Israel, And God's Covenant
Political Context As Perspective
One of the most important, if not the most important themes running through the Hebrew scriptures is the relationship of the Hebrew people to the geographical place of Israel itself: it is the relationship of a specific people – the Jews, the descendents of Abraham and those who have adopted his religion – to a specific chunk of land: Israel. Throughout these scriptures, especially in Genesis and Exodus, God repeatedly promises this land to the descendants of Abraham.
With this in mind,
in very simplistic terms,
Hebrew stories either take place and/or were written when the Hebrews:
a) Represented an oppressed minority attempting to
control Israel or
b) Were the political and cultural majority in control of
Israel
c) Were defeated by Babylon and in exile as slaves
These three differences unlock two vastly different views of God and the Jew’s relationship to their God.
One God, Different Views
This is not a linear tale with a simple beginning, middle and end. It explains, instead, in part why there are so many different ways of conceiving of this God, both within the Jewish faith tradition and outside of it (by Christians and Muslims etc.). In other words, like all evolution, the earlier models tend to continue on and co-exist with the later models…though often not peacefully, and often in competition with one another. So what follows is an explanation of how and why this God “changes” in the different books of the Hebrew scriptures (or more accurately how He is understood and represented differently in the different books), but the earlier views exist alongside the newer views, and the different views are emphasized differently by different groups of people.
A Brief Overview
Here is a brief outline of changing beliefs, based on the eras in which the different books are believed to have taken place or been written down:
c. 2000-1700 Genesis and Birth of a Religion: The history of the Jewish people and their relationship to this land begins with Abraham (c. 1900 BCE), the first Hebrew, and his descendants. God promises Abraham and his descendants this land in exchange for a covenant (agreement, contractual agreement) that is largely ritualistic and vaguely moral: Abraham and his descendants (the Hebrews) must engage in certain rituals and in exchange they will come into control of the land. Note this conception of God is no different than any other ancient religion: His power is geographically located (he is a “local deity”) and he demands ritual observance.
Traditionally, Moses is believed to have received this history from God, on Mount Sinai c. 1280 BCE, and to have then written it down; even holding this traditional view, note the stories are not written down for about 500 years.
It is worth noting that in this section some of the Abraham's descendents do not act in ways we would consider moral and yet they are still chosen by God and granted control of the land. Some key characters lie and cheat and yet are still favored by God (see Genesis 27: Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, conspire to receive Isaac's blessing, which Isaac believes he is giving to his other son, Esau). Consider, then, that this is the world before God gives Moses the Law (Ten Commandments).
It is also worth remembering that in Judaism the reward for righteous behavior is earthly reward. There is no mention of an afterlife in these stories or texts. Even today, Jews do not believe in the Christian cosmology of "heaven" and "hell".
c. 1700-1000 Exodus: Moses These set the next themes: a minority people exiled from this land -- to Egypt, trying to both return and understand what exactly this covenant involves. These people are slaves, and then they are escaped slaves trying to find a home. The ritual observance and vague morality of Genesis is exchanged for the Mosaic law – first in the Ten Commandments, given by God to Moses, and then an increasingly complex and nuanced set of laws, along with more rituals. In the simplest terms, God will reward those who act morally and punish those who do not, and these books clearly outline laws that determine what is and is not moral. (Note: for Jews, these books do not give ten commandments; they give 613.)
1020-587 The Kingdom: Samuel, Kings, Chronicles: The next stories take place as Israel becomes a fully functioning kingdom controlled by the Hebrew people. These people have moved from a minority (starting with one: Abraham, and his tribe) to a group in exile (slaves in and escaping from Egypt), to the dominant group in power. These stories wrestle with the difficulties of maintaining power and hegemony. Threats to the this people come from other, pagan peoples and from the Hebrews themselves when they forget to live within the law and wind up abusing their power, but mainly these are people who have gotten what they wanted: control of the land. The center of this control is established by King David: Jerusalem, and then even more specifically by David’s son, Solomon, who builds the Temple, in Jerusalem, to hold the Ark of the Covenant: the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God. As will figure heavily into later traditions, this God seems to have been with these people even when they were not in Israel. He appears to guide them when they are lost and is fairly “transportable”. Still, His covenant centers on establishing control of a specific piece of geography: Israel.
597-538 Exile to Babylon: Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, Job: It would seem this is where the story ends, but this is still really just the beginning, because soon the Hebrews are exiled again, this time not by the superpower to the South, Egypt, but by the superpower to the East: Babylon, the descendant culture of Gilgamesh, in modern day Iraq. The King of Israel himself is exiled to Babylon along with thousands of other Hebrews, and after a series of failed revolts, the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.
Thus, the Hebrews are faced with a set of philosophical problems and spiritual choices:
a) Who do they blame for the failed covenant, their religion (perhaps they misunderstood their God), themselves, or other forces of evil?
b) If the Temple was the seat of God, how can they maintain their ritual practices without access to the God’s house?
c) More to the point, did this god stay in Jerusalem or is it something they can carry with them anywhere; in other words, is this God another local deity or a universal God at work anywhere?
To address these issues, the exiled Hebrews begin compiling their stories and laws into the series of books we now know as the Hebrew scriptures or, for Christians, “The Old Testament” -- this process of sorting through the various stories will last another 1000-1500 (the final compilation completed in roughly 1000 AD) years, but it really begins here.
In the symbolic sense, this God is the law – remember that He existed and was worshipped in the Temple in the physical form of the Ten Commandments stone tablets. Increasingly, then, to be a Jew is to worship this God less and less as a “person” who walks in a garden, as in Genesis, and less and less as rooted to a single geographical place, the Temple, and more and more as the essence of morality, manifest in law.
However, in Job we also find this god becoming an increasing mystery taken entirely on faith: something that cannot be completely grasped or understood and may not lead to worldly rewards, yet all the same must still be entirely embraced.
538 BCE-63 AD Occupation and Diaspora: Ezra, Nehemiah: Eventually the Babylonians are defeated by another powerful empire Persia (modern day Iran) and freed by its emperor, Cyrus. They return to Israel and rebuild the Temple.
Various wars and historical complexities follow, but the next major steps in this tale will be taken up later in the course, when the land is first conquered by “Greek” Alexander The Great (332-167) and then the Romans (63 AD -- C. 400). The Romans will destroy the second Temple in 70 AD (to date, permanently; all that remains is the foundation, with a mosque on top) and, until 1948, again exile the Jews.
Returning to and keeping control of the land will remain one of the fundamental goals of Judaism, and this still, to this day, drives the wars in the Middle East. But following the Babylonian exile this God will become increasingly less and less a “person” walking in the garden, showing up as someone people can see and converse with, and less and less one demanding ritual observance in exchange for land, and more and more a universal God revealed through law and worship through moral and just action. Less and less a God controlling the destiny of a specific race or religion, and more and more a mysterious, universal God.