Judges 2:11-14 (New American Standard Bible), "Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies."

Those who know the Old Testament will immediately understand the correlation between the title of this missive and the aforementioned verse from the Book of Judges. After the death of Joshua, and some subsequent generations, the children of Israel forgot the pledge in response to Joshua's challenge from Joshua 24:14-15 (New American Standard Bible), "Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Because they did not tell the story of their deliverance from Egypt and God's blessing in bringing them to the promised land to future generations, Israel did indeed fall down to worship other gods. One of the gods of the Baals was the god Moloch; he was the god of child sacrifice. Israel adopted this heinous practice; even some kings sacrificed their own children into the fire of Moloch. And as it says in Judges, the anger of the Lord burned against them.

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