And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of the heavens, and served Baal;
God's summary of why Israel's northern kingdom went into exile in Assyria reaches its low point here. Why does leaving God's word never leave an empty space, and how can worship that still uses God's name be real idolatry?
The verse names what they gave up before it lists what they took on. One commentator asks what was left to fill the gap, then traces how the evil spread:
Leaving the commandments of God, what else could they find as a substitute? Only the worship of idols. So verse 16 refers back to the great sin of Jeroboam in making two golden calves... and making these the centres of Israel's worship. But once a thing like this is done, the evil does not stop there. They then began to worship all the host of heaven, having "many gods and many lords" (1 Cor. 8:5), and Baal became a favourite idol.
The calves were not offered as rival gods. One dictionary explains why an image meant to stand for the true God is the more deceptive form of idolatry:
This form of idolatry is more plausible than disowning God altogether and setting up an idol instead. But it is just as truly idolatry, and God punished it in a way no one could miss. The same worship existed in Egypt with the bull Apis, said to represent the god Osiris. This may have given the Israelites the idea of making a calf. Jeroboam repeated the same sin, because he was afraid his people would go up to Jerusalem to worship: he set up two calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan, and proclaimed, "Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28-33). Idolatry did not stop there with Israel, for they went on to worship "all the host of heaven, and served Baal." 2 Kings 17:16.
One writer points back to Sinai, and answers an excuse still made today:
Jeroboam repeated the sin of Aaron and the people of Israel at the foot of Sinai, where God had already spoken the solemn words: "You shall have no other gods before me." It has been argued that Jeroboam was really worshipping Jehovah, but with the aid of visible images. This is urged today to excuse blatant idolatry. The Bible does not support this. It says plainly: "This thing became a sin." God does not need an image for people to worship Him. In fact, the very idea is condemned throughout Scripture.
Older translations call the next item in the verse a grove. One dictionary shows that the word does not mean trees at all:
The word "grove" naturally suggests a row of trees. But that cannot be the meaning, since groves were set up "under every green tree"... The groves were made of wood, as we learn from them being cut down and burnt... They are regularly linked with idols and images, and Judges 3:7 speaks of them being served along with the Baals.
The verse lists the host of heaven and Baal side by side. One writer ties both to the sky, and ties the Asherah in with them:
The "groves" so often mentioned in the history of Ahab and Elijah were really statues of Ashtoreth. Baal seems to have represented the sun, and Ashtoreth the moon. In God's charge against the Northern Kingdom, as the people went into captivity in Assyria, we read that they "made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal" (2 Kings 17:16). Note how "all the host of heaven" is here linked with Baal. In Jer. 7:18 Ashtoreth is called "the queen of heaven." From Job 31:26-27 we gather that honouring the sun and moon was the earliest form of idolatry.
The calves were not a passing phase. One writer traces the exile itself back to them:
The idolatry of Jeroboam stayed with Israel until they went into captivity, and was an outstanding cause of it. As it is written: "Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin... they did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight... So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day" (2 Kings 17:21–23).
- Left. The sin starts with what they dropped: God's commandments. Everything else in the verse fills that gap.
- Substituted. The calves were sold as worship of the God who brought Israel out of Egypt. Commentators call that a more plausible idolatry than open denial — and just as real.
- Spread. Once they allowed images, the list grew: a carved Asherah, then the whole host of heaven, then Baal. No idolatry stays where it started.
- Skyward. Baal and the host of heaven stand together because both go back to sun and moon. Writers call that the earliest idolatry of all.
- Swept away. Jeroboam's calves stayed with Israel to the end. Scripture names them as an outstanding cause of the exile.
and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.
The ESV says Israel burned their children as offerings. Older translations say they made them "pass through the fire," and some have read that as a rite the children survived. Other passages rule it out.
The motive makes it worse. Parents offered their children as an act of worship.
This evil worship led to other abuses. Parents made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and offered them as sacrifices. They thought that such horrible evil would gain favour with God or with their gods (v.17).
The second charge names two practices that travel with idolatry. One curses people; the other flatters them.
Witchcraft and soothsaying went along with such abuses. People used witchcraft to call down curses on others. Soothsaying is predicting the future in order to soothe people. This is how evil spirits claim to predict the future: they make people feel good. The false prophets did this when they tried to make Ahab comfortable about going to fight for Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22:12). Only Michaiah prophesied the truth, that Ahab would die in his attempt to gain Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22:17).
God had warned Israel in the plainest terms long before. He had also told them why the land was theirs at all.
The third charge is the sharpest. Evil did not overtake them; they traded themselves away for it.
Israel "sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord," that is, they in effect sold themselves as slaves to satanic power.
The word behind it carries that force, and it reaches further than Israel's history.
It is the condition of us all, though we may discover it only when the light of the gospel shines upon our fallen state.
God did not act on the first offence, or the hundredth. The verse belongs to a list compiled over centuries.
Though the Lord bore patiently with Israel for years, yet the day finally came when He removed them from their land, leaving only the tribe of Judah at that time (v.18). Yet Judah is mentioned also as having failed to keep the commandments of the Lord, following too in the way of Israel. So the writing was on the wall for Judah also, but the godliness of some of their kings delayed the captivity of Judah for some years.
God did remove Israel as a nation. But being out of sight is not the same as being forgotten.
Finally He removed Israel out of His sight as a nation. Yet His all-knowing love knows where each person is. And nothing will frustrate His purposes, which are secure in Christ.
- Sacrifice — Israel burned their own children as offerings, hoping to win a god's favour.
- Sorcery — Curses and soothing predictions came in with it. Both are how evil spirits work, as with the prophets who flattered Ahab.
- Scripture — God had already named and banned every one of these practices. They were the reason the earlier nations lost the land.
- Slavery — To sell yourself to do evil is to sell yourself into slavery. Paul uses the same word of himself, and it is the condition of us all until the gospel exposes it.
- Sentence — God removed Israel from His sight as a nation. Even then He knows where each person is, and His purposes stand secure in Christ.