How emphatic is this commandment? Do we seriously want to appear before “The Judgment Seat of Christ”, [Romans 14:10 and 1 Corinthians 5:7] before which “we all must appear” to explain Adultery in the Relationship Jesus earnestly sought to have with us?!
(Romans 6:16). Is Idolatry one of the least understood Sins in America? Can we lay the blame for that at the foot of the American Pulpit? Pastor Jerry of Christian Reform Fellowship always included Romans 6:16 in every sermon, Bible Study, and Lesson on Idolatry! Why?
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?
“His servants ye are to whom ye obey.” How startling to us is this statement? Is Obedience the highest form of Worship? Do we really want to worship devils?! How much influence would that give demons over us on this side of life? How important a Choice (!) is that? Does Verse 16 conclude with these words?
whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?
Pastor Jerry would conclude his citation of Romans 6:16 with this Question: Is what we obey our God?!!! Is “sin unto death” a choice?!!!
(Verse 17). Is Our Heavenly Father willing to open all the doors and windows of Heaven, and download all the Help we are willing to receive?
p 17 But God be thanked, that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obey-
ed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you.
Romans chapter six.
Who is “ye” and “you” in Verse 17? Is “ye” and “you” us?
Bibliography
Flee From Idolatry
1 Corinthians 10:14
“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”
1 Corinthians 10:5-6. “These things were our examples”
1 Corinthians 10:7. “Neither be ye idolators”
Exodus 32:1. “Up, make us gods”
Exodus 32:3-4. “he had made it a molten calf”
Exodus 20:2. “which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt”
Deuteronomy 5:6. “which brought thee out of the land of Egypt”
Exodus 34:14. “the LORD whose name is Jealous”
Exodus 32:5-6. “the people rose up to play”
Genesis 26:8. “Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.”
Exodus 32:7-8. “thy people ... have corrupted themselves.”
Exodus 32:9-10. Is God’s Name Jealous?
Jeremiah 10:2. “Learn not the way of the heathen”
“Not do be goaded into the customs of the heathen.” Jay P Green, ed. The Interlinear Bible.
Jeremiah 10:3-4. “the customs of the people are vain”
1 Corinthians 10:20. “the Gentiles ... sacrifice to devils, and not to God”
Isaiah 44:19-20. “shall I fall down to the stock of a tree”
John 14:15. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
1 Peter 4:3. “we walked in ... abominable idolatries.”
John 14:15. “keep my commandments”
1 Corinthians 10:14. “flee from idolatry”
[Romans 14:10 and 1 Corinthians 5:7] to explain Adultery before the Judgment Seat of Christ.
Romans 6:16. “his servants ye are to whom ye obey”
Is what we obey our God ?
Romans 6:17. “ye have obeyed from the heart”
