Zerubbabel and Joshua answered them. So did the rest of the family leaders of Israel. They said,“ You can’t help us build a temple to honor our God. You aren’t part of us. We’ll build it ourselves. We’ll do it to honor the Lord, the God of Israel. Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us to build it.”
No! But what is sacrificed by those who worship statues of gods is really sacrificed to demons. It is not sacrificed to God. I don’t want you to be sharing with demons.You can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. You can’t have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
Everyone should provide for their own relatives. Most of all, everyone should take care of their own family. If they don’t, they have left the faith. They are worse than someone who doesn’t believe.
Elijah went there and stood in front of the people. He said,“ How long will it take you to make up your minds? If the Lord is the one and only God, worship him. But if Baal is the one and only God, worship him.” The people didn’t say anything.
They carried the ark into the temple of their god Dagon. They set it down beside the statue of Dagon.The people of Ashdod got up early the next day. They saw the statue of Dagon. There it was, lying on the ground! It had fallen on its face in front of the ark of the Lord. So they picked up the statue of Dagon. They put it back in its place.But the following morning when they got up, they saw the statue of Dagon. There it was, lying on the ground again! It had fallen on its face in front of the ark of the Lord. Its head and hands had been broken off. Only the body of the statue was left. Its head and hands were lying in the doorway of the temple.