“Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.” (vv.11-13)
Even in the days of Joshua Israel did not fully possess what they could have in the Promised Land. Yet in that time they remained faithful to God and they did not worship the idols of the Canaanites. After the death of Joshua, they fell into the worship of these grotesque idols, Baal and Ashtoreth.
The Canaanite idol Baal was an attractive rival to Yahweh because he was thought to be the god over the weather and nature for the Canaanites; he was essentially the god of agricultural success. In an agricultural society people served Baal because they wanted good weather for abundant crops and flocks. One might say that the bottom line with Baal was the bottom line; he was effectively the god of personal wealth.
The Canaanite idol Ashtoreth was an attractive rival to Yahweh because she was thought to be the goddess of love, sex, and fertility. She was usually honored with the practice of ritual sex with a priestess-prostitute. One might say that the bottom line with Ashtoreth was sex and love.
It is strange that anyone would want to trade a personal, real, living God for a false god that is the figment of man’s imagination. Yet there is something within man that is afraid of the exact God we need; we would rather serve a god of our own creation than the real, living God whom we can’t control. Therefore, the gods man creates are the gods wanted by his sinful desires.
God made it clear that Israel’s pursuit of these gods was nothing less than forsaking the LORD God of their fathers. Yet in all likelihood Israel did not see their idolatry as forsaking God; they probably just thought they were adding a few gods along side of the God of their fathers. Nevertheless, the God of Israel is a jealous God who demands exclusive worship.
Chapter 2 gives us a clear picture of God’s anger in action as He deals with the disobedience and sin of Israel (which was even more offensive to God because it was done right before His eyes). To give an extreme example, it is bad enough for a married person to commit adultery; but to commit adultery before the very eyes of one’s spouse would be especially offensive.
This response of God to the unfaithfulness of Israel was no surprise. He specifically promised that He would do this in the covenant He made with Israel, which was characterized by blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (as in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28). So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them: The purpose of all this was so that when Israel was greatly distressed, they would turn their hearts back to LORD. God’s goal wasn’t punishment in itself, but repentance (v.14).
While divine wrath is real, it is never petty or vengeful - traits which so often characterize human expressions of anger. Jesus displayed the righteous anger of God on several occasions, but not to avenge a personal wrong or to justify Himself. His discipline is designed to bring us to repentance and back into a right relationship with Him.
God will hand us over to the consequences of our own behavior. But such outcomes are never what God truly wants for us. Without true repentance, the Israelites fell back into destructive habits (v.19), and He did discipline them to bring them back into His fold.
The Truth: God is a righteous judge but He also hears us in our suffering—how much more will He hear our cry, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
