BAAL? WHO'S THAT?
“I have seven thousand that have not yet bowed the knee to Baal!” God said that to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:18. Chapters 18 and 19 need to be read together to get the full picture of the events and the period connected with this word from God.
What really was it the gallant seven thousand had not bowed the knee to?
Baal was a nature God, a god of agriculture and prosperity. The story was that he made the fields and flocks and herds and families fruitful; he was to be thanked for the rain and the sun, flax, wool and crops that brought prosperity, contentment and happiness. That made him popular with Canaanites in general and it took on a Phoenician version promoted by the charismatic and dangerous Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon and wife of Ahab, king of Israel.
There was an added appeal to Baal worship. It’s said that it was when he and his consort, Asherah, had sex that prosperity flowed over the land, so those who had their eyes fixed firmly on prosperity and happiness saw to it that Baal had a rip-roaring sex life. One of the ways to do that was to have organized orgies as part of their worship and this would inflame Baal and his lover. Well, there might be no need to see the worship as wildly orgiastic; putting its "best" face on it, it may well have been very formal even if passionate. But if it wasn’t out of control during worship it would be naïve of us not to expect that such worship would spill over into behavior outside the church buildings (see Numbers 25, especially 1-9 for some sense of things in this regard).
Still, the central thrust of the worship was about getting! About getting whatever it was that made for a "happy life". The reign of that god was not about promoting righteousness and the worship of that god was not about living in righteousness—it was about prospering and finding full satisfaction in all aspects of living. (Hmmm, the names of other gods spring to mind. Names like, "Consumer" and "Capitalism" and "Free Market". I wonder if they are just other names for Baal?)
There is such a thing as formal idolatry of course but Paul made no bones about it, greed or covetousness is idolatry also (Colossians 3:5). Whatever drives us, whatever we become obsessed with, whatever we look to as the cure for all our ills—that’s god! There’s no need to literally bow the knee to an image if we ceaselessly hunger without apology after what the image stands for.
Man does not live by bread alone and while that means that we live when and because God says so (see the text, Deuteronomy 8:3) it doesn’t mean that Man doesn’t need food and other basics to sustain him. “Greed” is hard to define though we’re all sure that we can spot it in its most flagrant forms.
If we were destitute and starving no one would be surprised at all if we had nothing on our minds but food. How could that be surprising? People financially, socially or emotionally crushed—it makes sense that they would be focusing on easing their pain or securing what they are in dire need of. Who is so smugly religious as to rebuke people that needy?
Part of the cure for such people is for those of us who can to involve ourselves in easing their burdens but to spend our time and giftedness in urging people to think that the pursuit of getting is the sure way to make God and us smile—there’s something of Baal worship in that!
And when we see a preacher of health and wealth, dressed in the finest and speaking to huge assemblies of people dressed in the finest urging them to look for and expect more the stink of rottenness fills the air. (These people make the worst face of the "Free Market" look almost beautiful.)
It doesn’t appear to be enough to have what is good and needed, we must have more and better. If we have a good marriage it must be made fabulous, if thankfully we have a pleasurable sex-life it must be made wilder and more passionate, if we have good health we’re urged to fine-tune it to perfection or as close as possible. We should, you see, it’s our right and we must have our rights. God wants us to be happy. No, not just happy, deliriously happy! Not just sexually fulfilled most of the time, but always and to the nth degree. Not just pleased with nutritious, pleasant-tasting food nicely served up but gourmet meals with ceaseless variation—the way the hundreds of cooking shows on television parade it.
The issue isn’t hunger and pleasure—it’s greed. To speak to the hungry about food makes sense but to speak constantly to the well-fed about more and better and the exotic breeds discontent, waste and obsession. To speak to the sexually repressed in an attempt to ease the pain and bring peace and pleasure in that and in other areas makes sense but to speak to people already sexually glutted is, at best, questionable stewardship or at its worst pimping a nation, when to make a profit on any commodity companies and advertizers promote an obsession with sex.
That’s one of the dangers of the free-market, isn’t it? It knocks other economic theories into a cocked-hat but it generates and then feeds on the consumer spirit and human vulnerability. “If you can get it without cheating there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get it. If there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get it then you should. You have a right and you’re worth it!” YOU'RE WORTH IT! Who can argue with that? And yet…
Somewhere in the middle of all this multitude of voices, whispering and shouting, “Go for it!” there’s a voice that keeps saying, “Seek first the reign of God and his righteousness and what you need will be given to you.”
Jezebel took the eyes of a nation off Yahweh and his righteousness and put them on the god who would give them this and that. They lost sight of their destiny when they lost sight of God and found “nature”. They became empty bellies and people (as Lewis would put it), all head and pelvic region but no chest. Matthew Arnold said something of such a world:
"On that hard Pagan world disgust
And secret loathing fell.
Deep weariness and sated lust
Made human life a hell.
"In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
The Roman noble lay;
He drove abroad, in furious guise,
Along the Appian way.
"He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
And crown'd his hair with flowers—
No easier nor no quicker pass'd
The impracticable hours.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.