Speaking of false religions and their pursuit of deity and more specifically the Ancient Near Eastern version of religion surrounding and excluding the nation of Israel:
“The divine, in its multiple, personalized presentations, was above all considered to be something grandiose, inaccessible, dominating, and to be feared.” He observes that the gods were not the object of enthusiastic pursuit. The people sought the gods for protection and assistance, not for relationship. “One submitted to them, one feared them, one bowed down and trembled before them: one did not ‘love’ or ‘like’ them.”
John H. Walton. Ancient near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible.
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