their gods,
saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do
likewise.
31 You shall not do so to the LORD your God: for every abomination to the
LORD, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons
and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
32 What thing so ever I command you, observe to do it:
you shall not
add thereto, nor diminish from it.
In time
the conditions had become so bad that the prophet Elijah believed that he
was the only one in all of Israel that was not worshiping other gods.
1 Kings
19:13
14 And
he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the
children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars,
and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and
they seek my life, to take it away.
Finally
God made the decision to send the northern kingdom (Israel) into exile.
Because their idolatry was so great, their punishment was to be dispersed
throughout the entire earth and to lose their identity.
2 Kings
17:15
15 And
they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with
their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and
they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen
that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them,
that they should not do like them.