6 Bible Verses about Backsliding, Israel Exanples

The whole congregation of the Israelis set out from the desert of Sin, traveling from place to place according to the command of the LORD. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses: "Give us water to drink." Moses told them, "Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the LORD?" But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"read more.
So Moses cried out to the LORD: "What am I to do with these people? Just a little more and they'll stone me." Then the LORD told Moses, "Go over in front of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I'll be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock and water will come out of it, so the people can drink." Moses did this in front of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelis quarreled and tested the LORD by saying: "Is the LORD really among us or not?"

When the people saw that Moses took a long time to come down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and told him, "Come here and make us a god who will go before us, because, as for this fellow Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him." Aaron told them, "Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me." All the people tore off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to him. read more.
He took them from them and, using a tool, fashioned them into a molten calf. The people said, "This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and then he proclaimed, "Tomorrow is to be a festival to the LORD." They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up to play. The LORD told Moses, "Go down immediately, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have behaved corruptly. They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf. They have bowed down to it in worship, they have offered sacrifices to it, and they have said, "This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.'" Then the LORD told Moses, "I've seen these people and indeed they're obstinate. Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I'll make a great nation of you." But Moses implored the LORD his God: "LORD, why are you angry with your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a show of force? Why should the Egyptians say, "He brought them out with an evil intention to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your anger and change your mind about the calamity against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by yourself as you told them, "I'll increase the number of your descendants like the stars of the heavens, I'll give your descendants all of this land about which I have spoken, and they are to possess it forever.'" So the LORD changed his mind about the calamity he had said he would bring on his people. Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides. They were written on one side and the other. The tablets were the work of God and the writing was God's writing, inscribed on the tablets. When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he told Moses, "The sound of war is coming from the camp." Moses said, "It is not the sound of a victory shout, and it's not the sound of a shout of defeat, but it's the sound of singing that I hear." As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the base of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, and ground it into powder. He scattered it on the water and made the Israelis drink it. Then Moses asked Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you brought such great sin upon them?" Aaron said, "Sir, don't be angry. You know the people that they're intent on evil. They told me, "Make a god for us who will go before us because, as for this fellow Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.' So I told them, "Whoever has gold ornaments, tear them off.' When they gave it to me, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." When Moses saw that the people were out of control since Aaron had let them get out of control, something that incited ridicule from their enemies he stood in the gate of the camp and called out: "Whoever is for the LORD come over to me," and all the sons of Levi gathered around him. He told them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, "Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and each of you kill his brother and friend and neighbor.'" The descendants of Levi did just as Moses told them, and about 3,000 people died that day. Moses said, "You have been ordained to serve the LORD today, and you have brought a blessing on yourselves today because every man opposed his son or brother." The next day Moses told the people, "You committed a great sin, and now I'll go up to the LORD, and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Please, LORD, this people committed a great sin by making a god of gold for themselves. Now, if you will, forgive their sin but if not, blot me out of your book which you have written." The LORD told Moses, "Whoever sins against me, I'll blot him out of my book. Now, go, and lead the people where I told you, and now my angel will go before you, but on the day when I do punish, I'll punish them for their sin." Then the LORD sent a plague on the people because they made the calf (the one Aaron made).

They were overwhelmed with craving in the wilderness, so God tested them in the wasteland. God granted them their request, but sent leanness into their lives. They were envious of Moses in the camp, and of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.read more.
The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, closing over Abiram's clan. Then a fire burned among their company, a flame that set the wicked ablaze. They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped a carved image. They exchanged their glory with the image of a grass-eating bull. They forgot God their Savior, who performed great things in Egypt awesome deeds in the land of Ham, astonishing deeds at the Reed Sea. He would have destroyed them but for Moses, his chosen one, who stood in the breach before him to avert his destructive wrath. They rejected the desirable land, and they didn't trust his promise. They murmured in their tents, and didn't listen to the voice of the LORD. So he swore an oath concerning them that he would cause them to die in the wilderness, to cause their children to perish among the nations and be scattered among many lands. For they adopted the worship of Baal Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. They had provoked anger by their deeds, so that a plague broke out against them. But Phinehas intervened and prayed so that the plague was restrained. And it was credited to him as a righteous act, from generation to generation to eternity. They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered on account of them. For they rebelled against him, so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.

But then Nun's son Joshua, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. They buried him in Timnath-heres, within the boundaries of his inheritance in the mountainous region of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. After that whole generation had died, another generation grew up after them that was not acquainted with the LORD or with what he had done for Israel.read more.
So the Israelis practiced what the LORD considered to be evil by worshiping Canaanite deities. They abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the nations who surrounded them. They bowed down in worship of them, and by doing so angered the LORD. As a result, they abandoned the LORD by serving both Baal and Ashtaroth. So in his burning anger against Israel, the LORD gave them into the domination of marauders who plundered them. The enemies who surrounded the Israelis controlled them, and they were no longer able to withstand their adversaries. Wherever they went, the LORD worked against them to bring misfortune, just as the LORD had warned, and just as the LORD had promised them. As a result, they suffered greatly. Then the LORD raised up leaders, who delivered Israel from domination by their marauders. But they didn't listen to their leaders, because they were committing spiritual immorality by following other gods and worshiping them. They quickly turned away from the road on which their ancestors had walked in obedience to the commands of the LORD. They didn't follow their example. As a result, whenever the LORD raised up leaders for them, the LORD remained present with their leader, delivering Israel from the control of their enemies during the lifetime of that leader. The LORD was moved with compassion by their groaning that had been caused by those who were oppressing and persecuting them. However, after the leader had died, they would relapse to a condition more corrupt than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them, and worshiping them. They would not abandon their activities or their obstinate lifestyles. In his burning anger against Israel, the LORD said, "Because the people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep, and because they haven't obeyed me, I'm also going to stop expelling any of the nations that remained after Joshua died. That way, I'll use them to demonstrate whether or not Israel will keep the LORD's lifestyle by walking on that road like their ancestors did." So the LORD caused those nations to remain and did not expel them quickly. He did not give them into Joshua's control.

They never destroyed the people, as the LORD had commanded them. Instead, they mingled among the nations and learned their ways. They worshipped their idols, and this became a trap for them.read more.
They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, thereby polluting the land with blood. Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did; they have acted like whores by their evil deeds. The LORD's anger burned against his people, so that he despised his own inheritance. He turned them over to domination by nations where those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, so that they were humiliated by their power. He delivered them many times, but they demonstrated rebellion by their evil plans; therefore they sunk deep in their sins.

Didn't Solomon, king of Israel, sin by doing these things, even though among many nations there was no king like him who was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel? Even so, foreign women caused him to sin.