“They abandoned ADONAI, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made ADONAI angry.”-Judges 2:12
Without a doubt, Judges 2:12 is one of the most tragic verses to be found anywhere in the Scriptures.
We’re told Israel abandoned the Lord who had rescued them from bondage in Egypt and went whoring after other gods.
But here’s the thing.
Israel didn’t think they had abandoned God.
Why?
Because they still held a place in their worship for Him.
The problem was they were sharing that place with other gods and to the Lord that was an abomination.
The Israelites didn’t see anything wrong with worshipping a combination of Baal and Hashem.
But here’s the thing and we should all take note of this.
What we think and our standards don’t mean diddly squat.
It’s the Lord’s standards and what matters to him that counts.
Again, this situation draws a painful and precise parallel to the modern gentile church in our day and age.
And this parallel is more literal than you think.
Heck, I’ll prove it to you right now.
The pagan gods Israel who surrounded Israel went by many different names.
Understand that when the Bible says “Canaanite god”, that’s just a generic term that could be referring to any one of the deities of the various nation states and tribes all ensconced inside the borders of Canaan.
Let’s take a look at what some of the names of these pagan gods were and see if any of them sound familiar to you.
BA’AL became HADAN in Syrian.
DAGON was Philistine for EL.
MOT was the Assyrian god who ruled the underworld
YAM referred to Neptune, the god of the oceans.
All of these gods were part of the Babylonian mystery religions.
However, there is one name in particular I think you’ll be quite familiar with…especially if you attend a Christian church.
ASTARTE was the Sidonion name for the fertility god ASHTORETH.
And EOSTRE was the Anglo-Saxon name for ASHTORETH.
Now here’s where things get sticky.
Do you know what the English name is for ASHTORETH?
It’s EASTER.
Uh oh, we’ve got a problem here Houston.
God’s reaction to Israel following after other Gods was one of intense anger.
So why do you think it would be any different today?
In fact, when I say Israel followed after other gods, the reality was more literal than you think.
Because in those days, an image of a god was held up and carried by the pagan priests who led what could best be described as a parade of people who were marching behind it.
In other words, the people were literally “following after other gods” in honor of that god.
So when the Scripture says the people “followed after other gods”, to folks back in ancient times, it painted a very real picture of what was going on.
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