From the great mind of Joseph Wheless! Too funny! The Great and Infinite mind of a causeless being with a nose, fingers, ass, mouth, etc....or the reified gods of tribal men!!
When David was on a foray against Saul, and had no weapon, he went to Ahimelech, the high priest (miscalled
Abiathar by Jesus Christ in Mark 2: 26 ), in the house of Yahveh and got the sword of Goliath, which was
"wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod" (1 Sam. 21: 9 ) or phallic statue of Yahveh. Once when Saul sought for David to kill him, the fair Michal, Saul's daughter and David's first wife, who "loved him," put one of her big phallic teraphim in the nuptial bed and covered it, while David, who was consequently supposed to be in the bed asleep, escaped (I Sam.
19: 13 ).
That these teraphim were idols used in divination or in oracular consultation with Yahveh is plain from the passage of the prophet Zechariah: "For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams" (Zech. 10: 2 ). The Authorized Version in English uses the word "idols"; but the Hebrew and the Revised Version, more honestly, both use the word "teraphim."
THE SACRED DICE OF YAHVEH The pious Hebrews had another sacred device, common to the heathen peoples of those regions, which is said to have been revealed by Yahveh himself to Moses on Sinai. This was the sacred oracular dice, urim and thummim, by which Yahveh revealed his holy will to his Chosen, and which the priest must carry in his "breastplate of judgment ... before Yahveh continually" (Ex. 28: 30 ). These oracular dice or "lots" were "cast" before Yahveh, and answered yes or no just as the Assyrian "tablets of destiny" did before Marduk, or Bel. Some random instances of the use of these sacred dice may be cited. Moses dedicated first Aaron (Ex. 28: 30 ), and later Joshua (Num. 27: 21 ), to use the urim and thummim; later still, he consecrated the sons of Le6: the Levites, for this office in perpetuity (Deut. 33: 8 ). Joshua used these dice as lots to detect Achan for his theft at the taking of Ai (Josh. 7 ). Samuel used them to select Saul to be king (I Sam. 23: 9 ). Saul said unto Yahveh: "Shew the right; cast lots between me and Jonathan my son"' to detect the person who had eaten during a battle with the Philistines, and the lot fell upon Jonathan, who then confessed (I Sam. 14: 41-43 ). Sometimes this device failed, as in 1 Samuel 28: 6; for, "when Saul enquired of Yahveh, Yahveh answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets" (the three methods of divination or fortune-telling used to secure the will of Yahveh); it was then that Saul made his visit to the witch of Endor, to consult the shade of Samuel.
The pious King David "enquired of Yahveh" several times through the dice urim and thummim and by the phallic ephod of Yahveh. When he wished to know whether be should attack Saul, "he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod," and David inquired of it, saying: "O Yahveh God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant," and Yahveh replied to the satisfaction of David (1 Sam. 23: 9-12 ).
As late as the prophets Ezra (Ezra 2: 63 ) and Nehemiah (Neb. 7: 65 ), questions were not decided "till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim," to consult Yahveh for the answer --just like Greek oraclemongers and Roman augurs. The superstitious and idolatrous Hebrews used these consecrated dice to decide even law-suits and legal controversies, a practice instituted on Sinai in Exodus 28: 30, and followed with the express approval of the Wisest Man, in two of his Proverbs. For Solomon says: "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of Yahveh" (Prov. 16: 33 ); and again he records this maxim of legal practice: "The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty" (Prov. 18: 18 ). As if the God of all wisdom would reveal himself and his will through such superstitious and childish devices, a sort of acrimonious craps-shooting. Dreams, dice, and prophets -- certainly a convincing triad foevelation of the oracles of God! And witches, and wizards, and necromancers, and charmers, and dealers with familiar spirits, to assist! OTHER HEATHEN RITES OF YAHVEH Besides all the phallic worship and idolatrous practices above noticed, which were throughout their history associated with the cult of Yahveh, as a sort of special Hebraic Super-El or Baal, the Chosen People never even for a season gave up the common heathen idolatry into which they were born and bred and with which they were everywhere surrounded among their kindred peoples. We remember that Aaron made the golden calf at the very foot of Sinai while Moses was with the new-found god Yahveh (if he ever was); and Aaron proclaimed to the people, then but three months out of Egypt: "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The golden calf was perhaps a reproduction of the sacred bull Apis of Egypt, though it is said that it was the symbol of Baal, derived from the Canaanites, and changed by the Hebrews into "a representation of Yahv'e" (Encyc. Bib., Vol. 1, col. 632 ). The Chosen People had known no other gods or forms of worship than those of Egypt for 430 years, and were common Chaldean idolaters before that time; and ever after leaving Egypt they followed the practices of their kindred peoples among whom they lived, and refused to pay any very particular attention to the new "jealous God" Yahveh.
