Why was the worship of Baal and Asherah a constant struggle for the Israelites?

The name signifies 'master, possessor;' and whether singular or plural it always has the article. The chief male god of the Phoenicians and the Canaanites, as ASHTORETH was the chief female goddess. The Israelites in coming into the land doubtless found temples, groves, altars and high places set apart to Baal: incense was offered and offerings burnt, and children were sacrificed to him, whilst a great retinue of prophets and priests was maintained in his service, as is manifest by its revival afterwards. Num. 22:41 ; 1 Kings 18:22; Jer. 11:13; Jer. 19:5; Jer. 32:29.

The children of Israel were soon led away to the worship of Baal, Judges 2:11, 13; Judges 3:7; Judges 6:31-32; Judges 8:33; Judges 10:6, 10; and though under Samuel they relinquished it, 1 Sam. 7:4; 1 Sam. 12:10, yet after the division of the kingdom it was by Ahab fully established in Israel. 1 Kings 16:32. Elijah however stood for Jehovah, and raised the question with Israel whether Jehovah was God, or whether Baal, and established the rights of Jehovah by fire from heaven. This led to the destruction of all the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 18:17-40; but his idolatrous worship continued until the days of Jehu, who slew his worshippers and destroyed his house and images. 2 Kings 10:18-28. It however revived again in Israel, and under Ahaziah and Athaliah extended also to Judah, and during the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh worshippers of Baal are found there. 2 Kings 11:18; 2 Kings 16:3-4; 2 Kings 17:16-17; 2 Kings 21:3. Thus did Satan succeed in leading aside to idolatry God's favoured people for whom He had done so much. Balaam's advice was only too successful, the women of Canaan being the snare that led to idolatry.

Here, in Judges, a generation arose that did not know the Lord and did not know His works. In the book of Deuteronomy Moses instructed the fathers and mothers of Israel saying, 'When your child asks, What do these things mean, you are to explain them to your children, telling them all the history connected with those different occasions of comings together and the different events connected with the history of Israel' (6:6-25). The responsibility of conveying to the children the great events connected with the history of Israel and the Lord's blessings to them lay very definitely on the shoulders of the fathers and mothers. Hence, if a generation arose that knew not the Lord or His works, it infers that there was a lapse in the teaching of the fathers and mothers. There was a generation that was untaught in relation to the Lord or His works, and because they did not know the Lord, and because they did not know His works it was so easy for them to give up. They had nothing to hold onto. They were in a position, but had no living exercise connected with it, and it is so easy to give up something that we are not concerned about. The result of this was that they forsook the Lord and worshipped idols, a very, very sad condition.

But Israel foolishly allowed the wicked nations to remain in the land (at least in many cases), with the result that the Jews themselves mingled with these ungodly Gentiles, learned their works and served their idols (vv. 35-36). If we tolerate wickedness, it will not be long until we embrace it; and thus eventually Israelites went so far as to sacrifice their sons and daughters to demons (v. 37). For our foolish actions will very quickly appeal to our children, and their blood will be on their fathers' hands. In many cases they were guilty of literally shedding the blood of their children, justifying themselves by claiming that they were offering sacrifices to God, while actually they were sacrificing to demons. So the land was polluted with blood (v. 38), and they defiled themselves by their own wicked works, playing the harlot by their own deeds, — that is, perverting the blessings God had given them, to serve their selfish lusts.

162 I protest, I cannot see what the editor means, but that Baal and the calves were like the Church of England, and that people ought to have worshipped at them. The former part may be true for aught I know; but certainly the scripture totally condemns the latter and makes it the very point of faithfulness that it had been refused, in spite of acts of uniformity by kings and queens; and this makes a wide breach in his argument. He says, "in their several places in the Church, protest" what Church? Were they to worship the calves, and protest against them? They did not worship with the nation at all, and could not: this was their protest, and the whole point in question, as it is now, and the Lord specially owned them because they would not, but did form a separate communion, and there were worshippers of Baal and worshippers of Jehovah, so that Jehu could separate them for the slaughter of the former. So it is now. It is not I who have drawn the comparison; but the conclusion is manifest - the protest of refusing to worship with them, and worshipping Jehovah by themselves at all cost, constituted the point of Israelitish faithfulness.

