Skip to the beginning of the images gallery

High Place of Idolatry

Name: High Place of Idolatry
Brand: GoodSalt
SKU: abwasOT37
Price: 3.95 USD
Availability: InStock

Product

Image ID

abwasOT37

Description

A stone high place rises on a hilltop as worshipers gather before a towering bull idol. Fire burns on the altar, garlands and fruit offerings line the steps, and figures bow in ritual devotion while others watch from the courtyard. The setting evokes the Old Testament condemnation of Israel’s high places, where unauthorized altars and images drew the people away from covenant worship of the Lord.

The bull form recalls the recurring sin of calf worship and Baal-associated idolatry, where visible power and fertility symbols replaced trust in the unseen God. In biblical theology, the high place becomes a warning against syncretism: worship shaped by human desire rather than divine command. This artwork suits teaching on idolatry, repentance, the prophets, covenant faithfulness, and the spiritual danger of substituting created things for the living God.

Image Details

More Information
Keywords	altar bull idol calf worship false worship high place idolatry
Secondary Keywords	Baal worship covenant warning offerings old testament pagan shrine prophetic teaching worshipers
Tertiary Keywords	ancient worship forbidden altar golden calf hilltop shrine prophets repentance ritual fire spiritual adultery syncretism
Scriptures	1 Kings 12:28-33 2 Kings 17:9-12 Deuteronomy 12:2-4 Exodus 20:3-5 Hosea 8:5-6 1 Kings 12 28 So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. 31 He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. 32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. 33 He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings. 2 Kings 17 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, 12 and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this.” Deuteronomy 12 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. Exodus 20 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,