Why you should be made to care.
The one sin that permeates throughout the Bible is that of idolatry.The reason is that in the Bible idols either represented or are believed to be actual demonic beings who add to evil and deception in the world.
So it's important to know the true origins of idols, aka demons.
Biblical etc., sources
Many ancient extra-biblical Jewish sources trace their origins to the event described in Gen 6, when the sons of God (evil angels) procreated children with women.The Bible calls them Nephilim, aka Giants in the LXX.
They are described as an unnatural mixing of angel and human beings whose tremendous stature, strength and savagery threatened creation itself.
That's one of the reasons why God had to flood the whole of creation in order to stop their insatiable evil.
But the flood did not totally destroy them, according to Gen 6:4a, NLT:
“In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth.”
Now this could either mean that there was yet another outbreak after the flood, i.e., another wicked angel intrusion, or, as another theory posits, those Nephilim-Giants were allowed to survive the flood as disembodied, unclean/impure spirits called the rephaim.
(Perhaps as further punishment for the seriously supernatural evil they had unleashed.)
Whatever the case, we do know that the Hebrew name rephaim appears throughout the Bible as a general designation of the spirits of the dead or shades inhabiting the underworld, Sheol.
- Psalm 88:10b: “Do the rephaim rise up to praise You?”
- Job 26:5-6: “The rephaim tremble beneath the waters and their denizens. Sheol is naked before Him..."
“The Giants wail under waters, and they that dwell with them (the spirits of the dead).”
- Proverbs 9.18: “He does not know that the rephaim are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol” cp. Proverbs 21:16.
NOTE: bastard = unlawful, illegitimate children, I.e., transgressing the legal, legitimate boundaries God had set for each category of being.
The same name appears in the “Book of the Watchers” (1 En 10:9) where these bastard spirits are also simply called "spirits" or "demons."
Like the biblical account these works describe them as categorically evil, an unnatural and illegitimate mixing of humans and angels (1 Enoch 15.4, 8; 16.1).
And like Gen 6 their sole purpose was devoted to destruction and debauchery.
They also describe how after the Flood God allowed them to continue to exist as disembodied spirits who torment humanity.
In and out of the Bible they are said to influence people into impure practices like idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder.
1 Enoch 19:1-2
Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits [their children?] assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgement in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of.
- Also see: The Book of Jubilees 5:6; Wisdom of Solomon 14:6.
Other category of demons are associated with the rephaim.
These are said to inhabit barren, isolated wastelands of idolatrous cities like Babylon.
Isaiah 13:
20 She [Babylon] will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
21 But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses.
Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats [seirim, Lat. satyrs] will leap about.
22 Hyenas will howl in its fortresses, and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces. Babylon’s days are numbered; its time of destruction will soon arrive.
For more:
- He-goats/hairy ones, aka satyr (seirim, Lev 17.7; 2K 23.8; Isa 13:21; 34:14);
- Demons (shedhim); gods (elohim, Deut 32.17);
- Idols, lords (’elilim, Ps 96.5; “demons” LXX).
So what?
In his follow up letter to the church at Corinth Paul writes instructions on how to deal with a repentant Christian sinner.
2Cor 2 NLT
9 I wrote to you as I did to test you and see if you would fully comply with my instructions.
10 When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too.
And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit,
11 so that Satan will not outsmart us.
For we are familiar with his evil schemes.
There's only one way to become familiar with the schemes of Satan and that is by knowing the truth about the origin of evil and how it's intrinsically tied to Satan and his angels.