Psalm 74:7-8 KJB
When the Babylonians conquered Judah, they burned the Temple of God in Jerusalem and all of the houses of worship in the land. God allowed His Temple, although it was a great work of art, to be destroyed because evil had misused it by putting idols into it to be worshipped. The Babylonians also burned all of the synagogues because they thought that that would put an end to Judaism. Even today, evil humans think that they can destroy Christianity by burning churches. But God does not reside in houses of worship. He lives in the hearts of His believers. Psalm 51:10-11 (KJB).
The Babylonians deported to Babylon many Jews who worshipped idols, and they also deported many Jews who believed in God and worshipped Him. Over some time, God allowed the Persians to conquer Babylon. Persian law tended to be more tolerant than Babylonian law. So, after 70 years in exile, a Persian king named Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple. Ezra 1:1-4 (KJB). Most of the Jews who returned to Jerusalem were those who had remained faithful to God and still worshipped Him. Those Jews who worshipped idols remained in Babylon because they had become prosperous there. For centuries, idol worship had plagued the Jewish people, but God used the Babylonians to purify His people when mostly faithful Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild God's Temple. Although since that day, many Jews have become faithless and even atheists, very few Jews have returned to direct idol worship.
Idol worship and child sacrifice indicate the depths of human depravity. God informs that idol worship is vanity which means both emptiness and pride. Isaiah 44:9 (KJB). God has even said that vanity is "less than nothing" which can only mean an absolute nothingness. Isaiah 40:17 (KJB). One does not have to have an idol in his house to practice idolatry. Idolatry is the attitude that one no longer needs God. One believes that one can create a good and prosperous life for oneself without God's love and care. The atheistic communists believe this. But idolatry only leads to inner feelings of a vast emptiness. Romans 8:20; Ephesians 4:17-18 (KJB).
Humans have this feeling of vanity because the Devil injects spiritual death into them the moment that they sin. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:15 (KJB). But God creates humans to be good and creative, and God can never lose anything He has ever created. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:26-27; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8 (KJB). Humans do not become willingly vain. They do not deliberately seek vanity. Humans become vain when they fall into sin because of a weakness in their free will. The Devil injects vanity into humans which can cause them to become vain deliberately. God can never lose the good and creative natures that He creates humans to be. God has subjected all humans to the hope that He can save them from eternal death. Romans 8:20 (KJB). God knows exactly how to use human free will to cause all of His living humans to choose to return to faith in Him as their Savior. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). The Devil thought he could use the weakness of human free will to utterly destroy the human race forever, but God turned free will into an eternal strength. God can save by His grace humans who believe that the shed blood of Christ can cleanse them of all sin and evil, and He can also provide a lesser form of salvation by the use of His fiery wrath against evil. Matthew 26:28; II Peter 3:9-13 (KJB). The Old Testament sin offerings and the burnt offerings symbolize these two forms of salvation. Genesis 3:20-21; Genesis 8:20-21 (KJB). God will save and recreate His entire creation, including all of His living humans, in the end of the world. Romans 8:18-25; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB).
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