THE STORY BEHIND IDOLS

 The story of the gods of Terah, the father of Abram, is not specific in the Bible but revealed eloquently in the Book of Jasher: 

³⁰ And Abram viewed them (twelve great idols and many lesser ones), and behold they had neither voice nor hearing, nor did one of them stretch forth his hand to the meat to eat. ³¹ And in the evening of that day in that house Abram was clothed with the spirit of God…

 ³³ And when Abram saw all these things his anger was kindled against his father, and he hastened and took a hatchet in his hand, and came unto the chamber of the gods, and he broke all his father’s gods. ³⁴ And when he had done breaking the images, he placed the hatchet in the hand of the great god which was there before them, and he went out; and Terah his father came home…

³⁶ And Terah entered the room and found all the idols fallen down and broken, and the hatchet in the hand of the largest, which was not broken, and the savory meat which Abram his son had made was still before them.

Terah asked Abram, “⁴² Is there in these gods spirit, soul or power to do all thou hast told me? Are they not wood and stone, and have I not myself made them, and canst thou speak such lies, saying that the large god that was with them smote them? It is thou that didst place the hatchet in his hands, and then sayest he smote them all?”

Abram asked his father, ⁴³ “And how canst thou then serve these idols in whom there is no power to do any thing? Can those idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? can they hear thy prayers when thou callest upon them? can they deliver thee from the hands of thy enemies, or will they fight thy battles for thee against thy enemies, that thou shouldst serve wood and stone which can neither speak nor hear?” (Jasher 11)

 

Terah had made the idols. They were not gods at all because Terah was their creator. They could not do anything!

Abram created the illusion that the major god had destroyed the others, but Terah was wise enough to see the fallacy in that; he knew that he had alone had made the gods and they could not do anything. As such, Terah realized that he was worshiping the works of his own hands, and they were nothing now but rubbish.

It was not even Abram that broke the gods! The Almighty God was responsible for that because Abram was given the inclination and courage to reveal the façade. It was Jehovah God who broke the idols because, “Abram was clothed with the spirit of God.”

Note that God had clothed Adam and Eve with His “Coat of Skin,” indubitably His Holy Spirit within the new flesh of the two (Gen 3:21)

Noah had also found grace (Gen 6:8). Surely, God had put the Garment of Adam onto Noah, as Jasher acknowledges  because He was the “Second Adam.”

Therein, Abram found grace, and he would be the “Third Adam” and God would correct mankind for the third time.

Abram received the Spirit of God because he was courageous enough to tear down the greatest idol of them all — the Tower of Babel which was three days walking distance in circumference (Jasher 9:38).

Abram survived the high temperatures of the kiln, a fiery furnace, and came out unscathed. It was surely therein that Abram was clothed with the Spirit of God that was impervious to the flames of the brick kiln.

The King James version seems as if Nachor and Terah lived before the flood, but Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) clears that up: 

² And Joshua saith unto all the people, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Beyond the River have your fathers dwelt of old -- Terah father of Abraham and father of Nachor -- and they serve other gods; ³ and I take your father Abraham from beyond the River, and cause him to go through all the land of Canaan, and multiply his seed, and give to him Isaac. (Josh 24:2-3; YLT)

 It was not before the flood that Terah was a sinner, but beyond the “River” — the Euphrates River in Ur where he made idols. Then God took Abraham beyond the River to Canaan land. Therein, God began a new civilization, not in the land per se, but with Abraham king of another realm way beyond the River in God’s mystical Paradise.

There are at least two meanings of the word, “Hebrew.” It either comes from Eber, son of Salah, or it means “beyond the river.” The latter seems more contiguous.

With that said, perhaps not only is Abraham a “Hebrew” in a genetic sense but also a mystical one. Since Abram was regenerated as Abraham and he was King of the Promised Land, the ultimate Promise was for Paradise in another realm, and not Paradise on Earth, at least not until the apocalypse.

That Abraham is King of Paradise in heaven should make sense in that “Abraham’s Bosom” (Luke 16) is in the heavenly Paradise! Perhaps, therefore, according to Enoch, beyond the River is actually in the Third Heaven wherein there is Paradise. In essence, therefore, the gulf between Hades and Paradise in the Third Heaven is the Hebrew, or the righteous, “land.”

