SBS |  2nd Quarter of 2023 | CPAD – Adults –  THEME: FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS – Overcoming Challenges and Problems with Examples from God's Word |  Sunday Bible School  |  Lesson 04: Idols in the Family Slides prepared by Celso Napoleon

1. Idols in the Family
Lesson 04
April 23, 2023

2. GOLDEN TEXT
“Little children, keep yourselves from
idols. Amen!" (1 John 5.21)

3. PRACTICAL TRUTH
Idol worship implies prioritizing everything
that puts itself in the place of God.

4. DAILY READING
Monday – 2 Tim 3.5 Stay away from people like that
Tuesday – 1 John 2:15 Do not love the things of the world
Wednesday – Isaiah 42:8 The Lord does not divide his
glory
Thursday – Lev 19.4 Do not turn to idols
Friday – Exodus 20:3,4 Thou shalt not make an idol
Sabbath – Jonah 2:8 Beware of Those Who Despise Mercy

5. BIBLE READING IN CLASS
Genesis 31.17-19,33-35; Judges 17.1,3-5
Genesis 31
17 - Then Jacob arose, putting his sons and his wives upon
the camels,
18 - and he took all his livestock and all his property that he
had acquired, the livestock that he had, which he had reached
in Padan-aram, to go to Isaac, his father, to the land of
Canaan.
19 – And when Laban went to shear his sheep, Rachel stole
the idols that her father had.

6. 33 - Then Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into
Leah's tent, and into the two handmaidens' tent, and
found them not; and, leaving Leah's tent, he entered
Rachel's tent.
34 - But he had taken the idols, and had put them in
the saddle of a camel, and sat on them; and Laban
felt all the tent and found them not.
35 - And she said to her father, Let not my lord be
angry, that I cannot rise up before thee; because I
have the custom of women. And he searched, but
did not find the idols.

7. Judges 17
1 - And there was a man from the mountain of Ephraim whose
name was Micah,
3 – So he returned the one thousand and one hundred pieces of
silver to his mother; but his mother said, I have fully dedicated this
money from my hand to the Lord for my son, to make a graven and
molten image; so that now I will give it again.
4-But he returned that money to his mother, and his mother took
two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the goldsmith, who
made them a sculptured and molten image, and was in Mica's house.
5 – And this man, Mica, had a house of gods, and he made an
ephod and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, to be his
priest.

8. INTRODUCTION
In this lesson, we have two distinct stories that relate living
with idolatry at home. In the first case, we have Rachel,
Jacob's wife, who knew that her husband served the God
of her fathers, and that He was, powerful, invisible and
needed no idols of her image. However, Raquel felt unsure
about her future. Feeling wronged by her father, who did
not give her or her sister Leia any inheritance, she decided
to steal the small statuettes, or her father's idols, which were
the small gods inside Laban's house.

9. The second case is that of Micah, an Ephraimite,
who lived in the time of the judges in Israel, and
who, uniting with the Danites, made idols and built a
sanctuary for them in his house. In this lesson, we
will look at the consequences of idolatry within a
home.
KEYWORD: Idolatry

10. I - THE IDOLS FOUND IN RACHEL'S
TENT
1- The flight of Jacob and his family to the Promised Land.
After many years of work for his father-in-law Laban, having
prospered a lot, Jacob decided to return to the land of his fathers
(Gn 31-3,4) - Due to the resentments that existed between him and
his father-in-law and, seeing no possibility of release to live his own
life, Jacob decided to flee Laban's lands, without saying anything to
anyone. When his escape was discovered, Laban and his sons
decided to go after him to make him return (Gen 31.22,23).

11. 2- Laban discovers the theft of his domestic idols. Laban
was an idolatrous man and had small gods inside his house to
which he prayed and by which he believed he was helped.
They were, in fact, “teraphim” made of wood, stone or clay,
whose images were venerated and adored as amulets for
family and personal protection. Whoever owned them also
had the right to inheritance. When Rachel realized that her
father would not give her any inheritance, she stole his idols
(Gen 31:19). Upon arriving at Jacob's camp, Laban asked him
about his idols and did not find them because Rachel had
hidden them in the "saddle of a camel" and sat on them (Gn
31.34).

12. 3- Raquel uses the lie to hide the idol. Rachel sat on the
idols so that Laban would not find them. She used the
justification that she was in her menstrual period in order
not to get up off the camel and, consequently, for her
father not to find the idols there (Genesis 31-35)- It is clear
that, although Laban accused Jacob of stealing him, it was
his daughter Rachel who stole his idols and therefore
deceived him; and Laban did not find his idols. This
episode generated a great discussion between Jacob and his
father-in-law (Gn 31.36).

13. SYNOPSIS I
Faced with Laban's deceit against Jacob,
subtracting goods from the inheritance
of his own daughters, Rachel stole her
father's idols and lied to cover up her
attempt to take "justice with her own
hands".

14. II – A SANCTUARY OF THE GODS IN THE
HOUSE OF MICA
1- The idolatry and unethical character of Mica
(Jz 17.1-4). Despite a special name meaning “Who is
like the Lord our God?” Micah did not live up to the
importance of the name he had because he did not
honor God in his life. He had a family, although the
biblical account does not mention his wife; his
mother lived with him and was very rich. The people
living in the hill country of Ephraim had corrupted
themselves through idolatry.

