Garden of the Gods: Gardens of Idolatry

Israel was guilty of using gardens for worship of pagan gods and improper worship of Yahweh Himself:

Green trees and watered gardens were rare and special places among those living in (semi-)arid conditions like those found in the ancient Near East. Ashurnasirpal II boasted of collecting and planting many exotic trees and plants in his garden in Calah/Nimrud, while Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was proud of his terraced (“hanging”) palace gardens, which were among the seven wonders of the ancient world. These were not only places of relaxation but also of worship, since gardens, sacred trees, and groves were important in Canaanite and Mesopotamian popular religion. Israel herself is seduced by this cult of life and fertility and condemned for succumbing (57:5).
Trees even become objects of worship either in their own right or as symbols of a deity. Trees were also associated with the goddess Asherah, whose cultic tree symbol is associated with Yahweh in an enigmatic inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud, an Iron Age II site in Sinai: “Yahweh of Samaria and his asherah.” This clearly illuminates syncretism among the Israelites, whose worship in gardens (Isaiah 65:3; 66:17) and groves God will turn to nothing by withholding water from them both (Isaiah 1:30). [Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary]

You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen. You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. (Isaiah 1:29,30,NIV)

…a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick. (Isaiah 65:3, NIV)

Trees are marvelous creatures but not gods. They are marvelous because God made them marvelous. But people want an object they can see, taste, and touch to worship. They desire the tangible above the intangible. Yahweh’s second command, however, is “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below” (Exodus 20:4).

We sinfully take a creation of God and turn it into our altar. As Paul says in Romans 1:

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:21-23, NIV)

Sinner, will you refuse to come to God on His terms? Will you shape Him in your own image or an image of creation? Will you continue to believe that you know best who He is and how to worship Him?