I was trying to communicate this a few+ years ago to some guys in a Bible study but they seemed skeptical of the idea. I thought about texting one of those guys about it but I don't know if he's even alive anymore. One of those guys I'm friends with on Facebook and he's no longer with us. It's strange to think I have like 14 friends on Facebook and three of them are deceased.
Anyway, we were going over Genesis where, after Jacob, later known as Israel, meets God, he tells the members of his household to forsake their idols. People in my Bible study were wondering how Israel knew that since The Ten Commandments were not written and the text says nothing about any conversations that God had with Jacob/Israel (as if The Bible were all that detailed about every little thing like that...). I was supposing that meeting God would have encompassed obtaining that knowledge, for two reasons:
A) God is not an object, like people are. People, even ones who are full of LIFE, contagiously exuberant, or otherwise emotional, are still largely objects. Marrow, blood, skin, etc... God is not only far more alive than any of us, but He is not bound by those constraints. B) God is not a matter of consequence. Who am I? Who are you? Many potential answers to that question are a sheer matter of happenstance. Where does one work? What foods do "like" to eat? What is one's fondest childhood memory? Who are your parents? What are your sources of comfort? All of these things, to varying degrees, are manufactured. A person's "favorite food" is often limited by their region, as well as their economic status. A lot of people can't afford to eat their FAVORITE food, so they might not even be thinking about that as an option. What are your sources of comfort? That often corresponds with what you're familiar with. What you're familiar with is largely based on what other people around you are familiar with. That's why music from 50 years ago is often very different from music of today but music from 5 years ago isn't all that different. Innovations in music are typically very slight. Yet these are "creative" types of people. People who don't create music or any other kind of art simply hear what gets put in their direction. Why some of it is liked more and some less or not at all is too complex to really unravel here.
As Samuel said to King Saul "...the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind"
When you meet God, you meet HIM. You don't meet his skin. You don't meet whatever mask He's wearing. You don't meet a phony smile or any sort of pretense of confidence or whatever. You don't meet his "favorite" color, or anything else that might change with the seasons, but you meet HIM, HIS ESSENCE! His essence is that idolatry is forbidden. He is a jealous God, an all consuming fire. Undoubtedly Jacob did not meet God face to face, or He would have been evaporated ash. There was some distance between Him and Jacob but Jacob saw enough of Him to see that idols were a hindrance. When you see someone sincerely crying and you KNOW you did something to hurt them, you almost feel their pain. At least I do. That kind of honesty that only God has, and the empathy that man at least has the potential to have, that could be a more straightforward simple explanation of how Jacob knew about the evil of idolatry, but then again, I can't speak for Jacob, but I know that before I learned about God through the words and sentences in The Bible, that I had no idea idolatry was anything to be concerned about. I don't even know if I knew what idolatry is. After my mom converted to Christianity, I think I learned about it a little...of course, there's varying degrees and kinds of idolatry... So I think my initial explanation is probably more plausible, although it does appear at least that the early humans, i.e.: Cain (the first recorded instance of murder) were better able to communicate with God. Romans 1, although people I know interpret that as a statement about each individual person, I think, unless I'm some weird exception, that those verses that talk about people having an internal knowledge of good and evil and God making His invisible attributes evident to people, are more in relation to ancient humans. Those verses may? still pertain to some more primitive societies...I think when Jacob was alive on Earth, that kind of osmotic communication may have still been effective enough to resound with people. And I think some people, who aren't exposed to and surrounded as much by sinful influences, might be more able to receive God's communication than I was.
I don't really know how to "properly" close this...uh.....
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