The inevitable result of Idol worship

The word of the Lord came to me: You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds. You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself. You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your day near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a disgrace before the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

 The princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbaths. In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst.In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women in their menstrual periods. One commits abomination with his neighbour’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter. In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest, and make gain of your neighbours by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the LordGod.

 See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made, and at the blood that has been shed within you. Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you. And I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

                                                                                Ezekiel 22

Idol worship, blood shed, greed, violence with the objective of material gain, all of it seems to be part of the same package. Denounced in the strongest possible terms. The inevitable result of idol worship may be the defacing of the human image. Everyone becomes an object to manipulate. How much worse when we who wear the name of Christ, who profess to worship God, secretly worship idols like Israel in the wilderness, leading us to this same violence, treating others less than human. We who trust in God trust him to give us what we need. We see our mission as taking care of creation, most especially, others who bear God's image. Therefore, there is no thought of our own gain, and if we follow the steps of Jesus, there is no thought of our own security, but rather our thought is to love, to look after the interest of others to the point and at the point of our own self sacrifice.

Trust Him and love. It's the design of the universe.