baal worship practices in the bible
The longest of the texts deals with the construction of Baal's house on top of Mount apn. This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. In the Bible, Baal is spoken of in a negative light, as an idol and a false god, and is associated with idolatry and paganism. (verses 9-11). He was to be an aid in getting them from their state of being merely "churched" to that of being truly religious and servants of the Most High God. The most prominent idol that they worshiped was Baal. Discovered in a farmer's field in northeastern Egypt, this inscribed monument bears the name of one of the few pharaohs actually named in the Old . Most often, it condemns Baal worship. Sometimes the leadership of the nation of Israel tolerated and embraced the deities of other nations. Join the BAS Library today. Reuben Alcalay, a famous Hebrew lexicographer, stated that Yehoshua is closely related to Let there be So, lets be intellectually honest and start using the proper English translation: Joshua. Horrendous and repulsive aspects of the worship sexual excesses and perversions (Isa. (NASB). Baal worship was the bane of the Ancient Israelites. More than 1400 of her works have been featured in various publications. For a while, both sidesthe Confederate and the Unionaccepted those turncoats and took their information. Adad roughly equates with the later Phoenician storm god Baal, the worship of whom is championed by the nefarious queen Jezebel in the Bible. In spite of the fact that the word is used as the theophorous element in personal names, such as Eshbaal, Merib-Baal, Jerub Baal, it was long believed that the term remained an appellation and did not become a proper name, except in the case of the Mesopotamian Bel and in late theological speculation. El is praised for his wisdom in granting the request since now it is insured that Baal will give his rain in season. The heyday of Baal worship in Israel came in the days of Elijah, when the Phoenician princess Jezebel launched a massive campaign to promote Baal. Omissions? What made the very name Baal anathema to the Israelites was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century bce, to introduce into Israel her Phoenician cult of Baal in opposition to the official worship of Yahweh (I Kings 18). Baal's abode was Mount apn, identified as Jebel el-Aqra ("Mount Baldy") some 30 mi. Baal was the title of the "god" worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. An example of Israel going after Baal leads to their loss of direction and, ultimately, scattering at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. . 6:30; II Kings 16:3233) are associated with him. Baal was a god of prosperity, god of harvest, sex and fertility. The Lord calls for the worship of him and his idols to be uprooted and destroyed, and for the people to turn away from his false . The latest archaeological discoveries shed light on Biblical Sidon and provide a window into the Sidonians polytheistic religion and worship practices during the Bronze and Iron Ages. By the time of the prophet Hosea (mid-8th century bce) the antagonism to Baalism was so strong that the use of the term Baal was often replaced by the contemptuous boshet (shame); in compound proper names, for example, Ishbosheth replaced the earlier Ishbaal. As an example, notice Amos 2:6-7, where Amos chides the Israelites: ". The spectacular victory for Yahwism did not have a lasting effect. In the Aztec religion, life existed before humans, and civilization was built after the destruction of the fourth sun. He wanted people to like him, which is understandable. Val is related to valimai in Tamil. Archaeologists at Sidon have uncovered a 12th-11th-century B.C.E. A series of bad years, which were apparently believed to come in seven-year cycles (cf. Elijah was sent by God, and he was fulfilling the responsibility of a prophet, to prod the people to whom he was sent to their responsibilities. Two practices in particular are mentioned in Scripture. that the southern kingdom of Judah ever had .just like her momma. What is so interesting is that, by verse 35, it is clear God is no longer addressing Himself to the Samaritans, but to Israel: [T]he LORD had made a covenant and charged [Israel], saying: "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; but the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. By submitting to Him, we take a small step in being transformed into what He is. In other words, God is saying that He was driven to defeat and scatter Israel because they were guilty of exactly the same sin as the Samaritans! Your email address will not be published. because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. With the help of the sun-goddess Shapsh, Anath locates the dead Baal, carries him to the height of apn, and weeping buries him with funerary sacrifices. