Elijah Message Part two - Understanding Baal

The spiritual condition of the children of Israel at the time of Elijah was one of deep apostasy. Since their sojourn in Egypt, Israel, as an entire nation, had become prone to give itself over to the worship of the various neighboring gods to whom they were exposed. In Egypt they had worshipped Osiris, as is evident by the Golden Calf they built while Moses was receiving God’s law on mount Sinai. And now in Elijah’s time they had become wholly entrenched in the worship of the Canaanite god Baal.

Going from Osiris to Baal was not a hard transition to make because these two gods were essentially the same in character. They were both revered as sun-gods and the power behind them proceeded from the same source: the fallen angel Lucifer. When we read 1 Kings 16:33 we learn that God was even more displeased during the reign of Ahab, who “did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” How did Ahab do more to provoke God than all the kings of Israel who were before him? Hear what the biblical record states:

“And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him [AHAB] to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a wooden image,” 1 Kings 16:31-33 (Emphasis added).

The biblical record also states that Ahab walked in the sins of Jeroboam which are listed in 1 Kings 12:26-33. The specific sins of Jeroboam were that he had made two Golden Calves, “made a house of high places,” “made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi,” and sacrificed to the two Golden Calves.

Ahab therefore must have walked in the sins of Jeroboam by continuing to do all that Jeroboam had started. In addition, he built a temple in honor of Baal in Samaria; and as a final act of apostasy he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, which means with Baal, i.e. living under Baal's favour (http://biblehub.com/hebrew/856.htm).

Jeroboam had also perverted the priesthood, which Ahab continued to honor. The Levitical priesthood had been explicitly dictated by God for a specific reason: so that the priests, through rites and sacrifices, would point the people to Christ and not allow them to divert them into pagan worship. Why point them to Christ? Because in Christ they could find mercy and grace. The Levites’ appointment was a sacred one for the specific reason of saving the people from deception, falsehood and destruction, a salvation which could only be found in Christ.

Speaking of Israel’s captivity at the time of Daniel, EGW says the following:

The Jewish nation were in captivity, scattered as the Lord declared they would be if they did not as His peculiar people honor and glorify God. They departed from God; they did not fear and honor His holy name, and the temple in which they gloried was destroyed. Their sacred rites, their sacrifices and ceremonies, ceased. The sacred order of the Levitical priesthood was no longer maintained. Their form of religious service, which the Lord had given them as a blessing whereby they might have a pure and understanding faith, and, through the sacrificial offerings, see Christ as the one who would take away the sin of the world, became a ceremonious transaction. The outward ceremonies took the place of the inward work of the heart. The splendid dress of the priests covered hearts that were not renewed by the spirit of the Lord. The outward signs of their religious service were broken up, and the word of the Lord was fulfilled.—Manuscript 122, 1897, 1. (“Daniel,” March 10, 1897.) {7MR 333.3}

By removing Christ as the central focus and sole meaning for all the sacred rites, sacrifices and ceremonies, the people were left open to all kinds of deception and destruction.

Who was Baal?

What exactly did Baal represent and why was God so displeased that his children had left Him for this pagan god? Baal was an early version of Zeus. Like Zeus, he had a peculiar character in that he sometimes was a beneficent god, the god who sent the rain and the sun (after all, he was a sun-god) but at other times he was a god who terrified his subjects by sending bolts of lightening, storms, and earthquakes. Baal was arbitrary in how he dealt with the people, sending prosperity to some and calamity to others.

When Jesus pronounced in Matthew 5:45 that God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” not only was He reclaiming ownership of Creation, “His” sun, but He was also contrasting the character of the true God with that of the satanic Baal.

Jesus was saying that the sun belongs to God and not Baal and that God, the Creator of all things, does not have the arbitrary/dual character of Baal. God showers blessings on all alike, the just and the unjust, and none need to be afraid of incurring His wrath. Therefore none need to sacrifice their children in order to appease Him.

“A house of high places”

Ezekiel 16:20-26 20 “Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, 21 that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? 22 And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood. 23 “Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God— 24 that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street. 25 You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. 26 You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

One of the sins of Jeroboam was that he made a house of high places. What is a house of high places and why is it so abhorrent to God? Archeologist Peter Jupp describes that what took place in the high places of Baal were exactly acts of appeasement toward an angry, fearful god:

…The religion [OF BAAL] spawned numerous priests and priestesses with their ceremonies including the burning of incense and offering burnt sacrifices, occasionally consisting of human victims. The officiating priests danced around the altars, chanting frantically and cutting themselves with knives to inspire the attention and compassion of the god.