Was Joshua mystically referring to Canaan land or was it Heaven of which he was speaking? I believe he was referring to another realm and that the world they were in is the place of skin and idol worship!

Abraham’s Bosom is otherworldly. Therein nothing is cosmic in the sense that there are material things, but things of another substance.

Just as the soul is the invisible substance of mankind and flesh the visible, there is another realm of invisible substances which is known for Revelation; and it has dimensions.

In effect, when Abram destroyed his father’s idols, he was vicariously destroying the world of Terah and Nimrod, and forthwith God sent Abraham to another world, so to speak. He resided in Canaan, but his kingdom was in Heaven — Abraham’s Bosom. In a sense, Abraham was the “Third Adam” but at his death, he was Adam, not in the Garden Paradise on Earth but the ”Plantation” in Heaven, as the Essenes called their perfect habitat.

Note that the Essene Community was at the Dead Sea and they lived an aesthetic life as if they were already in heaven; even without marriage and such as the angels in heaven. It seems that the Essenes created a heaven on Earth in much the same manner as Abraham had long before, and they meticulously obeyed the Law.

(Several times, I used the word “essence” by coincidence, but indeed the Essenes did only the essential things without any elaborate things at all. “Essene” means “the modest ones” and essentialities are what the modest ones required.)

There were no idols in Qumran because it was a dead place to live. Israel is believed to be the Garden Paradise for many reasons too numerous to mention, but the Dead Sea was pretty much austere with no beautiful things there to worship.

Lot, the nephew of Abraham, chose to live in the Garden of God in Sodom and near Gomorrah. Lot, the son of Haran who burned in Ur, chose beauty over solace that Abraham chose. As such, because Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, the Dead Sea swallowed them up.

The Essenes chose Sodom and Gomorrah as well, but only after God did His thing with them by burning them.

The Essenes chose the Way for the “Teacher of Righteousness;” possibly Jesus? And they did so in the renewed world adjacent to the Dead Sea. They were still on the River of the Garden — the Jordan River — like Paradise, but there “Paradise” was void of any beauty to tempt them, in contrast to the beautiful Tree of Knowledge (Gen 3) in the Garden.

The Essenes were preparing the Way for the Teacher of Righteousness. They were also preparing their vision of Paradise. What was John the Baptist doing? 

¹ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, ² And saying, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ³ For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” (Mat 3:1-3)

 The Way of the Essenes was without any consorting with idols or even the unjust. Their lives were focused on the coming of the Messiah — Him of which Isaiah spoke.

He came from the “wilderness” of Judea. A place of desolation specifically. He surely came from Qumran. There they had prepared a place for the Lord as if Paradise would be on Earth , yet misunderstanding that Paradise was in Abraham’s Bosom in another realm.

Ironically, John knew that, and his job was to prepare the real way for the Teacher of Righteousness!

John may have been an Essene, but God prepared John for the Way. The angel of the Lord told Zacharias of that preparation: 

“For he (John) shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.” (Luke 20:15)

 While the Essenes were preparing the Way for heaven on Earth, John was preparing the Way for Jesus’s realm in Heaven. If he was an Essene, his way would be much better!

The Essenes seem to have drunk only new wine… just grape juice, according to theologians. John would forego even that pleasure. He was even more austere than the rigid Essenes.

When Jesus came, the foremost topic was that sin was in the flesh. The solution would be for the Holy Ghost of Jesus, by grace, to shield their fleshes in this world in preparation for the next world. The Essenes were preparing themselves by denial and works for Paradise that the Father in Heaven was already doing with the coming of Jesus. Not by coincidence, Abraham was their “Shield” until the “Comforter” would come.

Jesus voided the notion of idols. The Essenes avoided things that the flesh craves, but Jesus came in the flesh as the Ultimate “Idol” to worship because the Hebrews always required idols of some sort; as idols were in their genes.

An invisible God was enough for Abram, but his germline still required idols — not ones that were motionless like Terah’s and without personality, but the very animated (virtuous, dynamis) Person of God Himself!

Abraham knew the Law of his kingdom. It would not be the ascetic law of Moses nor of the Essenes but the Law of Love which fulfilled all the Law.

Now you should know why not idols and why God came in the Flesh.

(picture credit; Alamy; "Ashteroth")