Day 128

Judges 7:8b-8:35, John 5:31-47, Proverbs 11:19-28

Baal is not good, in fact he/it is very bad. Baal is the god that the people started to worship when they gave up on the Lord. The name Baal appears a lot through the Old Testament so who or what exactly was he?

Primarily Baal was the god worshipped by the Canaanites. There were many warnings about not succumbing to such worship but the people of Israel failed and Baal worship became one of their biggest problems. He may have been the god of thunder and he may have been a god of fertility, he was certainly one of the Canaanites’ main gods. Baal’s place in Canaanite mythology involves battles with other gods in a very similar way to the gods of Greek mythology. In later encounters with Baal, we may find that it refers to a distinct god and not the thunder god of the Canaanites. Whatever form it is in, what is clear when Baal is mentioned is that Yahweh, the Lord, has dropped out of the equation.

The other thing that comes hand in hand with Baal is the asherah pole, sometimes found alongside an altar and sometimes on their own. The asherah is a religious object, often a statue of a god that is used to worship the deity that lies behind it. When the people of Israel moved away from the Lord, asherah poles and the like could be found almost anywhere.

All of that seems very Old Testament, but if the name Baal could be attached to any god who is not the Lord, and asherahs were anything that could be worshiped, then Jesus said “I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts” (v42). Worship that is not directed at God is prevalent today and we may actually find that Baal and his asherah pole are not actually that far away.

This passage in the Gospel is a continuation from yesterday, concerning Jesus authority as the Son of God. It is not just a direct challenge to the Jews though, telling them that Moses, in whom they put so much faith, spoke of Jesus coming and now they don’t even want to listen to what Moses wrote. This disbelief in the one true God and the Messiah whom he sent has not stopped and the challenge comes into the present day.

Our part of the challenge is to ensure that Jesus cannot say this of us “I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts”. When we have the love of God pouring out of our hearts then we testify as to the reality of Christ in the world.