In the Old Testament we read of king Hiel rebuilding of Jericho wherein he sacrificed his first born son Abiram his youngest son Segub. This is an explicit reference to what are called foundational sacrifices. Common enough in the Canaan of biblical times, these rituals sacrificed humans, typically children, to the patron God of the city. The bodies of these victims were placed under the foundations or in the walls of the structure. http://www.ancientdestructions.com/baalbek-temple-human-sacrifice-worship-baal/

“Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please, propitiate or force a god or supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result. As such, it is a form of human sacrifice… Child sacrifice is thought to be an extreme extension of the idea that, the more important the object of sacrifice, the more devout the person giving it up is.” Wikipedia

Burying a child under the foundation of a building, under the cornerstone to be more precise, is a gross perversion of a symbolism used in the Bible to point to Christ:

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” 1 Peter 2:4-6

Peter beckons us to offer up “spiritual sacrifices,” not human sacrifices, which are NOT acceptable to God. We are to be “living stones” “being built up a spiritual house,” and Jesus is the “chief cornerstone” of this spiritual house. As is his custom, Satan always perverts the truth in the most gruesome and destructive way. Burying children under the cornerstone became a common pagan practice which King Hiel followed when he rebuild Jericho:

In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun, 1 Kings 16:34.

The Baal-worshipping Phoenicians, who were merchants and sea-farers, carried their pagan beliefs to their new-founded colonies. Jupp describes how evidence of child sacrifice has been found in Carthage, a Phoenician colony founded in 814 BC:

The practice [OF CHILD SACRIFICE] was apparently distasteful even to Carthaginians, and they began to buy children for the purpose of sacrifice or even to raise servant children, instead of offering up their own. However, in times of crisis or calamity, like war, earthquakes, drought, or famine, their priests demanded the flower of their youth. Special ceremonies during extreme crisis saw up to 200 children of the most affluent and powerful families slain and tossed into the burning pyre. During the political crisis of 310 B.C., some 500 were killed. On a moonlit night, the body was placed on the arms of an effigy of Baal made of brass. The Priests lit fires that heated the effigies from its lower parts. The victims were placed on the burning hot outstretched hands. As they were burned alive they vehemently cried out. The priests beat a drum, sounded flutes, lyres, and tambourines. This drowned out the cries of the anguished parents. The father could not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved.

Then later, the remains were collected and placed in special small urns. The urns were then buried in the funerary Acropolis. Recent excavations discovered a great number of these urns, proving the accusation of child sacrifice true. The area covered by the funerary Acropolis was probably over an acre and a half by the fourth century B.C., with nine different levels of burials. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of child sacrifice also in Sardinia and Sicily. The ritual of burning was called “the act of laughing” perhaps because when the flames are consuming the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seemed almost to be laughing. Causing a child to “pass through fire” was the standard euphemism for child sacrifice in the ancient world. The “high places” were sacrificial cults that had grown up in the countryside. Since human sacrifice was the most horrendous of the religious perversions that occurred at these shrines, the term “high places” became a synonym for shrines to Baal engaged in human sacrifice. Baalbek was just such a place.

…Nimrod incorporated into his worship system the grisly practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism… Hislop says, “the priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that ‘Cahna-Bal’ (cahna meaning priest & Bal referring to Baal) is the established word (cannibal) in our own tongue for a devourer of human flesh.”

After the Romans finally defeated Carthage and totally destroyed the city, they engaged in post-war propaganda to make their arch enemies seem cruel and less civilized. This doubtless happened at Baalbek which was also a Phoenician city conquered by Rome. The Roman scholar Diodorus relates that in their midst stood a bronze statue of Baal its hands extended over a bronze brazier, the flames of which engulf the child. When the flames fall upon the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seems almost to be laughing until the contracted body slips quietly into the brazier. Thus it is that the ‘grin’ is known as ‘sardonic laughter,’ since they die laughing. Such was the fear that Baal and his lightning and earthquakes inspired in the city of Baalbek. By these means they sought to pacify the sky god Baal! http://www.ancientdestructions.com/baalbek-temple-human-sacrifice-worship-baal/

Jeremiah 19:3-6

‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle. 4 “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

What is the wrath of God?