Baal stands thus for the power implied in possession, apart from any thought of how it may be used, as Ashtoreth speaks (comp. Joshua 21:27) of fruitfulness here in the nature-sense. Both might be used (and were) in the vilest applications and unitedly they reveal the mystery of iniquity that is native in the heart of man. Power he seeks, — to have things in his hand: that, without question of how he will use it, — irresponsible power; while, underneath, the lusts that war in his members" hold him as a poor slave to their will. Baal and Ashtoreth are twin worships, the natural complements of each other: both meaning independence of God, and together self-bondage; in which is found the awful tyranny of a more malignant despotism, that of the adversary of God and man alike, the "spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience." (Eph. 2:2.)

The characteristic snares of idolatry seen in the history of Israel also illustrate these three moral principles that are in the world and of the world. We see the worship of Astarte (whose images are translated 'Asherahs' in the Darby translation, and `groves' in the KJV) - giving religious licence to sexual promiscuity or 'fertility', the worship of Baal - as a means to increased material prosperity; the worship of Moloch - as a means to ascendancy over one's fellow. Pleasure, possessions and power.

They began their descent by serving the Baals (v. 11). This word means "lords," just as today there are many who will talk about "the Lord" while not at all meaning the Lord Jesus, for "there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords" (1 Cor. 8:5).People commonly prefer a substitute that will not try their consciences.

Thus, Israel "forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt" (v. 12),being seduced by the idols of the nations among whom they lived. Added to the worship of Baal, however, was that of the Ashtoreths (v. 13), female goddesses, the name meaning "thoughtsearching." This may sound good, but in leaving Christ out of it, it is merely self-occupation that gives the impression of spiritual exercise, something like transcendental meditation does. Every believer should recognize and abhor all such imitations.

In view of Israel's being planted in their land by God's dispossessing their enemies, Moses strongly warns them of the danger of Satan's temptation to snare Israel into adopting and following the false gods of the land (vs.29-30). Israel might foolishly think that their enemies had prospered because of their particular worship, just as today some Christians think the ungodly prosper because of their attractive forms of professed worship and adopt such forms that are actually idolatrous.

Idolatry was no new evil amongst God's favoured but faithless people Israel. Their whole course in this respect is traced with much detail in Ezek. 20. In Egypt, before the deliverance, they worshipped the gods around them (ver. 8); they worshipped idols in the wilderness, although perhaps covertly (ver. 13), and they worshipped idols in the land (ver. 28). The worship of Baal in particular is noted in Judges 2:11-13; Gideon was instructed by God to throw down the altar of Baal which his father had erected, and also to cut down the Asherah which stood by it (Judges 6:25): just before Jephthah was raised up for the people's deliverance, they confessed that they had forsaken God, and served Baalim (Judges 10:10).

Such was the devilish system to which Israel, with their back on God, now turned. "The children of Israel did the evil thing" — what was emphatically that — "in Jehovah's eyes, and served the Baals." "They forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtoreths."

Their gods, being the product of their own minds, were necessarily many as their minds were. The plural in both cases, it is allowed, stands not for the multiplicity of images, but for different modifications of the deity himself. Baal was in no wise one, as Jehovah was; nor was even Ashtoreth the same goddess everywhere, although the general idea was one. Baal means "husband" and "lord," with the primary idea of ownership. A bird even is a "baal of wing"; and a hairy man a "baal of hair." It does not stand so much for the idea of one who rules therefore, which is rather adon, from din, to "discern," to "judge." Yet it has no necessary bad sense either: in that of "husband," God uses it of His own relation to the people: "thy Maker is thy baal;" "though I was a baal unto them." (Isa. 54:5; Jer.31:32.) Nevertheless, God finally repudiates the word. By Hosea He says, "Thou shalt call me Ishi [my husband], and thou shalt no more call me Baali: for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name." (Hosea 2:16-17.)