The Relative Worthlessness Of Idolaters

According to the summary in 2 Kings 17:7-23, God allowed the Assyrian conquer and deportation of the Israelites due to their many sins.  They worshipped other gods (Exodus 22:20, Deuteronomy 13:1-10, 17:2-7), built high places (Deuteronomy 12:2-4), installed Asherah poles and sacred stones (Deuteronomy 16:21-22), worshipped idols (Exodus 20:4-5, 22-23, Deuteronomy 4:15-19), sacrificed their sons and daughters in fire (Leviticus 20:2-5, Deuteronomy 18:10), and engaged in sorcery (Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10-12).  2 Kings 17:16 says they forsook all the commands of Yahweh, though not every individual would necessarily have committed all possible sins themself.

Thus, though 2 Kings 17 does not list moral wrongs like murder outside of pagan human sacrifice (Numbers 35:31), rape (a Deuteronomy 22:25-27), slave trading (Exodus 21:16), deceptive trade (Deuteronomy 25:13-16), physical abuse (Exodus 21:18-19, 22-27), the mistreatment of foreigners (Exodus 22:21, Leviticus 24:22), and so on, it does describe Israel as being permeated by evil.  However, though it is not the worst of sins, this summary of Israel's moral descent singles out idolatry in a crucial way.  2 Kings 17:15 says that the Israelites followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.

This statement is also found in Jeremiah 2:5.  Here, God introduces a series of comments that idols and thus by logical extension idolatry is worthless (2:8, 11).  In other passages of the Bible, idols, idol worship and the associated philosophies, and idolaters are called "worthless" or "nothing" (Isaiah 44:9-10, Jeremiah 8:19, 10:3-8, 15:22).  What might strike many moderners who identify as Christians as odd is that these statements are sometimes made of the people who believe in or practice idolatry as well as the objects they erroneously treat as divine.  Since people are partly defined by what they do, this should not be particularly shocking or even surprising, except for those who have just left the shadow of assumptions and had been told that the Bible says otherwise, failing to rationalistically investigate.

Without being fully worthless as human image-bearers of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2, 9:6), with all forms of mistreatment as specified in Mosaic Law still being immoral when done to them (such as the unjust torture of Deuteronomy 25:3), such people are nonetheless, to a relative extent, worthless.  If morality exists, people are no better than their worldviews and moral character; it would be impossible for someone who intentionally, rationally pursues reason, truth, and righteousness to not be superior to someone who does not.  On any moralistic worldview that does not contradict logical axioms and other necessary truths (for moral superiority is by necessity metaphysical superiority), it could only be the case that someone who disregards or opposes truth and morality is to varying degrees inferior to someone who does not do such things.

Hoshea is listed as the final king of the monarchy in Israel (2 Kings 17:1-6), at this point separate from the kingdom of Judah--2 Kings 18 details how Hezekiah takes the throne of Judah during the reign of Hoshea, which lasts only nine years, yet Hezekiah is still reigning 14 years later.  Unlike how God pulls away his protection from Israel, he enables Hezekiah to rebel against the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:5-7).  Idolatry is among the numerous wrongs of Israel that leads them to this state of vulnerability before a pagan ruler, for they had become worthless in a sense like the idols they worshipped.  Repeated in the book of Jeremiah, this is a vital part of the Biblical doctrine of what idolatry renders people and acknowledgement of the fact that the existence of morality would necessitate that people of differing moral character could not possibly be equal.