believe this who tries to realise what the words mean? a piece of wood,
of vegetable tissue, is suddenly transformed into a snake, into bones
and muscle, and nerve and blood, and skin! We are here in the region of
fairy-tale, not of history. We may also note that when this wonderful
transformation-scene was repeated before Pharoah, the Egyptian jugglers
proved themselves to be quite as skilful at snake-making as were Moses
and Aaron. The scene ended, however, with a grand effect: for “Aaron’s
rod swallowed all their rods” (Ex. vii., 12). The sacred narrative does
not state the result on the triumphant stick, nor whether it showed the
thickness of all the rods combined, when it turned back again into a
stick.
Moses appears to have shared my doubts as to the point of the miracles,
for he persisted that he did not want to go, until god, who is without
passions (Art. I.) got very angry (Ex. ix., 14). At last, he agreed to
go, and god informed him as to Pharoah: “I will harden his heart, that
he shall not let the people go” (Ex. ix., 21). This unhappy Pharaoh was
“raised up” by god in order that god’s power might be manifested in
tormenting him and his miserable people; over and over again, god
“hardened his heart,” and Paul, instead of being ashamed of this awful
conduct actually justifies it (see p. 25). If any human being forced a
helpless creature into crime, and then punished him for committing it,
no words of abhorrence could be found too strong to express the loathing
which would fill every just and righteous heart in contemplating such
conduct. Yet it is blasphemy to deny that the “heavenly Father” behaved
in this fashion towards Pharaoh.
The odd little interlude which takes up vv. 24, 25, 26 of the same
chapter has been a sore trouble to commentators. Why “the Lord” tried to
kill somebody, who it was he tried to kill, where “the inn” was by which
he met him, what the mutilation of her son by Zipporah had to do with
the quarrel, all these things have been discussed and re-discussed _ad
nauseam_. Students of ancient religions will find that nature-worship
throws some light on the matter, but it is blasphemous light, and must
be carefully avoided by all true believers who are anxious about the
salvation of their souls.
It is blasphemy to say that god was known to Abraham “by my name
Jehovah” (Ex. vi., 8); it is also blasphemy to deny that Abraham knew
him as Jehovah and “called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh” (Gen.
xxii., 14).
It is blasphemy to deny that Moses turned all the water in Egypt, the
water in streams, rivers, ponds, pools, as well as all in vessels; after
_all_ the water had been thus turned into blood, the Egyptian magicians
turned the rest into blood (Ex. vii., 19, 20, 22). This is a very
remarkable miracle, showing great skill on the part of the Egyptians.
It is blasphemy to deny the historical truth and perfect accuracy of the
Biblical account of the miracles wrought by the hand of the Lord in the
land of Egypt. It is very hard work to believe, but we must try, for it
is clear that if we go to gaol for denying them, we shall not get out
“till we have paid the uttermost farthing” demanded by law.
First, we must believe that “the Lord” kept on sending messages to
Pharaoh, commanding him to let the people go, while at the same time
“the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the
children of Israel go” (Ex. x., 20). It is blasphemy to deny that god
behaved in this horribly wicked manner, compelling Pharaoh to refuse,
and then plaguing him and his people for the refusal; we deserve
damnation if we do not agree with Paul, when he writes: “It is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou will say
then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his
will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it: Why hast thou made me thus?”
(Rom. ix., 16—20.) Yes, most certainly it should so say, if it be a
living sentient thing, capable of enjoyment and of agony. No god has the
right to create sentient beings, to harden them, and then to find fault
with them and torture them for being hardened. The challenge, “Why doth
he yet find fault?” is a very proper one, and Paul cannot answer it, so
he falls back on god’s power to do as he chooses; but the exercise of
the power would be a crime, and if it be blasphemy to say that such
unutterable wickedness is criminal, then I will blaspheme as long as I
live, rather than turn flattering courtier to a monarch more cruel than
Caligula, a despot more tyrannical than any Eastern potentate known to
history.
