They moved him to jealousy with strange gods, With abominations did they provoke him to anger.
Moses' song looks ahead to a people settled, rich, and safe. It then names what they did with that safety: they turned to gods that were not God. Two questions follow. Why would a blessed people do this? And why does God call His response jealousy?
The turn described here does not start with idols. It starts with comfort, and with a name that no longer fits.
"But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked" (v.15). Jeshurun means "upright." That was Israel's proper character, but they gave it up when they became rich. This is prophetic of their time in the land, when God prospered them by His pure grace. They took godless advantage of their wealth. They abandoned the God who made them, and they held the Rock of their salvation in scorn. This Rock is Christ. When He came, His own nation scorned and rejected Him, because they had chosen other gods. Their detestable idolatry provoked God to anger (v.16).
Once the affections leave God, they do not stay empty. They attach to whatever is furthest from Him.
Then the heart, estranged from Him, turned to those that were His opposites. Strange gods came in, with their abominations. Newly invented gods took the place of Him who had brought them into being. The same thing has been repeated ever since, in every form you can imagine.
The word "abominations" has one settled sense through the Old Testament. It also warns what idolatry does to the worshipper.
"Abominations" simply means idols. The word "abomination" occurs constantly in the Old Testament, meaning an idol. It is tied to everything degraded. The moment a man gives up belief in the true God, he is sure to degrade himself. If a man does not look to something above himself, he will sink to what is below him, as we see in Romans 1.
People have always found ways to call idolatry harmless — a custom, a formality, a habit that means nothing. God's estimate runs the opposite way.
In every age, one thing marks the gap between God's word and men's thoughts more than anything else. People take idols and strange gods lightly. God hates that, above all in His own people. There may be no deliberate plan to abandon His worship. It may only be what they count a small thing: going along with idolatry now and then, while still claiming His name. But God rejects such a compromise outright. And those who allow it face a further danger — complete revolt from Him. It strikes at His majesty, at holiness and truth, and is intolerable in His eyes. Israel should have known that God called Abraham out of this very abomination, to be a separate witness, with his descendants, to the one true and living God (Joshua 24:3).
Jealousy sounds like a flaw in God. Then ask what love would be without it:
Love cannot help being jealous of wandering affections; it would not be love if it did not resent unfaithfulness. And is He so powerless that we can despise Him and get away with it? Are we stronger than He?
God's answer to their jealousy was to call the nations in. Even that is not where the song ends.
The very call of the Gentiles is only to provoke them to jealousy (v. 21), as the apostle drew from this long afterwards, when it came to pass (Rom. 10:19)... but even when He restores Israel as He will (v. 36), He calls the Gentiles to rejoice with His people (v. 43).
Israel is the subject of the song, but the pattern is not theirs alone.
There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader. Each of us is in danger of walking the moral path these words describe. Surrounded on all sides by the rich and varied mercies of God, we are apt to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We use the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we too, like Israel, grow fat and kick. We forget God.
- Fatness. The slide begins with prosperity, not persecution. Jeshurun, "the upright one," grew rich and kicked.
- Forsaking. The heart that leaves God does not stay neutral; it turns to His opposites and takes up newly invented gods.
- Abomination. The word means idols. Idolatry drags the worshipper down: whoever will not look above himself sinks below himself.
- Jealousy. God's response is not petty temper. It is love refusing a rival: love would not be love if it did not resent unfaithfulness.
- Restoration. God answered their jealousy by calling the nations (Rom. 10:19). Yet the same song ends with Israel restored and the nations rejoicing with His people.
They sacrificed unto demons who are not +God; To gods whom they knew not, To new ones, who came newly up, Whom your fathers revered not.
Moses' song turns dark here: the people God had cared for gave their sacrifices to something else. The verse names it — demons, not rival gods — and the New Testament quotes the line to explain idol worship.
The word behind "demons" is harsher than it sounds. A dictionary of Bible words traces it, and a second word used elsewhere for the same beings:
The Hebrew word shed, though traced from the word "lord," properly means "a destroyer, a violent one; and so, figuratively, a mischievous demon." It appears only twice in the whole Old Testament. A second word, sair, means "rough, hairy," and especially a he-goat: so "a goat-shaped deity, which people worshipped as an idol… People believed such hostile beings lived in the deserts and woods, and that they had to appease them with divine worship."
Scripture says two things at once. The carved image is empty. The worship offered to it still reaches someone real. One writer holds both together:
In 1 Corinthians 10:20 the apostle quotes Deuteronomy 32:17 and declares what idolatry really is, though the form may differ. Men worshipped the heavens and all their host, the earth and the sea and their creatures, the serpent especially, or heroes and dead ancestors, or legendary beings and their images. It soon took hold of their imagination. It did not only shut God out; it degraded its followers to the utmost. And no wonder. For both Old Testament and New declare that what they sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons, not to God. Demons were in effect behind the idols. If the idols were nothing in themselves, the demons were an awful reality of subtle and malignant evil, ruining those who honoured the idols.
The worshippers would not have described what they were doing this way. The gap between what they meant and what happened is the point:
The idols and their sacrifices may be completely powerless. But demons hiding behind them can and do shut the true God out of souls. They seize the homage due to Him alone. This is the effect of heathen worship, not the intention of the worshippers or of those who share in their sacrifices. They no more planned to revere demons (fallen and evil spirits) than the unconverted today mean to serve Satan. But they did, and they do, all the same.
The verse calls these gods newcomers: Israel had not known them, and their fathers had never feared them. The forms change, but the worship does not:
Here is the general rule. Take any person, thing, or theory — what I call a "principle" when I hold it myself, and a "fad" when someone else holds it. If we let it hold the place, the authority, and the devotion that belong to our Creator, it is a false god we are serving, whatever pleasant name we give it… So the crude outward forms of idolatry pass away; but those who worship the false gods still worship in spirit and in fact.
The verse follows a picture of a nation grown comfortable and full. One writer turns that on the reader:
There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader… God's mercies surround us on every side, rich and varied. We are apt to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We use the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we too, like Israel, grow fat and kick. We forget God. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence and of His perfect sufficiency. We turn to other objects, as Israel turned to false gods.
Some have stretched this verse to cover disagreements between Christians. One writer answered that plainly. His translation says "devils" where the ESV says "demons":
Scripture states plainly what "devils" means. It means nothing but the gods of the heathen, and it points back to Deuteronomy 32:17: "they offered to devils, and not to God." To apply this to Baptists or Independents is a gross abuse. The apostle is speaking of fellowship with demons (in idol temples) and heathen sacrifices, and nothing else.
Within its own field, though, the line is absolute:
Behind the things people worshipped were real beings — evil, unclean spirits. So it was impossible to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus and with these demons at the same time.
- Destroyer. The word behind "demons" means a destroyer, a violent one. These beings were hostile, not helpful.
- Nothing, yet real. The idol itself is empty; the power standing behind it is an awful reality of subtle and malignant evil.
- Effect, not intention. Worshippers never planned to honour demons. Demons still seized the homage due to God alone. Sincerity does not redirect worship.
- New names, same trade. The crude forms pass away. Whatever takes the devotion owed to the Creator is a false god under a nicer name.
- Full, then forgetful. Israel grew fat and kicked. We too can use the gifts to shut out the Giver. And no one can hold fellowship with Christ and with demons at once.