(Pastors Gonzalo and Andrea Sanabria)
In Jesus’ message to the seven churches in Asia, the Lord tells the church in Ephesus: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, whence you have fallen, and repent.”
Although the church had many merits, and the Lord recognizes and values them, this is a call from God to the church to evaluate its ways and its genuine communion with him, since the rites and religious routine easily take a privileged place in the bosom of the church of the Lord. We can do many things for God, and forget the great commandment: love him with all our heart, with all our mind, soul and strength…
VICTORY OVER JEZEBEL AND THE CULT OF BAAL
“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all that reigned before him. For it was a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and he married Jezebel, the daughter of Eth-baal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him” 1 Kings 16:30-31
Here we see a marriage, but it was a marriage without fear of God, Ahab king of Israel joins Jezebel (Sidonite, Canaanite), it was a wrong union, she was the first idol of Ahab, because he knew that God did not approve that union The Law of Moses so taught. However, Ahab marries her and then the cult of Baal, Asherah and all the gods of his wife Jezebel is generated.
Her name Jezebel means: without cohabitation, you do not live together with someone. This highlights his characteristics of extreme selfishness and independence at all costs.
He was a person who only thought of himself, he did not like to be under authority, he did not like being accountable, he wanted to do his things without having to report, he simply wanted to do his will without any order, only his own, he always tries to impose his will . By promoting the worship of Baal and Asherah, he also promoted sexual immorality.
It is very important to consider here the dynamics of Baal worship. This cult came from Babylon. Baal was the supreme Canaanite god of nature and fertility, they believed that he sent rain on their crops, this cult aroused sexual immorality. Baal was offered human sacrifices, the worshipers of him offering his blood through wounds in his skin (1 Kings 18: 26-29).
Now consider Asherah: Canaanite goddess of fertility, her cult included ritual prostitution. She represented in wooden objects or consecrated trees in places of idol worship. call too Ashtoreth (in plural, Ashtaroth) was a goddess of fertility and of love. He was the main deity of the Canaanites. Faced with this idolatry, God calls and promotes the formation of the prophets (I wrote the article about this: “Elisha and the School of Prophets”).
When the prophet Elijah confronts King Ahab he tells him: “When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him: Are you the one who troubles Israel? And he (Elijah) answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house, forsaking the commandments of the Lord, and following the Baals” (1 Kings 18:17-18).
This passage teaches us that there can be idols in the midst of God’s people. What is an idol? Figure, image, or representation that is the object of worship. It is everything that rises in the heart and occupies or shares the place of God, that is why God told Israel: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3).
Idols can be: people (“saints”) or significant objects from the past (the bronze serpent for Israel); the love of money (Mammon), sexual immorality (Asherah, Aphrodite or Venus), the ego (self-pleasure, power, pride), and any person or object that displaces God from the first place.
It is necessary to reflect on the consequences of idolatry. To displace God is to displace life. Israel experiences a time when God’s presence departs; the skies close (3.5 years of drought); they experience shame (because their god Baal does not answer them); the darkness obscured their vision and discernment (this is noticeable when seeing the kind of worship in which they participated), and the ruin was great: “And the famine was severe in Samaria” (1 Kings 18:2).
But God uses Elijah for a great victory on Mount Carmel, and the Israelites seeing the power of God They fell down and said: Jehovah is God, Jehovah is God!
Final reflection: “Let us hold fast, without wavering, the confession of our hope, because faithful is he who promised. God is faithful, and in him we must remain firm, even in the face of adversity, because in the end he will show his glory.
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