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. . Thus it is clear that Baal, representing the life-giving rains, fluctuates in his ability to withstand the power of Mot, who represents drought, sterility, and death. The Laodicean evaluates himself, saying, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" (Revelation 3:17). To become moral, we must kill our selfish egos through the use and guidance of God's Holy Spirit. It was under the Sol Invictus cult that CHRISTIANITY as a religion BEGAN TO BE ACCEPTED AND GROW, but THERE WAS A BIG PRICE THE EARLY ROMAN CHURCH HAD TO PAY. Usually the storm god is illustrated as a striding human figure, but sometimes he is represented by one of his symbols, such as the bull or leonine dragon. All rights reserved. Their commitment went one way, and then it went the other way. What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt? It may be, however, that these extra Baalim are Baal's attendants, mentioned as the seven or eight lads whom Baal is ordered to take with him in his descent into the netherworld. 3:8; Ps. This chapter reports on the behavior of the people placed in Israel after Israel's conquest and deportation by Assyria between 722-720 BC. A general understanding about the bamah and . How could you worship Baal? But if we dont exercise extreme discernment, we may find ourselves doing the same with modern-day baals. THIS IS A PROFILE OF PRACTICES, DOCTRINES, AND SYMBOLS OF BAAL WORSHIP . Because of their self-absorption, God's "sudden" punishment will stun the people of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, and the other nations of modern Israel, including some members of the true church. What modern-day Baals have we worshipped in place of God? The sum of what Elijah said is actually spiritually dangerous, due to the fact that God is judging. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered!only to go on doing all these abominations? (The suggestion that Jer. In other words, God is saying that He was driven to defeat and scatter Israel because they were guilty of exactly the same sin as the Samaritans! Apostasy is a defection from trutha forsaking of one spiritual approach in favor of another. He could, and did, withhold the rain from one city and lavish it on another (Amos 4:7). For Constantine, the acceptance of Christianity was done solely TO UNIFY TERRITORY, RELIGIONS, AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS. Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. This god also, apparently according to Canaanite lore, defeated El and had associations with the sun and thunder. ed., 1965); H.B. "Whatever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). "like a bird in a tree. So the word Poeni can be rewritten as Peyeni or as Payani or as Payan. The songs of His Temple would ordinarily be happy and joyous songs of praise to God, but He will turn the songs of their templesung to Baal in the name of the Lordto wailing, for the numbers of the dead will be unimaginable. The Israelites "caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger" (verse 17). Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. Or about Yahweh? This is a prophet's job, a hallmark of a prophet of God. Hope Bolingeris an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, and the author 21+ books. The religion of Israel began with a man, Jeroboam I, who changed the true worship of God (I Kings 12:26-33). The Israelites displayed a pandemic failure to love their fellow man. Evil practices never go away. When a person is freezing to death, he feels a pleasant numbness that he does not want to end. The sequel to this action is furnished by the group of texts which recount Baal's confrontations with Mot. None of the foolish practices of the heathen could bring the rains; only YHWH could and did (Jer. That made God so angry that a plague spread through their ranks; Phinehas stood up and pled their case and the . We must understand that our god is not what we say we worship but what we serve. So the word Jezebel finally means one who is a good musician. The name is more likely derived from the god Baal. For example, Christmas and Easter are traditions of men, but they are lies. In a normal good year, when the rains come in due season, there is no hiatus in productivity, for the land yields its increase, the trees produce their fruit, the threshing overlaps, the vintage overlaps the sowing, and there is food aplenty, prosperity, and peace (Lev. 14:13). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. After a sortie against the sea-god, Baal returned to his house and ordered Koshar to install a window; Koshar laughed, reminded Baal of the debate, and complied. In an Akkadian catalogue of Ugaritic deities Baal apn is listed as dIM be-el hurn a-zi, "Storm-God, Lord of Mount azi" (see above; az [z] i being the Hurrian name of Mount apn which survives in the Greek and Latin Kasios/Casius as the name of the storied mountain of the gods). 410; reconstructed text) which after the great "Weather-god, Lord of Mount azi" presents six other "weather-gods," numbered two through seven. If you will not be committed to Him, you are going to die.". This is not brand new, but it is picking up speed. It has been suggested that this clash was indirectly a conflict between Baal and El, with Yamm serving as champion for the venerable El, as the Titans fought on behalf of Kronos in the Greek version of the myth and the stone colossus Ulikummi for Kumarbi in the Hurrian-Hittite version which is roughly contemporary with the Ugaritic texts. So-called from Mount Peor, where this worship was celebrated, the Baal of Peor. Isai is music in Tamil and Vallavi means an expert. Gray, The Legacy of Canaan (rev. Bible Study Hosea Old Testament. