“Who was Baal?”Answer: Baal was the name of the supreme god worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. The practice of Baal worship infiltrated Jewish religious life during the time of the Judges (Judges 3:7) 7 The Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight. They forgot about the Lord their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles., became widespread in Israel during the reign of Ahab
(1 Kings 16:31-33) 31 And as though it were not enough to follow the example of Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and he began to bow down in worship of Baal. 32 First Ahab built a temple and an altar for Baal in Samaria. 33 Then he set up an Asherah pole. He did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the other kings of Israel before him. and also affected Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-2) Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, as his ancestor David had done. 2 Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel. He cast metal images for the worship of Baal. The word baal means "lord"; the plural is baalim. In general, Baal was a fertility god who was believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce children. Different regions worshiped Baal in different ways, and Baal proved to be a highly adaptable god. Various locales emphasized one or another of his attributes and developed special "denominations" of Baalism. Baal of Peorand Baal-erith are two examples of such localized deities. (Numbers 25:3) 3 In this way, Israel joined in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the Lord's anger to blaze against his people. (Judges 8:33) 33 As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal-berith their god. According to Canaanite mythology, Baal was the son of El, the chief god, and Asherah, the goddess of the sea. Baal was considered the most powerful of all gods, eclipsing El, who was seen as rather weak and ineffective. In various battles Baal defeated Yamm, the god of the sea, and Mot, the god of death and the underworld. Baal's sisters/consorts were Ashtoreth, a fertility goddess associated with the stars, and Anath, a goddess of love and war. The Canaanites worshiped Baal as the sun god and as the storm god-he is usually depicted holding a lightning bolt-who defeated enemies and produced crops. They also worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times, appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5)5 They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!. The priests of Baal appealed to their god in rites of wild abandon which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted injury (1 Kings 18:28)28 So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out..Before the Hebrews entered the Promised Land, the Lord God warned against worshiping Canaan's godsbut Israel turned to idolatry anyway.
(Deuteronomy 6:14-15) 14 "You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, 15 for the Lord your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth., During the reign of Ahab and Jezebel, at the height of Baal worship in Israel, God directly confronted the paganism through His prophet Elijah. First, God showed that He, not Baal, controlled the rain by sending a drought lasting three-and-one-half years
(1 Kings 17:1) Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, "As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives-the God I serve-there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!".
Then Elijah called for a showdown on Mt.Carmel to prove once and for all who the true God was. All day long, 450 prophets of Baal called on their god to send fire from heaven-surely an easy task for a god associated with lightning bolts-but "there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention"
(1 Kings 18:29) 29 They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response..
After Baal's prophets gave up, Elijah prayed a simple prayer, and God answered immediately with fire from heaven. The evidence was overwhelming, and the people "fell prostrate and cried, 'The LORDÔÇôhe is God! The LORDÔÇôhe is God!'" (verse 39).In Matthew 12:27, Jesus calls Satan "Beelzebub," 27 And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said.linking the devil to Baal-Zebub, a Philistine deity (2 Kings 1:2) 2 One day Israel's new king, Ahaziah, fell through the latticework of an upper room at his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured. So he sent messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether he would recover.
The Baalim of the Old Testament were nothing more than demons masquerading as gods, and all idolatry is ultimately devil-worship.
(1 Corinthians 10:20) 20 No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don't want you to participate with demons..