Ethical Larceny

Ho 2:8 "For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and
oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal."

Baal doesn't have any corn and wine.  No idol does, for idols are
imaginary gods who are dead things who created and create nothing.
Idols don't have any oil or silver and gold. Any offering made them
must be taken from the gifts of God who created all things.

A woman who would take a fine gift given her by her husband who
loves her and present it to her adulterous lover will be counted foul
and corrupt.  It would be theft of the highest order, base, and repulsive.

So is the one who seeks to endow his idols with moral values. There
is no one more morally dishonest than the atheist who claims to be
moral.  Where do  moral values come from?  From himself? What of
the woman above who might pretend that the fine gift was not given to
her, that she did not receive it from her husband? Does that make her
gift moral?

Moral sense is one of the finest gifts that the Creator gave to the man
He created.  The fact that some faint signs of this are seen in the
animals does not erase the fact that God is the Creator of them, and
leaves some traces of Himself in them, too, that man might learn.
When men turn from their Creator they will do things that even dogs
won't do. A penguin will show signs of missing her dead chick, but
men will kill their offspring without remorse. There is no natural
affection where there is no supernatural, from which it is received.

Can the atheist love his wife?  Of course.  But he does not know, or
admit, that his love is a gift from God that he misappropriates and
gives no thanks.  He will expect his wife to appreciate his love,
however, even though it is stolen goods. Even Solomon, wise in
everything but wives, knew that a good wife is from the Lord. A
devout honest man loves his wife because she is a gift to him from
God. 1Th 5:18 "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Most of all, we should thank God for conscience, without which
man is capable of horrors. 2Sa 22:29 "For thou art my lamp, O
LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness." Pr 20:27 "The
spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward
parts of the belly." The man with a thankful heart to His Creator is
capable of good deeds that even Greek gods could not do.

The withholding of thankfulness to the God who created us sears the
conscience and is the acid that destroys morality and decency.
Rom. 1:21 "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not
as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened."

Jas 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning."

There is much ethical larceny in the modern idolatrous world, as there
has always been.  We even teach our children nowadays [check your
public school] that the first Thanksgiving in America was celebrated
because the Pilgrims wanted to thank the Indians for the harvest.

It is ignorance, of course, but culpable ignorance, ignorance of the
devout nature of the Pilgrim who knew that God was the source of
all their blessings, and were not ashamed of giving Him thanks.