False Feasts and Other Abominations

And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before it, and Aaron called, and he said, “A feast for Yahweh tomorrow.” And they started early the next day, and they offered burnt offerings, and they presented fellowship offerings, and the people sat to eat and drink, and they rose up to revel. And Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, go down because your people behave corruptly, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt”.

Exodus 32:5-7

The people of Yahweh did not get very far in their journey out of Egypt before they had their first major blunder. Moses was on the mountain with Yahweh, and the people became impatient, telling Aaron to make them a god so they could have a feast. Aaron complied, melting earrings and jewelry to fashion a calf. The one detail that is often missed in this story is that they were using this calf to worship Yahweh.

Exo 32:5 And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before it, and Aaron called, and he said, “A feast for Yahweh tomorrow.”

This was the first false feast dedicated to Yahweh. They used the golden calf to represent Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt; ate, drank and had a good time. Did they say; “God knows my heart” and “We are doing this to honour God who brought us out of Egypt. That is what it means to me.”? This event happened after the people had heard Yahweh himself speak the Ten Commandments in an audible voice at the base of Mount Horeb. Yahweh was not happy that Aaron made a symbol to represent Him and create a feast to honour Him which He had not commanded.

Deu 9:19 For I was in dread from being in the presence of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was angry with you so as to destroy you, but Yahweh listened to me also at that time.
Deu 9:20 And with Aaron Yahweh was angry enough to destroy him, and I prayed also for Aaron at that time.
Deu 9:21 And your sinful thing that you had made, the molten calf, I took and I burned it with fire, and I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was crushed to dust, and I threw its dust into the stream that flowed down the mountain.
Deu 9:22 “And also at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to anger.
Deu 9:23 And when Yahweh sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God, and you did not believe him, and you did not listen to his voice.

Gideon was another person who dealt with false worship and symbols. Yahweh told him to cut down the sacred tree, the Asherah, that was on the altar they used to worship Baal, set up a proper sacrifice and use the wood from the sacred tree to burn the sacrifice.

Jdg 6:25 Now on that same night Yahweh said to him, “Take the bull of the cattle that belongs to your father, and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it;
Jdg 6:26 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold in the proper arrangement, and take a second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you will cut down.
Jdg 6:27 Gideon took ten men from his servants, and he did just as Yahweh told him; and because he was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city to do it during the day, he did it during night.
Jdg 6:28 When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal and the Asherah that was beside it were cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.
Jdg 6:29 And they said to one another, “Who did this thing?” So they searched and inquired, and they said, “Gideon son of Jehoash did this thing.”
Jdg 6:30 And the men of the city said to Jehoash, “Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah that was beside it.”
Jdg 6:31 But Jehoash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Will you rescue him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death by the morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself because his altar has been pulled down.”

Any worship that is done in a manner not prescribed by Yahweh is by default, Baal worship. If we make up our own ways to worship Yahweh then we cannot be worshipping Yahweh because He commands us to worship His way.

Another great example of false worship is found in the story of Jeroboam. Yahweh handed Jeroboam the northern kingdom of Israel with only one condition; that is to follow the commandments.

1Ki 11:29 It happened at that time that Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, and he accidentally met Ahijah the Shilonite the prophet on the way. Now he had clothed himself with new clothing. While the two of them were alone in the field,
1Ki 11:30 Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces.
1Ki 11:31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give to you ten tribes,
1Ki 11:32 but one tribe shall be for him, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel;
1Ki 11:33 because he has forsaken me, and they bowed down to Ashtoreth, the god of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Molech, the god of the Ammonites. They did not walk in my ways to do right in my eyes, my ordinances, or my judgments, as did David his father.
1Ki 11:34 But I will not take all of the kingdom from his hand, but I will make him a leader all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my ordinances.
1Ki 11:35 But I will take the kingship from the hand of his son, and I will give ten tribes to you.
1Ki 11:36 To his son I will give one tribe in order to be a lamp for my servant David, always before my face, in Jerusalem the city in which I have chosen to place my name.
1Ki 11:37 You I will take, and you shall reign over all your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel.
1Ki 11:38 It shall be that if you listen to all that I command you and you walk in my ways and you do right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and I will build an enduring house for you as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.
1Ki 11:39 I will punish the offspring of David on account of this; however, not always.'”