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMmdVgQKzDc

Psalm 106:35-39

…they mingled with the Gentiles

And learned their works; 36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, 38 and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they were defiled by their own works, and played the harlot by their own deeds (Emphasis added).

Baal and Sexuality

Sexuality also played a part in Baal worship as Baal, the supposed provider of the rains and the sun. Baal was given credit for the fertility all things. Peter Jupp explains the role of sexuality in Baal worship:

Baal religion revolved around the cycles of nature necessary for survival and prosperity in the ancient world, primarily growing crops or raising livestock, as well as the growth of human populations. For a variety of reasons human fertility was an important concern. Lack of fertility in times of stress was widespread. Egyptian texts support these curious phenomena.

Fertility, of humans, growth of crops and the abundant supply of productive weather fell under the influence of Baal. The ancients firmly believed that by their actions they could manipulate and control the gods. In other words, rather than the gods’ being sovereignly in control of people, people were in control of the gods. Furthermore, rather than the gods’ always initiating relationships with people, the people had to initiate relationships with the gods. This way of thinking no doubt related to the uncertainties of life in the ancient world.

In particular the Ugarit tablets are explicitly concerned with fertility, cast in terms of human sexuality. Worship of Baal involved imitative magic, the performance of rituals, including sacred prostitution. Sexual acts by both male and female temple prostitutes were understood to arouse Baal who then brought rain to make Mother Earth fertile when crops were abundant; Baal was praised and thanked for his abundant rain.

It is in this context that drought had such impact throughout the biblical traditions. Not only was lack of rain a threat to survival, it was also a sign that the gods of the Baal myth were unhappy… It takes little imagination to see the connection between the human sexual act and rain watering the earth to produce fruit. The religion gives assurance of some stability in the physical world, assisted by humans. http://www.ancientdestructions.com/baalbek-temple-prostitutes-holy-prostitution-baal/

A foundational concept is found here: that human behavior affected the mood and disposition of the gods and thus by offering sacrifices humans were able to influence their behavior. It was thus that Satan was able to manipulate humans into the most degrading behaviors. Fear being the primary motivation, the people were compelled to sacrifice their own children as well as engage is debasing sexual acts in order to appease the god.

It is no wonder that God was not pleased with Baal worship! It is no wonder He did the best He could to get the people to repent from their misguided ways. And it is no wonder that when Jesus

arrives at the scene He quickly sets Himself at work to dispel such false notions about His Father by saying that His Father “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

By this statement Jesus struck at the foundational problem of the human race: that of confusing the Creator God, Jehovah, with the Destroyer god, Baal/Satan. Those who claim to worship Jehovah ought to give serious thought to what it is that we believe about God. Do we see Him according to Jesus Christ’s revelation or do we see Him as Baal? This is extremely important because if we ascribe to the Creator a character like that of Baal we are in effect worshipping Baal and not the true God.

It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to

fashion an idol of wood or stone. By misrepresenting the attributes of God, Satan leads men to conceive of Him in a false character. With many, a philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the living God, as He is revealed in His word, in Christ, and in the works of creation, is worshiped by but few. The god of many professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists—the god of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some theological institutions—is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phoenicia. {DD 29.1}{DD 29.1}

By looking at our hearts we can see what motivates us. Are we worshipping God out of fear or out of love? Is our love for God a forced love, a love that is really empowered by a fear of losing eternal life? If in any way our worship of God is mingled with fear we may be sure that we have not understood who the true God is because the Bible says in 1 John 4:18:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment [PUNISHMENT]. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

Are we worshipping Baal or Jehovah? Do we believe, as some Christians do, that it is God who sends calamities on earth as punishments? To what extent would we go to appease an angry God? Are we sacrificing our children to Baal? What role is sexuality playing today that parallels ancient Baal worship? What connection will Sunday law have with Baal? Will Sunday law be instituted in order to appease an angry god, and if so, which god is that, Jehovah or Baal?

Question: why did Jeroboam build two golden calves?

