For the past few months I've been doing a video series bible study taught by Ray Vander Laan, an incredible Christian historian and teacher, who teaches on the kings and prophets of Israel. And the coolest thing about it is that he teaches his lessons from the actual sites in Israel where a lot of Old Testament stories took place. It's given me so much more of a historical and socio-economic context to the circumstances surrounding these stories.

And the further I go into this study, the more I realize just how rebellious and unfaithful the Israelites were. They were deliberately choosing to worship idols when they knew it was wrong and against God's Word. Like I knew they were rebellious, but I didn't know they were THAT rebellious and wicked. Countless accounts are written in 1 & 2 Kings about unfaithful kings who worshipped Baal and even built altars to these idols.

In 1 Kings 16, it says that Omri walked in the way of Jeroboam and did more evil than any other before him. In 2 Kings 10 it mentions how Jehu also did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam. And so did Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Zechariah, Menahem, Pekahiah, and then Ahab. None of these kings turned from the sins of their forefathers. They allowed the generational curses and sins to be passed down to them and continued walking crooked paths.

How God could be so patient with His people is amazing! I read through some of these passages and the written accounts of these kings and I think, "man...that's horrible." But I'm not so sure that on a heat level I'm that much better. I too struggle with an idolatrous heart, but it's just a little bit harder for me to see.

Anyways, I want to get on with it and share with you something that really struck me about all this...specifically about the whole notion of Baal worship that the Israelites so easily fell into.


Tel Megiddo


































These are pictures I took on my recent trip to Israel back in March with my friend, Kevin (bassist for blue sky nine), before all this crazy bombing started happening over there...a topic for another day.

What you are looking at is a picture of a religious altar that was found at tel Megiddo in Israel by the Jezreel Valley. It was believed to be a religious altar because of all the animal bones that they found around this area. That led them to believe that there were ritualistic sacrifices made here.

Check out this short little video clip that gives you a better view of what tel Megiddo looked like and the Jezreel Valley that it overlooked as well:



I know that for myself, often when I think of Baal worship, I think it's the most repulsive thing in the world and so obviously wrong. But the scary thing I found is that Baal worship actually makes sense to me. There's an actual logic to it and I can see why the Israelites found it so attractive.

This is how Ray explains it:

The struggle for Our Hearts and Minds
      When the Israelites-nomad Hebrews-entered Canaan, they discovered a lush land of farmers, not shepherds. The Canaanites attributed this fertility to their god, Baal. Because people of that time thought of their gods in terms of a specific place, the Israelites wondered if their God, whom they perceived to be the God of the desert wilderness, was still their God in the vastly different land of Canaan. The Israelites were wondering, Can Yahweh, who led us out of Egypt and through the wilderness also provide fertile crops in Canaan, or do we have to honor Baal? Or do we honor both?
      An intense spiritual battle began for the hearts and minds of God's people. Over and over again in the Old Testament, we read about the Israelites' attraction to and worship of Canaanite gods, God's disciplinary response, the people's repentance, and God's merciful forgiveness. Then the cycle would repeat itself.

See, because the generations before that were disobedient all died off during that 40-year period of wandering in the desert, the new generation of Israelite people only knew God as a desert God. They wondered if He would be applicable to farm culture and lush farm land.

As the quote says, they started looking around them and thinking, why are these people here so prosperous? And they attributed that prosperity to the gods that the people of Canaan worshipped. It makes sense, right? I told you so!

And that in a sense is so similar to us! We look around us in the world and think, why are all the worldly people rich and blessed and have everything that they want? They seem so happy, their quality of life is better, they have a nicer home, nicer car, etc. If I just work those extra hours, I can get that same quality of life and have it made. I'll get what I want and be prosperous.

THAT'S US! THAT'S WHAT WE AS CHRISTIANS DO! We compromise and bow down to the Baals in our culture!

Here's more...

Baal was the one god of the ancient Near East who supposedly "won out" against the other gods of the time, the creator-god deity, El. He also defeated the deities of the god of the sea, god of storms, as well as rain, thunder, lightning, and the god of death.

In Ray's synopsis of Baal,

his victory over death was thought to be repeated each year when he returned from the land of death (the underworld) and brought rain to renew the earth's fertility.
      Hebrew culture viewed the seas as evil and destructive, so Baal's promise to prevent storms and control the sea, as well as his seeming ability to produce abundant harvests, made him attractive to the Israelites. It's difficult to understand why Yahweh's people failed to see that He alone had power over these things. Possibly their desert origins led them to question God's sovereignty over fertile land. Maybe, however, the sinful pagan practices attracted them to Baal.

So instead of trusting that God was still Lord over everything and the source of all that they needed, they were influenced by the culture around them, instead of the converse of being a redeeming influence on the culture that they entered into.

And the reason why Baal worship was such a detestable thing to God was because of the child sacrifice that they performed in order to gain personal prosperity. And the sad thing was that the tribe of Levi was appointed especially to take care of the firstborn of the Israelites. So in reality, they had no excuse for offering their children (Numbers 3:11-13). God hated child sacrifice, especially among those who were called to be His people.

Baal actually had a female counterpart, named Asherah, who was worshiped in various ways, including ritual sex. It was believed that she was actually Baal's mother, but also his mistress...another detestable practice of the Baal fertility cult was the idea of "sympathetic magic"-they believed they could influence the gods' actions by performing the behavior they wished the gods to demonstrate.

And it was believed that if Baal and Asherah had sex, it would produce fertility for the land. So because of this, the worshipers would engage in immoral sex in order to cause the gods to join together and thereby ensure good harvests. And this practice is what became the basis for religious prostitution. Thus God's incredible gift of sexuality within the bonds of marriage was perverted and became obscene public prostitution. No wonder God's anger burned against His people and their leaders.

To bring it home, Ray asks how the culture back then is similar to our culture today. Do we sacrifice our children for prosperity? Have we perverted God's good gift of sexuality and used it for something other than the sexual union within marriage? Absolutely

There is abortion (I don't want to get into a political debate here), broken homes, and a very high divorce rate (almost higher amongst Christians), pornography, child prostitution, etc. Our culture really isn't all that different from back then. And I sit on my high and holy horse, thinking Baal worship is the most ridiculous thing in the world to get involved in; judging the Israelites like I'm so much better.

I'm not saying that I am involved in all those things and neither am I saying that Christians today are, but the cultural parallels are almost scary. It's frightening to think how similar they are. Fathers sacrifice time with their child because they want to buy the nicer car. And to do that, they've gotta work the extra hours. "Sorry, son...daddy's gotta work extra late today." It's no wonder why families are falling apart all around this country.

We are so driven for ambition, materialism, and personal wealth, that we'll do anything to get it. We lay our family on the line, our own personal convictions and faith. We are people of compromise and it is detestable in God's sight.

I know...pretty heart-wrenching, eh?

What do you do with all that? Well, Ray challenges us with the question of how can we as Christians be a redeeming influence on the culture around us? How can we live out our God-given purpose to touch the world for Jesus Christ? And what specific steps might God be calling you to take in order to impact your culture for Him, so that the world will continue to know that God is God?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, friends...thanks for reading!

Hope you were blessed :)

This entry was posted by Christopher Wu, on Friday, August 18, 2006. You can leave your response.