Zephaniah, Worshiping Stars & Abominations

Zephaniah 1:5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom;

Verse 4 spoke of Baal, a Canaanite deity. Now the Lord warns people who ascend to the housetop to worship the host of heaven, or the constellations. Utilizing one’s Zodiac is–and has been—extremely in vogue in popular culture. It is said that R.H. Naylor of Britain was credited to have put the first horoscope in the newspaper in 1930. This means that we are fast approaching 100 years of the printed horoscope in the newspaper, and people taking the vagaries of its contents as something mystical and religious in nature.

God says to Jeremiah the prophet, “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile,” Jeremiah 10:2, 3. Why is the prophet not to be dismayed by this futile custom? Because God explained in Genesis 1:14-16 that the stars were created so that man can more accurately gauge time on earth. Being creatures of time, we view everything by time’s passage. We know this simply by how we speak: I went home, I will be there, I am there now. Every facet of human life is colored by the tense of time. The stars are reminders of time’s passage and how to mark it accurately. Nothing less, nothing more. Godless charlatans turned the Zodiac into a mystical system that is entirely contrary to Scripture.

It is a classic, I would say cosmic case of replacing the Creator with the creation, Romans 1:25. The motions of stars and planets are irrelevant to man’s fortunes. In fact, the host of heaven has a double meaning in the Bible; it can also refer to angels. When Nimrod led mankind in rebellion to build a temple in the plain of Shinar, or Babel (see Genesis 10:10, 11:1), his goal was to worship the host of heaven, Genesis 11:4. The Zodiac is another front for Satan and his angels to beguile people into believing the ancient New Age philosophy of man’s intrinsic deity. Man rejected God’s express command to proliferate on the earth, choosing to seek their fortunes in the stars and autonomously steer their own destinies. God quickly and easily frustrated this intention by confusing their language and scattering them abroad, just like He had commanded them to.

God also reprimands the Jews who swear an oath in Yahweh’s name, but also swear to the false god Milcom, often identified with Chemosh the Moabite god. The inscription of Mesha (from Mesha, a Moabite king, 2 Kings 3:4, 5) speaks of a god named Athar that had local titles, including Chemosh and Milcom. The Mesha Stele, discovered in 1868, provides a little extra-biblical history as to this Moabite king. Milcom means, “king.” This may infer that Milcom was a self-appointed king of gods, which clearly and directly contrasts with the Lord’s claim that He alone is Lord of lords and King of kings, being the only God in existence. Chemosh was a diabolical god worshiped in Canaan (and abroad) before Israel entered under Joshua. But since the Israelites did not remove the Canaanites completely, their insidious worship forms infected Judaism.

This was brought to a head when Solomon himself turned away from the Lord and set up altars for Ashtoreth and Milcom, who is called, “the abomination of the Ammonites,” 1 Kings 11:5. These things he did for his foreign wives, building high places for them (and him) to worship demons, 1 Kings 11:8. God laments Israel’s infidelity in Jeremiah, asking, “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does Milcom inherit Gad, and his people dwell in its cities? For Milcom shall go into captivity with his priests and his princes together,” Jeremiah 49:1, 3. God makes it abundantly clear that He alone is God, and there are no other gods but Him, Isaiah 45:5. But Israel has entered into a polytheistic and from God’s perspective polyamorous relationship with deity.

Modern man has taken this ideology to heart with the nonsensical, “all roads lead to God,” farce. Milcom was a horrendous deity, like Molech and Chemosh, demanding human sacrifice, preferably children. God warned that we cannot serve two masters. We will inevitably choose the one and spurn the other. Milcom led Solomon astray, and Judah followed after. Sadly, Zephaniah was written during the reign of Josiah, who took great pains to steer the hearts of the people back to the Lord. It is written, “Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abominations of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon,” 2 Kings 23:13. But faith espoused under external duress is not genuine. As this was being done Zephaniah was penning these words, implicating Israel in the worship of demon gods in the high places their greatest king set up with his own hands. Milcom held a rival status if the people swore by him and Yahweh. The Lord promised that He would expunge such evil from His people.