9:20 presents a parallel is mistaken since the Ugaritic text mentions the sea-god and not Death (Mot) in connection with the window.) In the formative stages of Israels history, the presence of Baal names did not necessarily mean apostasy or even syncretism. The Laodicean evaluates himself, saying, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" (Revelation 3:17). In Ugaritic and Hebrew, Baals epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. Elijah prepared the way for Elisha, who had a double portion of Elijah's spirit and did many more miracles. 30 Verses to Reflect on in the Book of Hebrews. Thus in any year anxiety about the rainfall would be a continuing concern of the inhabitants which would suffice to give rise to rites to ensure the coming of the rains. The Israelites rejected the law of God and relied on the traditions of Gentile nations. After a textual gap, there is a report that Baal's corpse has been found. When religion is ungodly, its power is destructive, and every institution in the nation suffers. Its prosperity played a part in corrupting the Israelites' hearts, which is why Hosea mentions the divided or disloyal heart in context with its bountiful fruit. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. The combined letters o and e is joined to pronounce the sound ye. He was considered superior to his father, El, the chief of the deities. They were afraid of God, but they did not really change their way of life. Baal's sister-consort Anath demanded that Mot release her brother. In the Bible, Baal (also rendered Baal) was an important Canaanite god, often portrayed as the primary enemy of the Hebrew God Yahweh. He began to prophesy in a time of immediate crisis, one that would become far worse before it ever improved. (the Middle Bronze Age). Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have . In the Old Testament, many of the kings and eventually the whole nation of Israel rebelled against God and chose opposing belief systems. ed., 1965); H.B. Drought and the Fall of the Hittite Empire. We must understand that our god is not what we say we worship but what we serve. No doubt, we cant cover the breadth of verses on Baal here, but we should make a note that Baal becomes a big player in the book of Judges and during the time of the kings when Israel appears to succumb most to the foreign pantheons. For those early Hebrews, Baal designated the Lord of Israel, just as Baal farther north designated the Lord of Lebanon or of Ugarit. This shows that the Egyptian Cleopatra had maritime connections with the ancient Kerala Tamils. At Shittim they attached themselves to Baal-Peor, ate sacrifices for the dead, and indulged in sacred sexual orgies (Num. The Hebrew word suggests "smoothness" or "flattering," describing people who "talk the talk" but do not "walk the walk.". Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/ggenova. ; Job 3:8, 7:12, 9:13, 26:1213, 38:811, 40:25). 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. The above comment is by Prof. Abraham Joseph, M.Sc., M.Phil. He is deceived into thinking that his material prosperity proves that God approves of his conduct and attitudes. a little T-shaped mark that stands for the long-A vowel (like a in father). She gives life to 70 other gods in the Canaanite pantheon. As we study the operation of the spirit of Baal in the Bible, one can see the fruit of its operation in the USA.. 18For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. The word bel can be transformed into vel or val. Baal Worship The Battle for the Israelites' Hearts For nearly a thousand years, a battle raged for the hearts of the Israelite nation. The prize of the victory was kingship over the gods and the enthronement ritual guaranteed the natural order of life and the welfare of the society. Most of them were just saving themselves and making themselves comfortable in their situation. Ahaz fostered Baal worship (II Chron. that the southern kingdom of Judah ever had .just like her momma. There was tremendous evil to overcome. In Psalms 48:23, Mount Zion is equated with "the recesses of afon" (the phrase quoted above from Isa. All Rights Reserved. 26:1920). In this regard, Elijah was a type of John the Baptist, and Elisha, a type of Christ. El and Anath mourn violently, mutilating their faces and bodies. 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. 3:10; cf. Photo: Courtesy of Claude Doumet-Serhal. Given Sidons position on the coast, it is not surprising that the storm god is Sidons most important god. Christianity.com is a member of the Salem Web Network of sites including: Copyright 2023, Christianity.com. He takes something loathsome and vile, something that is a direct affront to almighty God, a pagan idol, and turns it into a cute little children's fairy tale, so that you can buy the book, see the movies, get the cuddly toy, and bingo! Asherah, another popular deity in Canaan, was the goddess of motherhood and fertility . Prepare to Meet Your God! Sidon was well connected by trade by the traders of the Pandya kingdom of Tamil Nadu. It is not known to what extent the Canaanites considered those various Baalim identical, but the Baal of Ugarit does not seem to have confined his activities to one city, and doubtless other communities agreed in giving him cosmic scope. He established a feast in the eighth month to replace the true Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh. 