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Their spiritual lethargy for the true God made them uncommitted. This connects with the curse of Laodiceanism because God shows in the Laodiceans what can happen spiritually as people increase materially. . The Israelites fell into the worship of this idol(Numbers 25:3,5,18; Deuteronomy 4:3; Psalm 106:28; Hosea 9:10). The proposition for the concept is as follows: The Latins called the Phoenicians as Poeni. * Jesus is a transliteration of the Latin; it is NOT a translation! Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/ggenova. They think that what they are doing is right, but they are deceived. He is a loving Master who only is to be obeyed and servedand only on His terms. He views them as personally rejecting Him and His Word. While it is acceptable to say that it was in what is now Jordan, to point to a particular cave and say, This is it. is ridiculous. In Judah the murder of the queen mother, *Athaliah , and of Mattan, priest of Baal, and the smashing of the altars and cult images in the Baal temple (II Kings 11:18) did not wipe out the cult (II Kings 12:34). Immorality lies in the desire of men to live self-centered lives independent of God, as when Adam and Eve took of the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:1-19). Their reverence for Him was mere intellectual accommodation intended to appease Him. (From Forerunner Commentary). Baal's worshipers appeased him by offering sacrifices, usually animals such as sheep or bulls (1 Kings 18:23). The building materials, gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, were procured and the architect-builder Koshar was invited to dinner and consultation. In the El-Amarna letters Canaanite clients addressed the Egyptian king as "My Baal, my Addu." It may seem easy to point the finger at the ancient Israelites and say, How could you let a bull statue into Israel? The rains were fully controlled by YHWH who called them from the sea and poured them out on the surface of the earth (Amos 5:8b; 9:6b). The word "Baal" derives from the Semitic stem "bel", meaning "lord". The actual worship of Ba'al was carried out in terms of imitative magic whereby sexual acts by both male and female temple prostitutes were understood to arouse Ba'al who then brought rain to make Mother Earth fertile (in some forms of the myth, represented by a female consort, Asherah or Astarte). One idea is that he means, "How long are you going to hop from branch to branch? Child sacrifice was even practiced in the Valley of Hinnom just outside of Jerusalem. Some scholars believe that the Canaanites also sacrificed pigs and that God prohibited his people from eating pork in part to prevent this horrible cult from being established among them. Near Baals temple was that of Dagon, given in the tablets as Baals father. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew baal) meant owner or lord, although it could be used more generally; for example, a baal of wings was a winged creature, and, in the plural, baalim of arrows indicated archers. . Knowledge of Baals personality and functions derives chiefly from a number of tablets uncovered from 1929 onward at Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), in northern Syria, and dating to the middle of the 2nd millennium bce. 27:1). Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which depend on irrigation, the Promised Land drinks water from the rain of heaven (Deut. Sidon is the birth place of Jezabel. Various forms of Baal worship are still going on in the Catholic church; even though these pagan idols were incorporated into Catholicism centuries ago, the worship of the sun still exists to this day. You have a cuddly little Baal idol in your child's bedroom without even suspecting it. All 450 prophets of Baal do not escape the slaughter that takes place after that. In this chapter, the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal have a show-down to prove the power of their God and gods. In the Hebrew Bible, Moloch is presented as a foreign deity who was at times illegitimately given a place in Israel's worship as a result of the syncretistic policies of certain apostate kings. Biblical narrative incorporates tales of Baal worship into the traditions of the wilderness wandering, thus tracing Baal worship to the earliest period of Israel's existence. 10:1113; 14:22). If Baal triumphed, a seven-year cycle of fertility would ensue; but, if he were vanquished by Mot, seven years of drought and famine would ensue. O. Eissfeldt, Beitraege zur Religionsgeschichte des Altertums I (1932); H.L. The Largest Baal Worship Service on the Planet is in America August 27, 2017 by Andy Roman "They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." Daniel 5:4. Sidon's Phoenician Temple. They too had blended the worship of the true God with outright paganism, utterly corrupting the relationship He had established with them. Baal was also worshipped by various communities as a local god. For instance, Hezekiahs son rebuilds the shrines of Baal and the Canaanite goddess Asherah that Hezekiah had torn down: He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble." BAAL-WORSHIP AMONG THE GENTILES.The evidence is hardly of such weight as to justify us in speaking of a worship of Baal. Who were the Sidonians of the Iron Age (c. 1200586 B.C.E.)? It was a corruption of that religion, for the Israelites syncretized that holy way with Baalism and other idolatries.
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