Now look at verse 7, it says here, neither be ye idolaters as were some of them as it
is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Now this is not referring to the 4th of July picnic where we ate kabobs and hamburgers
and bacon wrapped shrimp and the like and jello watermelon, where's Mike?
You know Mike's crazy, this guy grows crazy stuff in his backyard, watermelon, jello watermelon
okay if you don't believe me I'll show you the pictures afterwards.
This is not referring to the fact that they ate, drank and then they rose up to play scrabble
or something.
Okay, go to Jeremiah chapter number 3.
The action of playing is actually in context is referring to idolatry okay.
Look at Jeremiah chapter 3, if you remember actually the first time that the Bible mentions
for example playing the harlot is referring to a woman who's just basically acting like
a whore, she's playing a whore.
And spiritually speaking even in the Old Testament God uses that illustration for the nation
of Israel when they got involved in idolatry.
Okay look at Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse number 1, they say if a man put away his wife
and she go from him and become another man's shall he return unto her again shall not that
land be greatly polluted but thou has played the harlot with many lovers yet return again
to me sayeth the Lord lift up thine eyes unto the what high places and see where thou
has not been lying with in the ways has thou sat for them as the Arabian in the wilderness
and thou has polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
So we see in context playing the harlot or playing the whore is in context with the high
places, idolatry, that's how God viewed it as okay.
Look at, skip down to verse number 6, it says the Lord said also unto me in the days of
Josiah the king has thou seen that which backsliding Israel had done?
She has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree and there hath played
the harlot.
Verse number 8 and I saw one for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery
I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement yet her treacherous sister Judah
feared not but went and played the harlot also.
So over and over again we see that concept of someone who's playing the harlot is someone
who's basically committing idolatry.
Well that's what Israel did, okay, in Exodus and in Numbers they were rising up to play
the harlot, they were eating and drinking and we see that multiple times in the Old
Testament where they were worshipping the golden calf, okay, they had all these false
ideologies that they obviously had adapted from Egypt.
Go to Hosea chapter 4.