“And I will remove the names of the Baal images from her mouth, and they [the recovered Israelites] will no longer remember them by their name.

Hos. 2:17-20.

7. Why did the restored remnant no longer choose to call the Heavenly Husband of Israel “Ba’ali,” and to what worship did they never return?

⁷ If the restored remnant, after their return from exile in Babylon, were to continue calling Jehovah Ba’ali, “My owner,” it would remind them of their own sin or that of their forefathers in worshiping the Baal images. Jehovah’s dealings with the repentant remnant created in them a disgust for the Baals, and thus he removed the names of the Baal images from their mouths. They no longer chose to remember them by their foul names. Logically they chose not to call the Heavenly Husband of the Israelite nation by the designation “My Baal,” or Ba’ali. (Hos. 2:16, New English Bible; Jerusalem; Leeser) In keeping with that aversion to Baal, they never did return to the adoration of man-made, materialistic images.

8. How did the Jewish remnant that accepted the Messiah show opposition to Baal worship, and how today does the remnant of spiritual Israel avoid sharing with Christendom in God’s accounting against her?

⁸ Similar opposition to idolatry of all kinds was expressed by the Jewish remnant that accepted Jesus as the Messiah. That remnant was taken into the new covenant mediated by Jesus Christ. In modern times, opposition to worshiping anything idolatrous was demonstrated by the remnant of spiritual Israelites, whom Jehovah used his Messiah Jesus to release from Babylon the Great in 1919 C.E. They have striven to render exclusive devotion to Jehovah as their God, even to the extent of refusing to salute the flag of any nation. (Ex. 20:1-6; 2 Cor. 6:15 through 7:1) They just will not contaminate themselves with anything that looks like Baal worship. They tolerate no rivalry of idolatrous gods against Jehovah.