Jeroboam could have been as great a king as David. Because of Solomon’s sin, Yahweh was handing the kingdom to Jeroboam. Unfortunately, Jeroboam wasn’t interested in the commandments of Yahweh. He decided to make up his own holiday like they had in Judah.

1Ki 12:25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and he resided in it. Then he went out from there and built Penuel.
1Ki 12:26 Then Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David
1Ki 12:27 if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The heart of this people will return to their master Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they shall kill me and return to him.”
1Ki 12:28 And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
1Ki 12:29 He put one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
1Ki 12:30 This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan.
1Ki 12:31 Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests from all walks of life who were not from the sons of Levi.
1Ki 12:32 Jeroboam also inaugurated a religious feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the religious feast which was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. Thus he did in Bethel, by sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
1Ki 12:33 He offered sacrifices on the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month which his heart had devised. He inaugurated a religious feast for the Israelites, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

As soon as symbols from other gods or cultures are brought into worship, or new religious feasts are created, which Yahweh did not command, the whole affair becomes Baal worship.

Ezekiel was shown abominations happening in the temple. Abomination is Strong’s H8441

H8441
תּעבה / תּועבה
tô‛êbah
BDB Definition:
1) a disgusting thing, abomination, abominable
1a) in ritual sense (of unclean food, idols, mixed marriages)
1b) in ethical sense (of wickedness etc)

Eze 8:1 And then in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me. And the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell on me there,
Eze 8:2 and I saw, and look! A figure like the appearance of a man; from the appearance of his waist and below was fire, and from his waist and upward was like the appearance of brightness, like the outward appearance of amber.
Eze 8:3 And he sent out the form of a hand, and he took me by a lock of hair of my head, and the Spirit lifted me between earth and heaven, and it brought me to Jerusalem in visions of God to the doorway of the inner gate that faced north, at which there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which was making jealous.
Eze 8:4 And look! There was the glory of the God of Israel like the vision that I saw in the valley.
Eze 8:5 And he said to me, “Son of man, lift up now your eyes toward the north.” And I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and, look, there was to the north of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy at the entrance.
Eze 8:6 And he said to me, “Son of man, “Do you see what they are doing—great detestable things that the house of Israel is committing here so as to drive me from my sanctuary, and yet you will see again greater detestable things.”
Eze 8:7 And he brought me to the doorway of the courtyard, and I saw, and look! A hole in the wall.
Eze 8:8 And he said to me, “Son of man, dig now through the wall.” And I dug through the wall, and look! There was a doorway.
Eze 8:9 And he said to me, “Come and see the detestable things, the evil that they are doing here.
Eze 8:10 And I came, and I saw, and look, all kinds of creatures and detestable beasts; and all of the idols of the house of Israel were carved on the wall all around.
Eze 8:11 And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, was standing in the midst of them, and they were standing before them. Each one had his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the cloud of the incense was going up.
Eze 8:12 And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for they are saying, ‘Yahweh is not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.'”
Eze 8:13 And he said to me, “Still you will see again greater detestable things that they are doing.”
Eze 8:14 And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that is toward the north, and look! There were the women sitting weeping for Tammuz.
Eze 8:15 And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man? Still you will see again greater detestable things than these.”
Eze 8:16 And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, at the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down toward the east before the sun.
Eze 8:17 And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man? Was it too small a thing for the house of Judah to do the detestable things that they did here? For they filled up the land with violence, and they provoked me to anger again, and look! They are putting the branch to their nose.
Eze 8:18 And so I will act in rage, and my eye will not take pity, and I will not have compassion, and they will cry in my ear with a loud voice, and I will not hear them.”

