Wednesday Bible Study: Torah Shmorah

I noted previously that the tabernacle and the altar as the center of religious and communal life have disappeared. You no longer have to go there with your sacrifices for the Kohanite priests to carry out. Now it ' s official: you can rent your own priest and have your own personal altar and sacrifices. (To be fully explicated in the following chapter, but the story starts here in Judges 17.) Not only that, but remember the whole thing about idols and graven images? E.g.:Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.Exodus 20:4,Deuteronomy 5:8Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the simultude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.Deuteronomy 4:16-18Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget ... and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.Deuteronomy 4:23Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman.Deuteronomy 27:15Fuggedaboudit! Idols are just fine, encouraged in fact.  I would also say the back story about the g...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs