Who are the Baals in the Bible?

By Nick Bibile

The Baals are a family of Canaanite and Phoenician gods. Baal's wife is Ashtoreth, the goddess of war and fertility. His name can also mean husband or lord, which makes similar to Israel's God,

What was the temptation to worship the Baals? Israelites were tempted for Baals as they can bring good rain, harvest, fertility and produce children. Remember the society depended on agriculture and farming, and the more children you have the better as they can be used for farming and agriculture. It was farming and agriculture that brought wealth, the bottom line is just like today people are tempted to become rich, the Israelites in those days were tempted for wealth, this makes sense why the Israelites were tempted to worship the Baals and the images of other gods.

It is interesting in Matthew 12:27 Jesus calls Satan, 'Beelzebub'.and this name links to a Baal god. See 2 Kings 1:2 , “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.”

Baal-zebub was a Philistine god. In short Jesus is telling, Baal is Satan, as demons can masquerade themselves as gods and image worship is demon worship.

1 Corinthians 10:20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

Revelations 9:20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk

Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.

We are to worship only God, as Jesus said in Matthew 4:10 ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
   and him only shall you serve.’

However Satan and his demons want worship and as they are evil spirit beings which we cannot see, they hide in images where people worship, the ignorant people think they are worshiping these images to get a blessing but instead they are worshiping demonic spirits which is a curse.

Satan promises wealth and money, just like the days of the Old Testament Israelites were tempted for agricultural and farming wealth and today it's money and material things. Satan told Jesus in Matthew 4:9 all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

There is nothing wrong with money, it is the love of money and covetousness for material things that we need to avoid, especially in our days where merchants are advertising in T.V that we need to buy their new products as many people would like to show off their pride and wealth.

Satan hasn't changed, he came as Baals of the Old Testament and today he is the same devil tempting all to work hard, earn your money and live happily, eat and drink and be merry. But the Bible says,

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.