Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Wooden Idols Compared with Noah's
Wooden Boat
1 In the same way, a man getting
ready to sail on the raging
sea will call for help from a piece
of wood that is not as strong as the
ship he is about to board.
2 Someone
designed the ship out of a desire for
profit, and a craftsman built it with
skill.
3 But it is your care, O Father,
that steers it; you give it a safe path
through the waves of the sea.
4 People
may go to sea even if they have
no skill, because you can save them
from any danger.
5 It is your will that
the things you have made by your
wisdom should be put to use. And so
people can cross the sea in a boat
and come safely to land, because
they trust their lives to that small
piece of wood.
6 This was how it was in ancient
times, when a proud race of giants
was dying away. The hope of the
world escaped on such a boat under
your guidance and left the world a
new generation to carry on the human
race.
7 A blessing was on
Noah's wooden boat that allowed
righteousness to survive,
8 but a
curse is on an idol made by human
hands. A curse is also on the one
who makes it, because he works on
this perishable thing and then calls it
a god.
9 Ungodly people and these
ungodly things they make are
equally hated by God,
10 who will
punish both the things made and the
people who made them.
11 And so
God's judgment will fall on pagan
idols, because, even though they are
made from something God created,
they became horrible things that
trap the souls of foolish people.
The Origins of Idolatry
12 Sexual immorality began when
idols were invented. They have corrupted
human life ever since they
were first made.
13 Idols have not always
existed, nor will they exist forever.
14 It was human pride that
brought them into the world, and
that is why a quick end has been
planned for them.
-- --
15 Once there was a father who
was overwhelmed with grief at the
untimely death of his child, so he
made an image of that child who had
been suddenly taken from him. He
then honored a dead human being as
a god, and handed on secret rituals
and ceremonies to those who were
under his authority.
16 As time went
on, this ungodly custom became
stronger. Finally it became law, and
idols were being worshiped at the
command of powerful rulers.
17 When people lived too far away to
honor a ruler in his presence but
were eager to pay honor to this absent
king, they would imagine what
he must look like, and would then
make a likeness of him.
18 The ambitious
artists who made these likenesses
caused this worship to
spread, even among people who did
not know the king.
19 An artist might
want to please some ruler, and so he
would use his skill to make the likeness
better looking than the man
himself.
20 Then people would be so
attracted by the work of art, that the
man whom they had earlier honored
now became the object of their worship.
21 So all this became a deadly
trap, because people who were
grieving, or under royal authority,
would take objects of stone or wood,
and give them the honor reserved
for the One God.
The Results of Idolatry
22 One thing led to another. It was
not enough to be wrong about the
knowledge of God. They lived in a
state of evil warfare, but they were
so ignorant that they called it peace.
23 They murdered children in their
initiation rituals, celebrated secret
mysteries, and held wild ceremonial
orgies with unnatural practices.
24 They no longer kept their lives or
their marriages pure. A man might
kill another by an act of treachery or
cause him grief by committing adultery
with his wife.
25 Everything was
a complete riot of bloody murder,
robbery, deceit, corruption, faithlessness,
disorder, falsehood,
26 harassment
of innocent people, ingratitude,
moral decay, sexual perversion,
broken marriages, adultery,
and immorality.
27 The worship of
idols, whose names should never be
spoken, is the beginning and the
end, the cause and the result of every
evil.
28 People who worship them
lose control of themselves in ecstasy,
or pass off lies as prophecies,
or live wickedly, or break their word
without hesitation.
29 They tell lies
under oath and expect no punishment,
because the idols they put
their trust in are lifeless.
30 But punishment
will finally catch up with
them, for two reasons: first, they
were in error about God when they
worshiped idols, and second, they
had so little regard for holiness that
they made false statements to deceive
people.
31 When unrighteous
people commit sin, they will be
hunted down, not by the power of
whatever thing they swear by, but
by the punishment that sinners deserve. note
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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