Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Judges

[60 Chicks]

Looking for help on a bible verse - meaning behind the message

Can anyone shed any context behind the following passage, “And they forsook the lord and served Baal and ashtaroth”? I did some research and it was referencing Israel but I’m not sure on the message/reference.

Thanks in advance

[jimwalton]

Contextually and historically, the time of the Judges was a time of spiritual apostasy. Whereas Joshua shows us what it's like when a nation follows the Lord, Judges shows what happens when a nation doesn't;t. It's a book of repeated religious failure. God was faithful to His part of the covenant, but the Israelites were faithless. The leaders were as bad as the people. Yet God repeatedly delivered them to motivate them to come back to Him. In the course of the book we watch the downward spiral as each judge was worse than the one before. The book ends in moral corruption and spiritual deadness.

Judges 2 is fairly close to the beginning of the book, but Israel's apostasy is already apparent. The chapter starts with an affirmation of God's faithfulness, but He will alter the covenant if Israel rejects Him. Israel reacts with some semblance of conscience (Judges. 2.4). They failed to pass on the love of the Lord to their children, however (2.10). The next generation did not follow the Lord and actually engaged in evil (2.11). They turned from serving the Lord to serving the gods of their Canaanite neighbors, Baal. Baal was a storm and fertility god. He was a dying (winter) and rising (spring) god connected with the cycles of nature and the success of the crops. He brought rain and growth, and therefore survival in the agricultural world.

The Ashtoreths were consorts of the Baals. She was fertility goddess and the goddess of war. She is sometimes represented as a tree (Asherah), representing the dwelling place of the deity. At an Ashrerah was often where sorcerers would ply their trade.

It was a horror for the Israelites to trade the true God for these false ones. The chapter gives us a summary (vv. 14-23) of what will be happening in the book.

The message for us is that we should remain faithful to the Lord in all things at all times. There are always consequences for deserting the Lord and His ways, though the Lord is continually working to bring us back into His arms.

[Digital Angel]

Good start - very good even +1. Baal becomes an extension of all things idolatrous. The farm bill, the meat and dairy industry, the fast food industry, the snack food industry, the confection industry, the bottled beverage industry, the coffee industry, the alcohol and tobacco industries, welfare, and school lunch programs are parts of an agriculture 'god'. Then, eating becomes tied to activities - things offered to idols - holiday revelry, sporting events, music and entertainment industry events, going to school, going to church, and etc. This LEVItation of the mind away from the truth, leads to fornication, and that of the spirit, we end up with sexual disease, abortions, illegitimacy, unwanted chillen, adultery, divorce. These are all related to another recent post's question about the counsel of Jerusalem.

Introduction to a deeper study:

https://www.crosswalk.com/family/career/the-real-reason-israel-worshiped-baal-it-wasn-t-just-a-pretty-statue.html

[jimwalton]

I don't agree with your modern perception of idolatry. Idolatry is such an old concept. How do we make sense of it in our era? Typically, when anyone talks about idolatry, they mention anything that are idols in America: money, possessions, sex (porn industry), entertainment and entertainers (movie stars, pop artists, and bands), music, food, drink, alcohol, sport stars, fun things (boating, skiing, etc.), success, accomplishments in any field. You have listed such things: the snack food industry, the coffee industry, etc.

To me, actually, this list is so common and so generalized, it’s meaningless to me. I don’t know about you, but it’s meaningless to me. The logic is, “What are the things we put before God?”

I’m not convinced that was the logic in the Bible. Of course they had money, possessions, sex, food, drink, and entertainment, but none of those things are ever called idolatry in the Bible. Idolatry was something else.

What is it that we depend on rather than God? In what do I put my trust? What do I count on to get me through? What do I count on to help me through life? I say there are 4 things.

1. Education. I think education is an idol, not because you put it in front of God, but because that’s what you depend on to get you through. When you need a job, your good education will get you one. When you have a problem to solve, your good education that taught a few of you how to think will be able to solve it. When you are really really stuck, and really really down, you’ll think your way out of the mess. That’s what I’m talking about. You don’t need to depend on God, or trust in him, because you’re educated enough to take care of it yourself. I'm not saying education is not important, but that people trust IT rather than God. Here’s what I’m saying: Don’t put your faith in your education, lest you say, “My education has produced the good life for me.”

2. Economics. The second thing I think we trust is money. Hey, we’re capitalists. Money can solve anything, right? I’m not saying you treat money like a God (remember). I’m saying that when it comes right down to it, what you think meets your needs is that you have money to buy things that make you comfortable, to buy things that help you solve your problems, and to save your neck when you get in trouble. But read Lk. 16.13. Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be.

3. "The System." Courts, laws, police, policies: our accepted way of doing things. We live in America, and we trust “the system.” We believe in it. If I get in trouble, the system will help me. The system will protect me. The system stops abuses. The system will work. At any time, I can get justice, or help, or protection. And that may be true; it probably is. But that’s not the point. Just like with education and economics: they are good and helpful things, but where do you put your TRUST? Do you trust in the courts, or in God? Who protects you: the military, the police, or God? I think you’d say “God” because you know that’s the right answer, but I think your faith is in the military and the cops. Cf. Ps. 121.1-3. The system is there, and they help you and protect you, but it’s really God.

4. Medication. If you’re depressed, take a pill. If you’re sick, a pill. If you have ADHD, a pill. If you want to be more alert, a pill. If you want better performance, a pill. There’s nothing wrong with taking medicine. Medicine is a good thing. Medicine is a benefit. But in what do you put your TRUST? That’s my point. If you trust in medicine, your trust is misplaced. You USE medicine, but you TRUST God. Cf. James 5.13-15a.

Why do I say these things are idols? Because you worship them? No. Because that’s what you trust to help you when the going gets tough. In the old days, when the crops weren’t growing, who did they trust to help them? When someone was sick? When an army was coming? Idolatry is not when we love something more than God, it’s when we put our trust in something other than God. Therefore, I think that idolatry is alive and well in America, and in the church. I think it’s easy for us to think in natural ways, and to think these things are what are actually making our lives so safe and productive. And they are, but they’re not.

[Christ Alone]

Really good job here!