Answer: Perhaps because it took two gods to represent the character of Baal. One was beneficent, the other was destructive. One was love, the other was wrathful. One was rewarding, the other was punishing. One was good, the other was evil. The character of Baal was the same as that of the serpent which had seduced Eve to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that reward and punishment system which Satan wanted to put in place of God’s law. This character the serpent attempts to ascribe to the Creator who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all.

The gods according to Plutarch:

The gods (Osiris, Isis, Typhon) were grand-demons

Demons transcend men in strength

Demons do not have a divine character like God, who is pure and un-mixed

Demons are capable of receiving both pleasure or pain which brings disorder to them

Demons have various degrees of virtue and vice (good and evil) just like humans

Demons have a mixed and unequal temper or inclination - duality

Plato assigns odd numbers to God and even numbers to demons to denote their character: God is 1 (single character), demons are 2 (dual character of good and evil)

Demons undergo severe punishments for their evil deeds and misdemeanors

Those who were at first inclined to scoff at the thought of calamity, soon had occasion for serious reflection; for after a few months the earth, unrefreshed by dew or rain, became dry, and vegetation withered. As time passed, streams that had never been known to fail began to decrease, and brooks began to dry up. Yet the people were urged by their leaders to have confidence in the power of Baal and to set aside as idle words the prophecy of Elijah. The priests still insisted that it was through the power of Baal that the showers of rain fell. Fear not the God of Elijah, nor tremble at His word, they urged, it is Baal that brings forth the harvest in its season and provides for man and beast. {PK 123.2} (Emphasis added)

Satan Seeks to Pervert the Marriage Institution—It was Satan’s studied effort [in the antediluvian age] to pervert the marriage institution, to weaken its obligations and lessen its sacredness; for in no surer way could he deface the image of God in man and open the door to misery and vice. [1]Patriarchs and Prophets, 338. – {AH 326.1}

Satan well knows the material with which he has to deal in the human heart. He knows—for he has studied with fiendish intensity for thousands of years—the points most easily assailed in every character; and through successive generations he has wrought to overthrow the strongest men, princes in Israel, by the same temptations that were so successful at Baal-peor. All along through the ages there are strewn wrecks of character that have been stranded upon the rocks of sensual indulgence. [2]Ibid., 457. – {AH 326.2}

Tragedy in Israel—The crime that brought the judgments of God upon Israel was that of licentiousness. The forwardness of women to entrap souls did not end at Baal-peor. Notwithstanding the punishment that followed the sinners in Israel, the same crime was repeated many times. Satan was most active in seeking to make Israel’s overthrow complete. [3]The Review and Herald, May 17, 1887. – {AH 326.3}

The licentious practice of the Hebrews accomplished for them that which all the warfare of nations and the enchantments of Balaam could not do. They became separated from their God. Their covering and protection were removed from them. God turned to be their enemy. So many of the princes and people were guilty of licentiousness that it became a national sin, for God was wroth with the whole congregation. [4]Ibid. – {AH 326.4}

The History to Be Repeated—Near the close of this earth’s history Satan will work with all his powers in the same manner and with the same temptations wherewith he tempted ancient Israel just before their entering the Land of Promise. He will lay snares for those who claim to keep the commandments of God, and who are almost on the borders of the heavenly Canaan. He will use his powers to their utmost in order to entrap souls and to take God’s professed people upon their weakest points. Those who have not brought the lower passions into subjection to the higher powers of their being, those who have allowed their minds to flow in a channel of carnal indulgence of the baser passions, Satan is determined to destroy with his temptations—to pollute their souls with licentiousness. He is not aiming especially at the lower and less important marks, but he makes use of his snares through those whom he can enlist as his agents to allure or attract men to take liberties which are condemned in the law of God. And men in responsible positions, teaching the claims of God’s law, whose mouths are filled with arguments in vindication of His law, against which Satan has made such a raid—over such he sets his hellish powers and his agencies at work and overthrows them upon the weak points in their character, knowing that he who offends on one point is guilty of all, thus obtaining complete mastery over the entire man. Mind, soul, body, and conscience are involved in the ruin. If he be a messenger of righteousness and has had great light, or if the Lord has used him as His special worker in the cause of truth, then how great is the triumph of Satan! How he exults! How God is dishonored! [5]Ibid. – {AH 327.1}