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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)