What the Bible says about Temple Prostitutes
(From Forerunner Commentary)

1 Kings 12:26-33 The religion of Israel began with a man, Jeroboam I, who changed the true worship of God. • He established a feast in the eighth month to replace the true Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh. • He may have replaced the Sabbath with Sunday worship. • He replaced the Levitical priesthood with men of his own choosing. • Lastly, he replaced God with golden calves in Bethel and Dan. A religion with such a beginning was doomed to fail, bringing the nation down with it. When religion is ungodly, its power is destructive, and every institution in the nation suffers. For instance, Amos 2:7 describes a deliberate act of ritual prostitution in a pagan temple: "A man and his father go in to the same girl, to defile My holy name." What was the rationale behind this perverse, immoral act? Because Baal was neither alive nor a moral force, his worshippers felt they could communicate with him only by ritual actions that portrayed what they were asking him to do. Since Baal was, like almost all ancient deities, a fertility god, the human act of intercourse demonstrated that they wanted Baal to prosper them. But what was its real effect on the participants and the nation? Ritual prostitution only served to erode the family, eventually leading to the destruction of the nation. Baal was different from his adherents merely in that he was above them. God's difference from us is that He is holy; He is moral and we are immoral. After we accept His calling, He commands us to become moral as He is. John W. Ritenbaugh Prepare to Meet Your God! (The Book of Amos) (Part Two) Related Topics: Baal | Baal Worship | Feast of Tabernacles | Golden Calf | Halloween | Idol | Idolatrous Religious Influence | Idolatry | Images, Graven | Jeroboam I | Pagan Deities | Pagan Holidays | Pagan Religious Practices | Paganism | Religion of Israel | Ritual Prostitution | Sabbath | Sabbath "Done Away" | Sunday Worship | Temple Prostitutes | Temple- Prostitute, Israel as

Amos 3:12 Amos refers to part of the Old Covenant: "If it is torn to pieces by an animal, then he shall bring it as evidence, and he shall not make good what was torn" (Exodus 22:13). If a lamb was stolen from the flock, the shepherd had to repay the owner for it. If a lamb was attacked and devoured by a beast, however, he had to bring proof that he had not stolen it himself. He had to show evidence that what had previously existed had been destroyed. Whenever Israel is destroyed, the evidence of her demise will not be a leg or part of an ear, but bits of furniture like couches and beds. When others look for proof of this great nation's fate, they will find all the accouterments of opulence, luxury, self-indulgence, indolence—products of their self-concern and self-satisfaction. But they will find no effects of godly spirituality—righteousness, justice, and mercy. The illustration of the bed and couch may be an ironic reference to Israelite sexual exploits with temple prostitutes and other ritual sexual practices (Isaiah 57:3-9). Additionally, God shows Israel committing spiritual adultery by trusting in other nations rather than God (Isaiah 31:1-3), and the destroyed bed and couch would depict His destruction of the nation for her unfaithfulness. John W. Ritenbaugh Prepare to Meet Your God! (The Book of Amos) (Part Two) Related Topics: Amos, Prophecies of | Evidence of Israel's demise | Indolence | Israel's Adultery | Israel's Unfaithfulness | Luxury | Luxury and Ease | Old Covenant | Self Concern | Self Satisfaction | Spiritual Adultery | Temple Prostitutes

 

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