False Worship Is No Worship - 2 Kings 16-20

2 Kings 17:29-33 (ESV)

But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

This section of 2 Kings comes right after the Assyrians took all of Israel captive and only Judah was left.   The King of Assyria replaced the captive people of Israel with captives of other nations.   He put them in the land to maintain it.   However, God sent among them lions to torment them (the land still belonged to God!):

2 Kings 17:25 (ESV)

And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

To counter this, the King of Assyria sent a Jewish priest back to the land to teach them how to live in the land and how to appease the “god” of the land. In those days, the unbelieving world, thought that each land had its own god.    When the priest returned to the land of Israel the people there did listen to how to worship Yahweh.  However. Instead of worshipping Yahweh, solely, they just added Him to their cocktail of other gods.  The gods mentioned in the above passage were the gods of each of those peoples.   Like today, the philosophy was, it didn’t matter what “god” you served, as long as you served “a” god.   Like the Egyptians, when Moses lead the people out of Egypt, these nations had gods for everything.  Our world today has a similar approach to their theology.   But instead of a formal worship of “gods” today, we just worship wealth, power, position, prosperity, self and/or anything shinny for the day.   These are our “gods.”   However, Jesus explained to all mankind the challenge with this “all gods count for something” approach.   

John 14:6 (ESV)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:1 (ESV)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

Jesus is the only way and He is the only Shepherd to bring people back into a relationship with God.   Our world has not changed.   We just name our “gods” with different names.   But unless with worship the God of the universe, through His Son, by His Spirit, we fail to worship the true God. As Jesus told the woman at the well:

John 4:23 (ESV)

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.