When Israel, newly released from Egyptian bondage, found themselves without a visible master, they immediately returned to the bondage of calf-worship which they had known in Egypt.1 It is possible that in their waywardness, it was the method of worship rather than the object of adoration which they tended to change. “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” There was at all events some recognition that they had been guided by a mighty Deity, and perhaps they were attempting to serve Him according to the ritual which most attracted them and with which they had become familiar in their past life.
At a later date2 when the generation which had emerged from Egypt had died, their descendants, who previously had only known the pure worship of Yahweh, were introduced to another insidious and attractive mode of service in Baal worship. If we are to understand the reason for Israel’s fall, and at the same time extract a useful lesson from their experience, we must realise that they did not think they were doing anything so incomprehensible as to turn away from the God Who had done so much for them, but that they were turning in distaste from the unattractive ritual of Yahweh worship as commanded at Sinai, and attempting to worship the same great power in the more seductive and pleasing ritual of Baal-Peor. “After all,” they might argue, “‘Yahweh’ is only a name by which we designate the great Deity Who has guided us, and what does it matter if we designate Him ‘Baal-Peor’ as long at it is He Whom we are worshipping?”
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Author: R. Lovelock
Keywords: Baalim, baal, false worship, idols, idol worship, false god, baal peor, baal worship, worship of baal
Bible reference(s): Numbers 22:41, Numbers 25:3, Numbers 25:5, Deuteronomy 4:3, Judges 2:11, Judges 2:13, Judges 3:7, Judges 6:25, Judges 6:28, Judges 6:30, Judges 6:31, Judges 6:32, Judges 8:33, Judges 9:4, Judges 10:6, Judges 10:10, 1 Samuel 7:4, 1 Samuel 12:10, 1 Kings 16:31, 1 Kings 16:32, 1 Kings 18:18, 1 Kings 18:19, 1 Kings 18:21, 1 Kings 18:22, 1 Kings 18:25, 1 Kings 18:26, 1 Kings 18:40, 1 Kings 19:18, 1 Kings 22:53, 2 Kings 1:2, 2 Kings 1:3, 2 Kings 1:6, 2 Kings 1:16, 2 Kings 3:2, 2 Kings 10:18, 2 Kings 10:19, 2 Kings 10:20, 2 Kings 10:21, 2 Kings 10:22, 2 Kings 10:23, 2 Kings 10:25, 2 Kings 10:26, 2 Kings 10:27, 2 Kings 10:28, 2 Kings 11:18, 2 Kings 17:16, 2 Kings 21:3, 2 Kings 23:4, 2 Kings 23:5, 2 Chronicles 17:3, 2 Chronicles 23:17, 2 Chronicles 24:7, 2 Chronicles 28:2, 2 Chronicles 33:3, 2 Chronicles 34:4, Psalms 106:28, Jeremiah 2:8, Jeremiah 2:23, Jeremiah 7:9, Jeremiah 9:14, Jeremiah 11:13, Jeremiah 11:17, Jeremiah 12:16, Jeremiah 19:5, Jeremiah 23:13, Jeremiah 23:27, Jeremiah 32:29, Jeremiah 32:35, Hosea 2:8, Hosea 2:13, Hosea 2:16, Hosea 2:17, Hosea 11:2, Hosea 13:1, Zephaniah 1:4, Romans 11:4, Tobit 1:5
Source: “Baalim,” The Testimony, Vol. 8, No. 86, February 1938, pp. 57-8.
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