The Moral Decline of Ancient Israel and Baal Worship
In the previous article we looked at what the founding fathers thought concerning the need for a moral people. In this installment, we will look at the ancient practice of Baal worship, the story of Balaam and Moab, and ancient Israel. Why? you might ask… In order to more fully understand the comparison of America to ancient Israel especially as it relates to the moral decline of America, we need to understand what destroyed ancient Israel. The key source of temptation and ultimate destruction was in their failure to observe the 1st Commandment,
You shall have no other gods before Me.
Or in other words, Baal worship. While there are better sources than my writings to understand this, I am providing my own summary for convenience and providing personal insights. Also note, the practices associated with Baal worship can be a bit graphic. I have done my best to cover this topic in a clean and sensitive manner. You can find a great comparison to today here.
Baal
Attributes
Baal was an ancient god, half bull and half man. Considered second only to his father El and primarily associated with agriculture (the economy), the weather, and bringer of life (fertility). Some other forms include lord of good fortune, wealth, village, dwelling, opening, and the palm tree. Baal is also associated with Jupiter and Baal’s female counterpart Ashtoreth with Venus.
Worship
The principal pillars of Baalism were child sacrifice (often the first born being burned alive), sexual immorality -excessive and perverse (including, but may not have been limited to: heterosexual and homosexual), and pantheism (reverence of creation over the Creator). In this manner, children were sacrificed, often simultaneously with the sexual acts occurring near by, in order to assure rain for crops and a large harvest. If pregnancy was undesired homosexual acts were performed. In the case of accidental/unwanted pregnancy, sacrifice was a future option.
Ancient Israel and the story of Balaam
To really understand my concern, a quick word on Baal worship as it pertained to ancient Israel. After fleeing Egypt under the guidance of Moses, the Israelites, being blessed of the Lord, began to conquer the land of Canaan. As they approached the boarders of Moab, the King Balak, called upon Balaam to help save his kingdom from the advancing Israelite’s. The King send word to Balaam asking him to curse a people approaching his land. Balaam went to the Lord to discover the Lords will in this matter. The Lord informed Balaam that he had blessed the people and not to go with the Kings of Moab and Midian. Moab and Midian tried a second time to convince Balaam to come and cures the advancing army, this time when he sought the Lord, the Lord told him he “could” go but do only what the Lord told him. However, going was not what the Lord wanted Balaam to do and we get the story of the donkey and angle found in Numbers 22, 22-35. In the end, the Lord lets Balaam go, but under strict commandments to only say what the Lord tells him to say.
It’s worth noting at this point, King Balak of Moab was a worshiper of Baal. Where-as Balaam appears to worship the true God in heaven.
The story continues. Balaam, with the help of Balak, sets up altars and sacrifices and then seeks the Lords guidance. The Lord tells Balaam to tell Balak that he cannot curse them, instead he provides a blessing. This isn’t received very well by the King. So the King convinces Balaam to try again (anyone else seeing a problem with Balaam’s faith? Keep that thought, we’ll come back to it). The first time Balaam prophicied to the king, it was that the Israelites were a special people, chosen of God. This second time it was that Israel will defeat all it’s enemies. Now this makes Balak is pretty upset with Balaam. Once again he manages to convince Balaam to try again. The third prophecy was a repeat of God’s promise to Abraham found in Genesis 17. After a few more prophecies concerning the future of Israel, Moab, Midian and the surrounding area, Balaam was ready to go, but he still wanted payment. Knowing that the King would not settle for anything less than cursing the Israelites, but knowing this to be against the commandment of God, but also knowing that God would not continue to bless Israel if they did not obey the covenant, he “encouraged” the Moabites and Midianites to temp the Israelites to worship false gods, in this case Baal. The Moabites used sex, food and special ceremonies to attract the male Israelites.
Eventually, Baal worship would take ultimate hold on the hearts of the Isrealites, first with the divided northern tribes, but later with Judah as well. This would lead to the total destruction of the Northern Tribes and the inhabitants being led away by the Assyrians (see “The Harbinger“). It was the custom of the Assyrians, a ruthless hostile nation who would remove captives from their traditional lands in through forced relocation, divide them up among the population of greater Assyria. Later Judah was delivered into the hands of the Babylons. Interestingly, they managed better than their brethren of the north. Babylon took a significant number of the population of the Jews and relocated them to Babylon. However, they were allowed to remain cohesive and after serving their 70 year sentence, permitted by the Lord through the King of Babylon to return. This is the quintessential example of what happens to a covenant nations who turns to Baal worship, or the worship of false gods. One final parting thought, the Lord remembers the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). The Northern Tribes, now called the lost tribes or 10 tribes of Israel will return and receive their inheritance.
In my next article I will look at the idea of America being a covenant nation.