10642. 'Therefore you shall overthrow their altars' means that the evil involved in that type of religion and in the worship springing from it is to be rejected. This is clear from the meaning of 'altar' as the chief representative of the Lord and of worship of Him which springs from good, dealt with in 921, 2777, 2811, 4541, 8935, 8940, 9388, 9389, 9714, 9964, 10242, 10245, and therefore in the contrary sense as that which is representative of idolatrous worship, thus worship springing from evil, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'overthrowing' as rejecting. For of altars it is said that they are to be overthrown, but of evils involved in worship, meant by the altars of the nations, it is said that they are to be rejected.
[2] In this verse altars, pillars, and groves are mentioned, and in general they mean everything connected with idolatrous worship, worship that springs from evil being meant by 'altars', worship that springs from the falsity of evil by 'pillars', and religious teachings that go with them by 'groves'. The reason why they were to be completely banished was that those representative objects were not used to worship the Lord but to worship gods, such as the baals and many others, who had once been ordinary human beings. This worship was devilish and hellish, because worshipping human beings instead of God Himself, who is the Lord, is devilish; for a person is linked to whomever he worships.
[3] The situation is this: If a person is worshipped as a god, anyone who comes from hell is linked to him. This is because belief and love create a link; that is, a belief in what is true and a love of what is good link a person to the Lord, but a belief in what is false and a love of what is evil link a person to hell. For everyone has spirits from hell and angels from heaven present with him; without their presence the person could not live. If someone who was once a human being in the world is worshipped by a person the spirits from hell with that person think that they are the ones who are being worshipped (for everyone in hell wishes to be a god), and these spirits transmit that worship to the hellish community they belong to. To the extent therefore that these are worshipped the angels from heaven depart. As a consequence the person is drawn away into hellish desires, till at length, so far as all the life within him is concerned, he becomes like those spirits; and after death he also comes to be one of them. But when the Lord, who is the God of heaven and earth, is worshipped by a person the angels from heaven who are present with that person arrogate none of his worship to themselves, because they ascribe all the truth that people believe and all the good that they love to the Lord, and none to themselves. Through them consequently the way right through to the Lord Himself is laid open, and He then joins them to Himself in faith and love. From all this it may be recognized how extremely important it is to worship the Lord Himself, who has all power in heaven and on earth, as He Himself declares in Matthew 28:18.
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