These abominations, sacred trees and pillars, drove Yahweh away. It is a wise thing to study what Yahweh considers an abomination. If we have abominations in our life, how do we expect Yahweh to dwell in us? If we are doing abominable practices in the churches, will Yahweh do anything different than He showed Ezekiel? Any practice Yahweh did not command is Baal worship. These are the traditions of men.

Mat 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Mat 15:4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
Mat 15:5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”
Mat 15:6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
Mat 15:7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
Mat 15:8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mat 15:9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Jesus, or as He is called in His own language, Yeshua, was just as displeased with traditions of men put in the place of true worship or commandment keeping. This is due to the fact that Yeshua was the Word of Yahweh on Earth as a man. He was not a new god sent to start a new religion any different from that which He spoke as the Word at Mount Horeb, giving the Ten Commandments. It’s the same message. Even when Yeshua was upbraiding the Pharisees for neglecting the weightier matters of the law, He did not give them the option of neglecting any of them.

Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

People today like to imply that the Pharisees angered Jesus because they were teaching God’s law. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Pharisees were teaching their own law in place of God’s law. They were breaking God’s law by adding and taking away from it as they saw fit. This is what goes on in many churches today. From Aaron’s calf to the ways of the Pharisees, not much has changed.

Mat 23:2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,
Mat 23:3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
Mat 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
Mat 23:5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
Mat 23:6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues
Mat 23:7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.
Mat 23:8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Mat 23:9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Mat 23:10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
Mat 23:11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.
Mat 23:12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Mat 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Mat 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

From the beginning, Yahweh has shown us what He likes and what He hates. For example, He hates Ashreah poles, stone pillars, unjust scales and measures, eating unclean animals and the ways of the Nicolaitans. He has sent servants, prophets and even His only begotten son to warn people how to turn to His judgements, statutes and commandments. Jesus gave us a parable about this very thing, and it does not end well.

Luk 20:9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.
Luk 20:10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Luk 20:11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.
Luk 20:12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.
Luk 20:13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’
Luk 20:14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’
Luk 20:15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
Luk 20:16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”
Luk 20:17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
Luk 20:18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

The servants, prophets and the son of God all had the same message; to repent and follow the commandments of Yahweh. Time is going to run out soon, and the owner of the vineyard is coming.

Isa 66:15 For look! Yahweh will come in fire, and his chariots like the storm wind, to give back his anger in wrath, and his rebuke in flames of fire.
Isa 66:16 For Yahweh enters into judgment on all flesh with fire and his sword, and those slain by Yahweh shall be many.
Isa 66:17 Those who sanctify themselves and those who cleanse themselves to go into the gardens after the one in the middle, eating the flesh of swine and detestable things and rodents together shall come to an end!” declares Yahweh.
Isa 66:18 “And I—their works and thoughts!—am about to come to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory.
Isa 66:19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow; Tubal and Javan, the faraway coastlands that have not heard of my fame, and have not seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations,
Isa 66:20 and bring all your countrymen from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh on horses and chariots and in litters and on mules and camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,” says Yahweh, “just as the sons of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of Yahweh.
Isa 66:21 And indeed, I will take some of them as priests and the Levites,” says Yahweh.
Isa 66:22 “For just as the new heavens and earth that I am about to make shall stand before me,” declares Yahweh, “so shall your descendants and your name stand.
Isa 66:23 And this shall happen: From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to bow in worship before me,” says Yahweh.
Isa 66:24 “And they shall go out and look at the corpses of the people who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Jesus quoted from this passage in Isaiah when talking about sin. Sin is breaking the commandments.

Mar 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
Mar 9:43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
Mar 9:45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
Mar 9:47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
Mar 9:48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
Mar 9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
Mar 9:50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Worship in spirit and truth as Yahweh commanded. Repent and leave behind the witchcraft of manmade doctrines and practices.