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"All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces"

Text: Micah 1:7

TEMPLE PROSTITUTION

One of the lamentable realities of idolatrous practices in ancient Israel involved temple prostitution.

“All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the pay of a harlot.”
Micah 1:7

1. “All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces”

a) The idols were essentially “carved images”.

b) These images may represent:

i) Animals on land.

ii) Birds of the air.

iii) Creatures that creep on the ground.

iv) Fish that swim in the sea.

v) Human beings.

c) “Shall be beaten to pieces”

i) Idols were regarded as representing powerful deities.

ii) A great humiliation would occur when these “powerful idols” are “beaten to pieces”.

iii) There may be a special reference to idols made out of metals.

2. “And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire”

a) These were temple harlots.

b) They were part of the worship in these idolatrous practices.

c) They were paid in different ways; cash or kind.

d) But all would be burned with fire.

3. “All her idols I will lay desolate, for she gathered it from the pay of a harlot”

a) Idols were supported by both devotees and temple harlots.

b) God would lay desolate all the idols through the Assyrian empire.

c) Then the idols would not be supported and become desolate (a picture of Samaria’s fate).

4. “And they shall return to the pay of a harlot”

a) The idolatrous shrines would suffer a severe setback when God makes them desolate.

b) Samaria would then become no more than a harlot! Such was the reduction of dignity of Israel!