What Does It Mean to Worship the Starry Host or the Host of the Heavens?

 

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What does it mean to worship the starry host or the host of the heavens?

Zephaniah 1:5

ESV - ⁵ Those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom.

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 Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Mankind has worshiped since ancient times, gods associated with the heavenly bodies—the stars, moon, and sun (Zephaniah 1:5)—and this practice is called “astrolatry.” My own mother practiced this, and always read the Astrology page in the newspapers which were big back then. Once, when she put a plastic idol on the dashboard of her car, and when I was still living with her, I took it down and locked it up in the glovebox. If someone worships the stars, sun, moon, etc., this is polytheism and God hates it (Exod 20:1-5). Mom got saved later in life, fortunately, we think, before getting dementia. Astrology is a horrible sin. Zephaniah 1:5 here pictures “the starry host” (NIV—See also Isaiah 40:26 especially) as “An Army (Host). This type of idolatry is a double whammy as the people, these idolaters, were guilty both of the sins of commission (worshipping idols) and omission (neglecting the Lord).