6 Bible Verses about Backsliding, Israel Exanples

And the children of Israel went on from the waste land of Sin, by stages as the Lord gave them orders, and put up their tents in Rephidim: and there was no drinking-water for the people. So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and why do you put God to the test? And the people were in great need of water; and they made an outcry against Moses, and said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to send death on us and our children and our cattle through need of water?read more.
And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by stoning. And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take some of the chiefs of Israel with you, and take in your hand the rod which was stretched out over the Nile, and go. See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb; and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it, and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the chiefs of Israel. And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel were angry, and because they put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not?

And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him. Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me. And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron.read more.
And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord. So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down quickly; for your people, whom you took out of the land of Egypt, are turned to evil ways; Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them, and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have been watching this people, and I see that they are a stiff-necked people. Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I will make a great nation. But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is your wrath burning against your people whom you took out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength of your hand? Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people. Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever. So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of sending punishment on his people. Then Moses came down the mountain with the two stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their two sides, on the front and on the back. The stones were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut on the stones. Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the tents. And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear. And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of the mountain. And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it. And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them? And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have seen how the purposes of this people are evil. For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has come to him. Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out. And Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them loose to their shame before their haters: Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him. And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour. And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three thousand of the people were put to death that day. And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day. And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I may get forgiveness for your sin. Then Moses went back to the Lord and said, This people has done a great sin, making themselves a god of gold; But now, if you will give them forgiveness--but if not, let my name be taken out of your book. And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil against me will be taken out of my book. But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin. And the Lord sent punishment on the people because they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made.

They gave way to their evil desires in the waste land, and put God to the test in the dry places. And he gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease into their souls. They were full of envy against Moses among the tents, and against Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.read more.
The earth opening put an end to Dathan, covering up Abiram and his band. And a fire was lighted among their tents; the sinners were burned up by the flames. They made a young ox in Horeb, and gave worship to an image of gold. And their glory was changed into the image of an ox, whose food is grass. They had no memory of God their saviour, who had done great things in Egypt; Works of wonder in the land of Ham, and things of fear by the Red Sea. And he was purposing to put an end to them if Moses, his special servant, had not gone up before him, between him and his people, turning back his wrath, to keep them from destruction. They were disgusted with the good land; they had no belief in his word; Talking against him secretly in their tents, they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord. So he made an oath against them, to put an end to them in the waste land: That their children might be mixed among the nations, and sent away into other lands. And they were joined to Baal-peor, and took part in the offerings to the dead. So they made him angry by their behaviour; and he sent disease on them. Then Phinehas got up, and made prayer for them; and the disease went no farther. And all the generations coming after him kept the memory of his righteousness for ever. They made God angry again at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled because of them; For they made his spirit bitter, and he said unwise things.

And death came to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, he being a hundred and ten years old. And they put his body in the earth in the land of his heritage in Timnath-heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim to the north of Mount Gaash. And in time death overtook all that generation; and another generation came after them, having no knowledge of the Lord or of the things which he had done for Israel.read more.
And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and became servants to the Baals; And they gave up the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about them, worshipping them and moving the Lord to wrath. And they gave up the Lord, and became the servants of Baal and the Astartes. And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of those who violently took their property, and into the hands of their haters all round them, so that they were forced to give way before them. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had taken his oath it would be; and things became very hard for them. Then the Lord gave them judges, as their saviours from the hands of those who were cruel to them. But still they would not give ear to their judges, but went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly turning from the way in which their fathers had gone, keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so. And whenever the Lord gave them judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and was their saviour from the hands of their haters all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved by their cries of grief because of those who were cruel to them. But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of their sins and their hard-hearted ways. And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given ear to my voice; From now on I will not go on driving out from before them any of the nations which at the death of Joshua were still living in this land; In order to put Israel to the test, and see if they will keep the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did, or not. So the Lord let those nations go on living in the land, not driving them out quickly, and did not give them up into the hands of Joshua.

They did not put an end to the peoples, as the Lord had said; But they were joined to the nations, learning their works. And they gave worship to images; which were a danger to them:read more.
They even made offerings of their sons and their daughters to evil spirits, And gave the blood of their sons and their daughters who had done no wrong, offering them to the images of Canaan; and the land was made unclean with blood. So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires. Then the wrath of the Lord was burning against his people, and he was angry with his heritage. And he gave them into the hands of the nations; and they were ruled by their haters. By them they were crushed, and made low under their hands. Again and again he made them free; but their hearts were turned against his purpose, and they were overcome by their sins.

Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women.