A Bible Study on the Imagination 1 Kings 12:25-28) An idolatrous practice was set up by Jeroboam because he was afraid that

when the Israelites would go up to Jerusalem to worship, they would give their allegiance back to Rehoboam and kill him. Thus, the vanity of this man's imagination, along with his holding a counsel with other people[who I am assuming knew about what Jeroboam was thinking in his heart] is what caused Israel to fall into idolatry. A vain imagination, the desire to remain in power, and fear of death led this man to pervert the worship of God. The chief cause for Israel's fall into idolatry is the contaminating influence of one man who decided to follow the corrupt promptings of his imagination. Jeremiah 17:7 makes it clear that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Therefore, we cannot trust our own hearts for reliable counsel. Unless we have the new heart, the heart that has God's law written within it, we are not safe following its suggestions. Why is it unsafe to follow the promptings of the natural heart? It is because the natural heart is desperately wicked. The Bible makes it clear that the wicked shall perish.1 The man who follows the promptings of his wicked heart becomes wicked himself. Therefore, in the end, he shall perish. There is one Bible story that illustrates God's displeasure with the wicked imagination. In Genesis 6:5, we see that God recognized that man's imagination was only evil continually. Seeing that almost all men on the earth were determined to follow their evil imagination, God sends a flood upon the earth.2 Though God had to destroy many people in Noah's day, the destruction of the wicked is not something in which He delights. A wicked imagination led to the flood according to Genesis 6:5. An evil imagination is something that man has to fight against from his youth. Genesis 9 1 Chronicles 29:18 says that God has the ability to keep certain thoughts within our imagination. Psalm 81:11-12 says that God gave Israel over to the lust of their own hearts because they did not listen to His voice. Jeremiah 7:24 shows the spiritual progression that people make when they follow the imaginations that spring from an evil heart. Jeremiah 9:13-16 shows that forsaking God's law in order to pursue the desires of a corrupt imagination was one of the things which caused God's people to go into captivity. Jeremiah 11:7-13 shows that God sought to work with His people but they ignored Him and went after their imagination which ultimately led them to idolatry. When you follow a corrupt imagination, you become good for nothing. Jeremiah 13:10

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Psalm 37:20 Genesis 6:6-7