And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil. (1 Kings 9:9)
God’s gracious deliverance from the land of Egypt should have provided the strongest possible motive to keep Israel faithful. It is almost inconceivable how a people could be so ungrateful toward a God who had done so much for them. The ingratitude of Israel and their folly in forsaking such a God and turning to the worship of idols were to be recognized by the world as a just cause for the judgments of God to fall upon this people.