6 Bible Verses about Backsliding, Israel Exanples

All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the LORD's commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"read more.
Moses cried to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me." The LORD said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me." All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.read more.
He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. The LORD spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'" The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation." Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'" The LORD repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people. Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp." He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear." It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain. He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?" Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the LORD's side, come to me." All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'" The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, for every man was against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day." It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin." Moses returned to the LORD, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin?and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written." The LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin." The LORD struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, the LORD's holy one.read more.
The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Sea of Suf. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn't destroy them. Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They did not believe his word, but murmured in their tents, and did not listen to the LORD's voice. Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness, that he would overthrow their seed among the nations, and scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them. Then Phinehas stood up, and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped. That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come. They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips.

Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old. They buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know the LORD, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel.read more.
The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked the LORD to anger. They forsook the LORD, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of marauders who plundered them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had spoken, and as the LORD had sworn to them: and they were in great distress. The LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not do so. When the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved the LORD because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they did not cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and he said, "Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died; that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not." So the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works. They served their idols, which became a snare to them.read more.
Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds. Therefore the LORD burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance. He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.