Baal was one of the chief gods of the Canaanites and was worshipped as a god of fertility.[1] The false teaching centered on the belief that this Canaanite deity brought fertility to crops and families.[2] This doctrine proved especially seductive because it included the promise of agricultural, animal, and human fertility through sacred prostitutes, sexual activity, and imitative magic to insure fertility in every area of life.[3]
The practices
associated with Baal worship were deeply immoral. Corrupt sexual practices,
including temple prostitution and orgies, were associated with Baal worship.[1] More disturbingly, Baal worship involved
ritual prostitution, self-mutilation, and the sacrificing of children.[4] The rituals of Baal worship included sexual
intercourse, considered an imitative act that invited the rain to fertilize the
ground.[3]
The theological
error was fundamentally one of syncretism—mixing worship. Priests from
Judah who were supposed to serve the LORD adopted and mixed the worship of Baal
with the worship of the LORD, guilty of compromise and syncretism, a mix of
worshipping the LORD along with false gods.[1] Rather than exclusive devotion to God,
Judah’s people attempted to hedge their bets by appealing to multiple deities.
The combination of sexual immorality and the supposed benefits of worshiping an
agricultural god like Baal proved a constant temptation once introduced to the
people of Israel, and from these early days onward, Baal worship continued to
plague the nation until after the exile in Babylon.[3]
God’s response
was uncompromising: the LORD declared that He would cut off every remnant,
every sign and memory, of Baal from the land.[1]
[1] Leadership
Ministries Worldwide, Habakkuk–Malachi, The Preacher’s Outline
& Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2009), 106.
[2] Stephen R. Miller, Nahum-Malachi, ed. Max Anders, Holman Old
Testament Commentary (B&H Publishing Group, 2004), 97.
[3] Lamar Eugene Cooper, Ezekiel, The New American Commentary
(Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 17:25–26.
[4] Ron Rhodes, The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 292.
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