1- Ancestor worship is a practice that has been prevalent in various cultures throughout history. It involves honoring and revering one’s ancestors, believing that they have the power to influence and bless the living. In the Bible, there are several verses that address the issue of ancestor worship, providing guidance and cautionary tales. These verses shed light on the importance of worshiping God alone and the dangers of idolatry.
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Bible Verses About Ancestor Worship
3- Here are 50 Bible verses that discuss the topic of ancestor worship and its implications:
1. Exodus 20:3-5 – “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…”
2. Deuteronomy 18:10-12 – “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.”
3. Leviticus 19:31 – “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”
4. Deuteronomy 26:14 – “I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.”
5. Joshua 24:14-15 – “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
6. Isaiah 8:19 – “And when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?”
7. Jeremiah 10:2 – “Thus says the Lord: ‘Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them.'”
8. Isaiah 44:9-11 – “All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.”
9. Psalm 106:28 – “Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.”
10. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 – “So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.”
11. 2 Kings 23:24 – “Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.”
12. Ezekiel 20:18 – “But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.'”
13. 1 Chronicles 16:26 – “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
14. Psalm 135:15-18 – “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them!”
15. Jeremiah 2:27 – “Who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!'”
16. Deuteronomy 12:30-31 – “Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.”
17. Deuteronomy 4:15-19 – “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.”
18. Deuteronomy 27:15 – “Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.'”
19. Isaiah 42:8 – “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”
20. Isaiah 48:5 – “Therefore I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.'”
21. Jeremiah 11:12 – “Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble.”
22. Jeremiah 14:22 – “Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.”
23. Jeremiah 32:29 – “The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger.”
24. Leviticus 26:1 – “You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God.”
25. 1 Kings 18:26 – “And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, ‘O Baal, answer us!’ But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.”
26. Isaiah 41:29 – “Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.”
27. Jeremiah 2:11 – “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.”
28. 1 Corinthians 10:20 – “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”
29. 1 Kings 11:8 – “And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.”
30. Isaiah 44:20 – “He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?'”
31. Isaiah 46:6-7 – “Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.”
32. Isaiah 57:5 – “You who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?”
33. Jeremiah 3:9 – “Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.”
34. 1 Kings 14:23 – “For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree…”
35. Hosea 4:12 – “My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.”
36. Jeremiah 17:2 – “While their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills…”
37. Isaiah 9:10 – “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”
38. 2 Kings 17:10 – “They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree…”
39. Ezekiel 8:10-11 – “So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.”
40. Isaiah 65:3-4 – “A people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels…”
41. Jeremiah 10:5 – “Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”
42. Ezekiel 20:31 – “When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.”
43. Jeremiah 19:5 – “And have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—”
44. Jeremiah 44:17 – “But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.”
45. Jeremiah 44:25 – “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm your vows and perform your vows!”
46. Jeremiah 44:19 – “And the women said, ‘When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?'”
47. Jeremiah 44:30 – “Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”
48. Leviticus 20:6 – “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.”
49. Hosea 10:1 – “Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars.”
50. Hosea 13:2 – “And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves metal images, idols skillfully made of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of them, ‘Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!'”
4- In conclusion, the Bible is clear in its stance against ancestor worship and idolatry. It repeatedly warns against seeking guidance from the dead, consulting mediums, or worshiping idols. The verses provided above emphasize the importance of worshiping God alone and rejecting any form of idolatry. As believers, we are called to honor and remember our ancestors, but not to worship or seek their power. Our focus should always be directed towards God, who alone deserves our worship and reverence.