Moses himself, in addition to the "twelve mazzeboth" which he set up just afteeceiving a "law" against them, also made the famous brazen image of the fiery serpent, which healed the plague-stricken Israelites, and was preserved and worshipped as a god by them until it was finally destroyed by King Hezekiah; "for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it" (2 Kings 18:
4 ).
Gideon, as we have seen, also encouraged idolatry; his nickname was Jerubbaal, showing his dedication to the Canaanite- Hebrew Baal. The holy King David worshipped Baal religiously, and as the custom was in Baalworship, danced the Baal-dance in public and naked, "with all his might" before the holy Ark of the Covenant of Yahveh; and his wife Michal, "looked through a window and saw king David leaping and dancing before Yahveh; and she despised him in her heart" (2 Sam. 6: 14-16 ). Absalom "reared up for himself a mazzebah [phallic "pillar"]. ... for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the mazzebah after his own name" (2 Sam. 18: 18 ). The wise Solomon, it is recorded, "loved Yahveh: ... only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places" (1 Kings 3: 3 ); the bamah or "high place" being the popular shrine of Baalworship throughout Israel. King Solomon also "loved many strange women" of all the heathen peoples; and impartially he built a phallic temple for Yahveh and "an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab ... and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon," and went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians; "and likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods" (I Kings 11: 1-8 ). Jeroboam, the first secessionist king over Israel, made two golden calves and set them up, one in Bethel and the other in Dan, saying, as did Aaron: "Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12: 28 ).
These heathenish practices were not confined to sundry "bad kings" who backslided from Yahveh; they were universal and constant throughout the rank and file of the Chosen, part and parcel of the orthodox worship of Yahveh: "For they also built them high places, and mazzeboth, and asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahveh cast out before the children of Israel" (I Kings 14: 23, 24 ) -- only Yahveh never did cast them out; they stayed there until the Chosen were themselves carried into captivity.
The Books of Kings and Chronicles, and of the prophets are filled with these records of continuous idolatry under the successive kings of Israel and Judah, to the end of the national record. Even under the few, scattered "good kings" (i.e., Yahveh devotees), who made some reforms, it is always related, as of Joash: "But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places" (2 Kings 12: 3 ). Asa "took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made"; he also removed his mother Maachah "from being queen, because she had made an asherah" -- "but the high places were not removed" (1 Kings 15: 12-14 ). The kings, however zealous for Yahveh they are reported, never once attempted to disturb the public idol worship of the people. Although the few "good kings" held personally, maybe, only to Yahveh, and some prophets thundered against other idols and other idolatry in favor of the "jealous God" Yahveh, the universal idol-worship of the Chosen People was never interrupted. Elijah, prophet of El-Yahveh, murdered the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 "prophets of the groves" (1 Kings 18 ), and wailed, in his solitude: "I, even I only, am left," of all the prophets of Yahveh. Later Jehu massacred every worshipper of Baal, although he continued the worship of the two golden calves of Yahveh in Bethel and Dan (2 Kings 10
). Still the idol-worship throve, and the Chosen People "did not believe in Yahveh their God."
This recital of instances must end; and will be brought to a close with some panoramic views of idolatry throughout the history of the Chosen People. In 2 Kings 17 this striking picture is presented:
"And the children of Israel ... built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up mazzeboth and asherim in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places [bamoth]; ... and wrought wicked things to provoke Yahveh to anger: For they served idols, whereof Yahveh had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. ...
Notwithstanding they ... did not believe in Yahveh their God. ... And they ... made them molten images, even two calves, and made asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire [to Moloch], and used divination and enchantments." |
