Israel and Judah's Sin

So why did God cause Israel and Judah to be slaughtered and sent into captivity?

In large part because they violated the number one commandment,

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God”.

This was the biggy, there was no commandment greater than this one and they not only violated it but they stomped and spit on it. They didn’t just have some nominal belief in another God (which would be bad enough). They did horrible things in service to these so called Gods.

Manasseh, King of Judah, built altars to various gods in Jehovah’s temple, he sacrificed his own son in fire, practiced divination, sought omens and consulted mediums.

Subsequent reform minded Kings tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord.

“They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger.”

These practices were either invented in the minds of their practitioners or inspired by some demon.

Why forsake the true God and follow after these horrible things? All I can surmise is there must have been some attractive feature or validation of these practices. Perhaps through coincidence or demonic power something they thought was good came from these practices.

Whatever it was, it was wrong, and God sent numerous prophets who used different teaching methods over hundreds of years to get them to turn from their evil behavior. He was not nearly so patient with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lessons to be learned

- If it is true that punishment fits the crime then disobeying the first commandment must be a horrible crime because its punishment was horrific. After the Jews came back from captivity they never again had a problem with idolatry. Horrible crime, horrible punishment, behavior corrected.

- God is loving and just. In his love he patiently tries to correct our behaviors but eventually if our behavior is not corrected he will give us a just punishment.

- Don’t believe everything you hear… be discriminating. Part of the problem with God’s people was they listened to false prophets and ignored the true prophets. We must compare what people say with the scriptures… that takes a little bit of effort.