While the earliest patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) generally displayed faithfulness to the Lord God (albeit with imperfection), the sons of Jacob who went to Egypt turned away from the Lord while in Egypt and worshipped the gods of Egypt (Joshua 24:14; Ezekiel 20:7; Ezekiel 23:3). While in the wilderness, they offered sacrifice to the demons (Leviticus 17:7) and to false gods that they had worshipped in Egypt (Amos 5:25–26), and finally, to the celestial bodies (sun, moon, and stars; see Acts 7:42). Once in the Promised Land, Israel walked in faithfulness during the time of Joshua, but the following generations forsook the Lord and went after other gods (Judges 2:10–12). Thereafter, there was the recurring cycle of sin, suffering, repentance, deliverance, only to be followed again by sin, suffering, and so forth, which continued throughout Israel’s history. The entire Old Testament is a testimony to the unfaithfulness of God’s people, who repeatedly forsook the Lord their God, and the contrasting faithfulness of God who never forsook his people, though he disciplined them.
7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’