It took the Assyrian destruction of Israel and the Babylonian Captivity of Judah to convince the Israelites that there is only one omnipotent God. All the while, prophets like Elijah (which means ? Yahweh is God?), Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah thundered that Yahweh alone deserved the people?s allegiance. Ahab, with his wife's encouragement, built a temple to Baal at his capital, Samaria. By the time of Ahab and Jezebel, the fertility cults appeared to have the official sanction of Israel's leaders. Under the kings, this spiritual battle continued. The book of Judges records the ongoing struggle: the Israelites attraction to, and worship of, the Canaanite gods God's disciplinary response the people's repentance and God's merciful forgiveness until the next time the Israelites reached for Baal instead of Yahweh. Could the God who had led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness also provide fertile farms in the Promised Land? Or would the fertility god of Canaan have to be honored? Maybe, to be safe, they should worship both Yahweh and Baal.Īn intense battle began for the minds and hearts of God's people. The Canaanites attributed this fertility to their god Baal,and that is where the Israelites problems began. The land was fertile beyond anything the Hebrew nomads had ever seen. When the Israelites entered Canaan, they found a land of farmers, not shepherds, as they had been in the wilderness. There was no doubt that Yahweh was God of the wilderness. Throughout the Israelites? 40-year journey in the wilderness, their Lord accompanied them, protected them, fed them, and guided them to the Promised Land. God spoke to his people on Mount Sinai and reestablished his covenant with them in the Ten Commandments. Moses met God in a burning bush in the desert, where he learned the greatness of God's name and received his commission to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt. Abraham lived in the Negev desert, where God made his covenant of blood with him and sealed it with circumcision. The people of Israel developed their faith in the wilderness. What we do know reveals dark, seductive practices that continued to entice the people God had chosen to be his witnesses.THE ORIGINS OF JUDAISM Much of our knowledge of the origins and character of these fertility cults remains tentative and widely debated.
Only recently have scholars begun to unravel the complex religious rituals of Israel's Canaanite neighbors.
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