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). Baal worship also included, at times, child sacrifice, which we see some Israelite kings engaging with later on. While they gave lip service to the Creator, they adopted most of the Canaanitish religion with its lewd immorality, and in actual practice, patterned their life after it. Further, they "followed idols, became idolaters, and . Jer 32:29. The written form Moloch (in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament), or Molech (Hebrew), is the word Melech or king, transformed by interposing the vowels of bosheth or 'shameful thing'. The Devil is behind a. Does the Bible Mention What to Give Up for Lent? What Tamils are you speaking of? See what over 150,000 subscribers are already receiving each day. "Christian" religions of this world have mixed the traditions of paganism with some of the truth of God's Word. This establishes the fact that the Cannanites (Phoenicians) has connections with the Tamil speaking ancient Kerala mariners. What modern-day Baals have we worshipped in place of God? Ginsberg, Kitvei Ugarit (1936); J. Oberman, Ugaritic Mythology (1948); A.S. Kapelrud, Baal in the Ras Shamra Texts (1952); M. Dahood, in: Studi Semitici, 1 (1958), 7578; N. Habel, Yahweh Versus Baal: A Conflict of Religious Cultures (1964); J. Prepare to Meet Your God! Baal & Asherah. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. But what was its real effect on the participants and the nation? The Bible tells us that there were dire consequences for Israel worshiping a false god (Judges 2). Now another presentation that the Phoenicians who are also connected with the Canaanites had traded with the trading mariners of Kerala, India. 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. In the Bible, Jezebel is notorious for persecuting the worship of Yahweh and for demanding that the Israelites worship Baal. This describes to a T what Israel did then and their descendants are continuing to do today. They were not committed to the side that they were supposed to be on. In another room was a round base that likely supported a wooden pillar. Sidons Phoenician Temple. Recall God's wrath when Aaron made a golden calf at the urging of the Israelites in the wilderness and proclaimed a feast to the Lord (Exodus 32:1-5). Isaiah 14:13 alludes to this divine abode as "the Mount of Assembly in the recesses of afon" (har moed be-yarkete afon), the latter phrase being the equivalent of Ugaritic mrym pn or rrt pn, the height or fastness of apn. Actually, there were two gods which were essentially worshiped the same way, Baal and Ashtoreth. While much about Molech's nature and origin are uncertain, the Bible mentions Molech on eight occasions, providing some context regarding the problems associated with this ancient god. Jun 2. They too had blended the worship of the true God with outright paganism, utterly corrupting the relationship He had established with them. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Besides the names Baal and Haddu, the Ugaritic texts furnish a variety of other titles, such as "Mighty Baal" (aliyn bl) and "Prince, Lord of Earth" (zbl bl ars). guilty of adopting the ghastly Canaanite practice of child sacrifice. Nevertheless, despite the biblical tendency to avoid the use of the word as a proper name, it is now quite clear that by pre-Israelite times the term had become the usual name of the weather-god of Syria-Palestine. This is typical Israeliltish syncretism, but it will not work. Next both Mot and Baal appear reconstituted and reactivated and again in conflict. The word "Baal" derives from the Semitic stem "bel", meaning "lord". God sends a prophet to people who are cold in their relationship with Godspiritually freezing to deaththough they want to stay that way. The spectacular victory for Yahwism did not have a lasting effect. For a while, both sidesthe Confederate and the Unionaccepted those turncoats and took their information. FREE ebook: Israel: An Archaeological Journey. 19 Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Yet if you asked most people who believe and follow this new morality, I suspect few would have ever heard of Baal. Elijah's work was to reveal the true God to Israel in a time of growing national crisis. Baal's house was constructed in an extraordinary fashion. (Iron Age) temple. When the Israelites, following Moses to the Promised Land, were in the vicinity of Peor, some of them fell into idolatry and worshiped Baal Peor. In exchange, they would offer information about their unit. What the Bible says about Baal Worship ( From Forerunner Commentary ) 1 Kings 12:26-33 The religion of Israel began with a man, Jeroboam I, who changed the true worship of God. You have a cuddly little Baal idol in your child's bedroom without even suspecting it. Today, some evangelicals attempt to prepare the people for what is to come, but their teaching is a mixture of right and wrong. ( The first is the Assyrian crisis, discussed here.) This is not brand new, but it is picking up speed. This god also, apparently according to Canaanite lore, defeated El and had associations with the sun and thunder. In Canaan, however, when the solar theology had absorbed the older beliefs, Baal, passing into a sun-god and the goddess who stood at his side becoming a representative of the moon--the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun- -Ashtoreth came to be regarded as the consort of Baal and took the place of the solar goddesses of Babylonia. Those familiar with the Biblical text will recall that Sidon was an influential, wealthy Phoenician city when the kings of Israel and Judah ruled during the Iron Age. One idea is that he means, "How long are you going to hop from branch to branch? In Hosea 10:2, God charges Israel with having a divided heart. A frequent epithet is "Cloud Rider" (rkb rpt) which has an almost identical parallel in Psalms 68:5. As such, Baal designated the universal god of fertility, and in that capacity his title was Prince, Lord of the Earth.