One of the first things I learned in my "mature" Christian walk was that God had many names. The preeminent one being also the first: "Elohim", as from Genesis 1:1 - in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What I did not know was that this is not completely true.
Elohim is a term that defines any or all citizens of the unseen realm. It can refer to God Himself, (Gen 1:1), demons (Deut 32:17), or even dead people (1 Sam 28:13). Knowing this matters because we begin to pay attention to translation a bit more. Out of all of these beings, God is the unequaled one.
Deu 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
So to approach an answer to the question of where idol-worship began, consider this:
Deu 32:8-9 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. (9) But the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
This translation is the oldest and most-assured, as the Dead Sea Scrolls provided the oldest texts we have of this passage. What is it saying? God divided "rulership" of the earth amongst His own divine council, the same "sons of God" (benai elohim) that we find in Job 1. All, that is, except for Israel, whom He claimed as His own portion. For good or ill, the earth has been ruled by territorial spirits from the time of Babel (Genesis 10-11). These spirits had already been at work in the earth. We read in Genesis 6 that the "sons of God" came down and seduced (or otherwise) the daughters of men, creating a race of mutants, mighty-men, giants... nephilim.
In Exodus, we learn that God is going to judge not only Pharaoh and his court, but the "gods of Egypt":
Exo 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.
I used to believe this was just God being angry at the idol-images made of sandstone and firewood. Not so. He is executing judgment against the spiritual ruling authorities over Egypt who had rebelled. As referenced previously, God calls this ruling group His "divine council", but they do not stay in His good graces:
Psa 82:1-8 A Psalm of Asaph. God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: (2) “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah (3) Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. (4) Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (5) They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. (6) I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; (7) nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” (8) Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!
Lest we think this is a funky translational problem where God is speaking to humans here, we have verse 7: "like men you shall die". Such is God's displeasure that He pronounces a judgment of death upon the rebellious members of His council. What this shows us is that when satan tempts Jesus from the high mountain and offers Him the nations IF Jesus would simply bow down to him: truly satan was still over the nations. Only Israel was the portion of God to that point. Jesus ignores Him, knowing He would indeed get the nations, but the legal way.
Scripture makes many references to demons (see Bashan, Psa 22) and demon-worship (Rev 9:20, 2 Chron 11:15). It should also be pointed out that the word 'demon' is a bit generic, eventually applied to any spirit in rebellion. There is no comparison between the critters that inhabit human individuals in order to drive them to suicide and the dominions and princes that Daniel was privy to. Again, these princes are territorial spirits that govern nations. Why and how humans worshiped these creatures is another study, but know it all began with a single rebel of the divine council who deemed himself greater than God (Isa 14). This rebellion led to a host of fallen that went against God's divine plan to institute another ruling council on the earth: us.
1Co 6:3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
