UNEQUALLY YOKED PART II
Dear Family:
When I first wrote to you on this subject I knew some of you would think and/or say "I don't get the title". I knew it would open the door to my sequel.
I wrote to you sometime ago about Jabe Harvey. Jabe as you will recall had a team of mules, Maggot and Blue. The two of them were fastened together with a yoke and harness. If they had not been able to work together or if one had been too large or too small to make them work smoothly together we would say they were unequally yoked.
The Bible uses the term in several places but all having to do with relationships. It refers to the husband wife relationship, business relationship and church. In each of these it refers to mixing spiritual with non-spiritual, children of God with children of the world, believers with non-believers and worshipers of God with worshipper of false gods.
I found it interesting that Jehoshaphat's name was " Yehowshaphat (yeh-ho-shaw-fawt'); and meant Jehovah-judged; it is also the symbolical name of a valley near Jerusalem which is the place of ultimate judgment; maybe the deep ravine which separates Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives through which the Kidron Creek flowed. Jehoshaphat was a good king and followed in the steps of his father and did what was right in the site of God, BUT the worship of Baal continued in the kingdom and he became partners with Ahab who was king of Israel and caused Israel to sin.
So just who is or what is this baal, baalm or baalism? This is pretty long and detailed but look at it thoughtfully.
"Archaeologists have discovered rock carvings that show Baal holding a club in his right hand and a lightning flash with a spearhead in his left. These symbols identify him as the god of rain and storm. Baal is also known as the "rider of the clouds," a term showing his power over the heavens. <Psalm 68:4>, "Extol Him who rides on the clouds," gives this title to the God of Israel-- a declaration that the Lord, and not the false god Baal, is ruler over the heavens.
Baal and related deities are also portrayed as a mating bull, symbolizing fertility. It is no surprise that while Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments from the Lord, the disobedient Israelites fashioned a golden calf to worship <Exodus 32>. Jeroboam I, king of Israel, acted in accordance with this pagan idea by making two calves of gold, setting up one at Bethel and the other at Dan <1 Kin. 12:26-30>.
During the history of the Israelites, a rivalry developed between Baalism and the true worship of the Lord <Jer. 23:27>. Perhaps the best example of this rivalry was the conflict between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel <1 Kings 18>. Elijah's challenge to them to bring down fire from heaven was appropriate, because the Canaanites believed that Baal could shoot lightning flashes from the sky. Elijah's mocking of Baal struck at the heart of their claims; he knew that Baal was powerless, that the prophets of Baal had misled the people, and that only the Lord God of Israel was alive and able to answer. In the struggle to the death between true religion and false religion, Elijah knew that Baalism and its prophets had to be destroyed.
Baal's mistress or lover was Anat (or Anath), the goddess of war, love, and fertility. She was the virgin goddess who conceives and was also the victor over Baal's enemies. With the help of Shapash, the sun or luminary, Anat rescued Baal from Mot (the god of death). Her victories in battle were vicious; she is described as up to her hips in gore with heads and hands from the enemies stacked high. Thus, Anat was the driving force in the annual fertility cycle of Baal.
Anat is sometimes identified with the queen of heaven, to whom the Jews offered incense in Jeremiah's day <Jer. 7:18; 44:17-19,25>. But some scholars identify the "queen of heaven" with the Assyro-Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Anat was the patroness of sex and passion, lewd figurines of this nude goddess have been discovered at various archaeological sites in Palestine.
The goddess Asherah <1 Kin. 15:13; 2 Chr. 15:16>;(Asherahs, <Judg. 3:7>) was portrayed as the wife of El (or sometimes Baal) in Canaanite mythology. Asherah was a favorite deity of women. Some of the wives of David and Solomon worshiped her <1 Kin. 15:13>, as Ahab's wife, Jezebel, also probably did <1 Kin. 16:31-33>. King Asa suppressed the worship of Asherah <1 Kin. 15:13>, and King Josiah destroyed "the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven" <2 Kin. 23:4>."Jehoshaphat knew these things and should have abolished them. He got rid of the sodomites who were male prostitutes in the temple but did not get rid of the other pagan practices. Sounds familiar doesn't it. The image of the kingdom of Israel is symbolic of the Christian life. When we study the lives of the children of Israel we are looking at God dealing with his people. And when God got angry with them it is a message to us that we should avoid the errors or sins of the children of Israel. Too often today we see examples of this same paganism in our own country, community and even in the church. Jehoshaphat saw it and did nothing about it. He even went so far as supporting Ahab in his war efforts and partnered with him in a shipping venture which of course we know failed.
So what has this to do with me, you, the church, the country? Simply this; through the lesson of Jehoshaphat we know that God expects us to be different from the world. In this day and age I'm not one who says we are to go out and destroy all the false gods of the world nor are we to kill their worshipers. What I am saying is that we are not to become partners with them or to become so tolerant of them that we permit their ways to become our ways.
I may not be one of the thousands who promote violence and sex but if I just look the other way and do not take a stand then I'm tolerant of it just as Jehoshaphat was. I may not be in the business of deceit and deception but if I partner with those who do, I'm tolerant of it. It is too easy to excuse and tolerate activities and declarations as 1st amendment rights these days. It maybe some ones right to choose to practice any religion they choose but it is not right, in this country, to pass laws to teach their belief in the schools of this land and prevent me from from teaching mine. It is ok for someone to chose to live an alternative life style but it is wrong to pass laws requiring everyone else accept it or to teach it as normal.
This weekend there are numerous demonstrations against the possible war with Irac. Next week there will be demonstrations for and against Roe v Wade but I have not seen any demonstrations against corrupt police, government officials, priest, pornography, suggestive and deceptive advertising. Some how we tolerate sex and violence because it sells. Looks like a golden bull. When I read the definition of baalism it seems that we are slowly but surely becoming a nation of baal worshipers. Oh we do not call it that, we call it creative advertising, marketing, making a living and 1st amendment rights etc. We cannot permit ourselves to be unequally yoked with the world.
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