1 Chronicles 5:23-26. "The members of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land. ... But they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the people of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the ... king of Assyria, and he carried them away". The verses prior to this tell how God helped the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manassa win this land "because they trusted in him", and they then "dwelt in their place until the exile." (1 Chronicles 5:19-22)

This very abbreviated history of the tribes who were settled to the east of the Jordan River (see Joshua 22) shows us in just a few lines how we can go from trust in God to idolatry, and the horrendous effects of that change. These tribes fought for their land as God directed them. Because "the war was of God", and they trusted Him, they won the land and lived peacefully and in plenty there. This is how our lives are when we are in tune with God's plan for us and trying to live in accordance with it. But the Jewish tribes started to forget how God destroyed the people they conquered. As time went by, and they were living with the survivors, they began being more comfortable with the way of life of these foreigners, and the false gods of the land started to look pretty appealing.

False gods are always easier to worship, at first, than the true God, because they will promise you anything and everything. Of course, they don't actually make any promises, but our minds convince us they do when we start entertaining the idea of "playing the harlot" against our God. We compare ourselves to others, and start thinking that they have it better than us, so their gods must be better. The true God is a God of love, His benefits flow from love and from relationship, so they sometimes seem to take longer to manifest, or are more subtle than the instant gratification associated with idols. His benefits are always there, though, and they are always much deeper than the promises of false gods. He is the only place we can find true happiness.

Idolatry always ends in pain, and often in disaster, with us giving more and more to our idols and getting less and less in return until we are finally empty and defeated. It is in that defeat that we will hopefully find our way back to God. The half tribe of Manasseh, and the tribes of Rueben and Gad will suffer this defeat when Assyria conquers them and brings them into exile. This is the typical, painful, cycle that we go through when we stop trusting in God, and start chasing after idols.