The West, like ancient Israel, has largely turned their back on the true God and followed after idols.
As mentioned earlier, these instructions on how to be led by godly judges, kings and priests in Deuteronomy 16–18 are interspersed with the grim alternative—returning to an enslavement worse than the tyranny of Egypt. Anyone who has visited idolatrous lands can see it on every hand. In India, 3,000 children a day die of starvation—because 33 million gods demand their daily food. Meanwhile in the U.S. there are 3,000 abortions per day, babies offered to the goddess of lust. Idols are the things we give our hearts and minds and energy to, instead of serving the Lord. It can begin in a way that seems so innocent: “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God” (16:21). What’s wrong with planting trees? Not a thing—if it’s there to express the glory of God. Ah, but it’s only a step from worshiping the Creator to worshiping the creation, a false religion rife in our lands. Isn’t that the warning in Romans 1? “His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” but soon they “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (vv 20, 25). This is also true of the person who follows astrology, “who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven” (Deut 17:3). Also it is an abomination to engage with one who “practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead” (18:10-11). As people turn from the true God, they seek meaning, guidance, and control over life’s challenges through such abominations. “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Cor 10:14).