15. There was in Israel, in general, a total abandonment
of the commandments of the law of Moses (Jz 8.27)
in which the people of Israel adhered to a religious
syncretism that implied a total apostasy. In addition
to abandoning the law of the Lord, families began to
adopt this religious syncretism within their own
homes, admitting “homemade idols” to which they
worshiped and worshiped with the aim of obtaining
material favors. Moral and ethical values were
abandoned and Mica was the result of this moral
corruption. So it wasn't difficult for him to steal his
own mother.

16. 2- The abomination of Mica (Jz 17.5). Micah
had built a sanctuary for small gods, that is,
“teraphims” in his house. Scripture says, “And this
man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an
ephod and teraphim, and consecrated one of his
sons to be his priest” (v.5). Mica had stolen from
her own mother, without her knowing. He took
with him 1,100 shekels of silver, equivalent to 13
kilos of the metal.

17. Since his mother did not know that it was her
own son who had stolen her, she cursed the
thief (Judg. 17:2). Fearing that she would suffer
from her mother's curse, Micah went to her
house and confessed her sin and fully refunded
all the money: "But he returned the money to
his mother" (Judg. 17.4). Her mother removed
the curse and took some of the money and
gave it to the goldsmith to make carved images
for Micah's house.

18. 3-Mica had a house of gods (Jz 17.5,6). From the
biblical context, Mica's family was Jewish, but, diverted
from fidelity to God, they served false gods represented
by small idols, called "teraphim". Micah and his family
claimed to also be serving the God of Israel. However, in
that historical period of the judges' time, "each one did
what seemed right to him" (Judg. 17:6). On his own, and
after having his “teraphim” at home, Mica also decided to
have an “ephod” made that was used only by the Israelite
high priest, and he gave it to his son, setting him aside to
be a priest in his House.

19. Then a Levite who had nowhere to live appears and
Micah invites him to live in her house and become the
priest of the family, by the God of Israel (Jz 17.9). This
mixture of false deities was present in Mica's house.
Everyone who arrived at his house would find "the god"
they wanted to invoke. Sadly, a man from the tribe of
Ephraim, who was supposed to honor the God of his
people, who delivered him from Egypt, now finds
himself betrothed to the idols of a pagan religion.

20. SYNOPSIS II
Immersed in a period of
abandonment to the Law of God and
religious syncretism in Israel, Mica
commits a series of abominations,
rooted in idolatry and pagan
polytheism.

21. III – IDOLATRY INSIDE HOMES
In both the cited stories, of Rachel and Micah, the
belief in "domestic idols" indicated the strong pagan
influence in Israelite homes. From these two biblical
cases, we are invited to reflect on idolatry today.

22. 1- The domestic idols of the present times. The
apostle John faced in his ministry a problem with
"home idols" of Christian families who had difficulty
abandoning them. Therefore, the apostle advised:
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn 5
21). For a person who does not believe in Christ, the
Christian life is unreal, since what one lives in the
world, one lives by what one sees and feels, and not
by what the Christian life demands. Now idols are
temporary and represent what is false and empty
because they are deceitful.

23. Anything can become an idol at home, for example: a
job, a car, money, a child, a father or mother, a
lifestyle. Now, how to identify idolatry inside and
outside the home? Anything that demands loyalty and
honor above God is idolatry. Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, “an idol is nothing in the world” (1
Corinthians 8:4). Therefore, it is a danger to deify
people, placing them in the position, or above, of
God himself.

24. 2- Identifying modern idols within homes. The
proliferation of “media culture” has entered our homes and,
whether we like it or not, we live with it on a daily basis. The
media, by itself, is neutral, as it is the means by which it
serves society as a communication channel through radio,
television, internet, smartphones, computer networks and
other means. It is a mode of communication that must be
used wisely. However, we cannot be manipulated by it, which
is part of a technological and intellectual world in which we
all live. What we cannot do is make uncritical use of these
instruments. We need to take into account the caution
regarding the danger of the “lust of the flesh, of the eyes
and the pride of life” (1 Jn 2.16,17).

25. 3- We need to react against the enemies of the
family. Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount: “You
are the salt of the earth, and if the salt has lost its
taste, how shall it be salted?” (Mt 5.13). The church is
the salt of the earth and, therefore, it is the only
institution in society capable of preventing the
corruption of our moral and spiritual values. To
preserve the family, attacked by the infectious virus of
the worldly system, it is necessary to break “the
domestic idols” that steal God's place in family life.

26. SYNOPSIS III
We need to combat the “household
idols” of today, as well as any pagan
influence in our homes.

27. CONCLUSION
We need to invest in the family, creating spiritual and moral
barriers within homes to save our children and prepare
them for a healthy Christian life that glorifies God.
Therefore, the idols of today need to be removed from our
midst so that they do not come to steal God's place in our
lives.

28. REVIEWING THE CONTENT
1- Why did Rachel steal her father's idols?
Raquel stole her father's idols because he would not give her an
inheritance and in that culture whoever owned them would be
entitled to it.
2- Mica stole someone from his own family. Who was that
person?
Mica stole her mother.

29. 3- Why did Mica return all the money to her mother?
For fear of suffering from the mother's curse.
4- What were the “teraphim”?
Teraphim were idols made of wood, stone or clay,
worshiped as amulets for family and personal protection.
5- Name three examples of domestic idols of the
present day.
A car, money or a lifestyle.

30. SBS | 2nd Quarter of 2023 | CPAD – Adults –
THEME: FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS –
Overcoming Challenges and Problems with
Examples from God's Word | Sunday Bible
School | Lesson 04: Idols in the Family
Slides prepared by Celso Napoleon