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There is a relationship of idolatry is worship of other gods and goddesses and pagan heads of state. Devils are always attached to different territories, leaders and have an emotional impact upon the people. An example of having to accept the local gods in order to prosper is recorded for us in (2 Kin. 17).
After the Assyrians had carried off the Israelite populations, they filled the vacuum they had created by transplanting large groups of people from other conquered areas.
These new settlers did not worship the Lord and so the lions caused much chaos among them that the governor sent a complaint to the Assyrian emperor that the immigrant transplants did not ‘know not the manner of the god of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the god of the land,’ – 2 Kings 17:26.
The emperor discerned the people not worshiping the god who controlled the regions; to change them, he sent the Jewish priest back to Samaria from Assyria ‘to teach the people the law of the god of that land’ –2Kings:17:25.
The priest sent to the colonists was not a true priest or God, but one of those who had been attached to the calf-worship, probably at Bethel. Hence, he would be willing to tolerate the mixed religion, which a true priest of the Lord would have unsparingly condemned. — 2 Kings 17:28
The Old Testament reveals high places on which the people offered sacrifices to the god residing there (I Sam. 9:12-13; 10:5; 1Kin. 3:2; Hos. 2:13, etc.). High places were places people sacrificed to the god of the area. High places were associated with Baal (‘high places of Baal’ in Numbers 22:41), or other alien deities (Lev. 26:30)
Kin. 11:7-8; 17; 9-10, etc.). High places were at times man-made mounds or artificially built hills, (1 Kin. 15:23-24; 2Kin. 17:9). High places were also natural elevations such as hills or mountains (2 Kin. 17:10-11; Psa. 121:1; 2 Chron. 21:11).
Certain pagan gods ruled certain territories:
- Marduk, the Babylonian god.
- Dagon, the Philistine god.
- Clemesh the Moabite and Amonite god.
Naaman, the Syrian general who was leprous declared the waters of the Syrian rivers of Abana and Pharpar were superior to the Jordan River. The water gods from his native rivers could not heal him. When he submitted to the spiritual authority of God’s prophet and was healed by bathing in Jordan’s waters, he realized the power came from the God of Israel and confessed, “I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.’ But since he had to serve his king in Damascus, he asked for ‘two mule burdens of Israelite earth’ so that he could pray and worship God on His own soil because his birth and social position required him to live in the territory which the god Rimmon was the controller,” (2Kin. 5:1-19).