After the duel about the water between Moses and the Egyptian magicians
— in which the magicians certainly shewed the greater power and
dexterity—Moses and Aaron covered the land of Egypt with frogs (Ex.
viii., 6), and again the magicians proved quite as capable. Exit frogs.
Enter lice. This was too much for the magicians; “all the dust of the
land became lice” (viii., 17)—note this proof of spontaneous
generation—so the material was lacking to the magicians, but as they had
done so well in turning the water into blood after it had all become
blood already, it is disappointing to find that they broke down at this
critical period. Perhaps they were tired.
Exit lice. Enter flies. That was a very horrid plague. Blue-bottles
everywhere. They filled the cream-jugs, they covered the joints, they
fell into the jam, they stuck in the treacle. Fly-papers went up 100 per
cent, and several gentlemen in the profession made fortunes during the
rush. “A greater than” these, however, came to the rescue: “the Lord”
himself “removed the swarms of flies,” and joyful to relate, “there
remained not one” (viii., 31). I should like to have spent the remainder
of that summer in Egypt. As day after day went on, and not a solitary
buzz was heard, how joyfully must the maids and matrons of Egypt have
chanted in thankful chorus: “Fly not yet!”
Pharaoh’s heart remaining petrified, an attack was made on the flocks
and herds. “A very grievous murrain” was sent “upon thy cattle which is
in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the
oxen, and upon the sheep” (Ex. ix., 3). And they _all_ died. Between the
dead frogs and the dead cattle Egypt must have been.... well, let us say
fragrant. While they were all lying there dead, god sent boils on them;
the object of this is not clear, and it is a little difficult to
understand how the boils flourished on cold corpses; still the
Scriptures cannot lie, and thus it is written. With that appropriateness
which shews real genius, Moses, at the Lord’s command, sprinkled
“handfuls of ashes of the furnace,” and in “these ashes glowed their
former fires,” and they caused “a boil.”
The next miracle is a very remarkable one. Forgetting that all the
beasts were dead and boiled, the Lord said: “Send therefore now and
gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every
man and beast which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought
home, the hail shall come down upon them and they shall die” (ix., 19).
Some made their dead “cattle flee into the houses,” thus showing a skill
and a miracle-working power which must have made Moses very jealous;
others left theirs in the field, probably thinking that the boil-covered
carcases were not worth the trouble of carriage. Down came the hail, and
smote “all that was in the field, both man and beast” (ix., 25). Here
indeed was an exemplification, so far as the cattle were concerned, of
the second death.
Next came the locusts, to “eat the residue of that which is escaped,
which remaineth unto you from the hail” (x., 5). As the hail “smote
_every_ herb of the field and brake _every_ tree of the field” (ix.,
25), there cannot have been much left for the locusts; however, they
made a clean sweep of all the vegetable life in Egypt, “and there
remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the fields”
(x., 15). On the whole it was by a merciful dispensation of Providence
that the cattle were all dead, and were not left to starve. As all the
animals were dead and there were no plants left, the Lord had nearly
come to the end of his plagues; so he sent “darkness which may be felt”
for three days, while trying to invent some more. None of the Egyptians,
we are told, rose “from his place for three days;” why nobody struck a
light we are not told; now-a-days we often have plagues of darkness in
London from the fogs, but we make shift with gas and the electric light
until the sunlight returns.
The last miracle in Egypt was a very wonderful one; it was the killing
for the third time of some—the first-born— cattle. The first-born of men
were also slain; but that was only for the first time, and all men are
mortal. This was too much for the Egyptians, and they rose up to drive
out the Israelites, the latter picking up, as they went, “jewels of
silver, jewels of gold, and raiment” (xii. 35), and so robbing their
unlucky hosts of the little property they had left.
But poor Pharaoh was not yet safe: “The Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel”
(xiv. 8). He yoked into his chariots the twice-slain horses, and mounted
his men on others of these re-revivified quadrupeds, and galloped after
the flying robbers. God, to deliver his people, divided the sea before
them, piling up the waters on each side as a wall. Down along this
curious and unique path plunged the men and the horses, the latter
probably thinking that one death, more or less, couldn’t hurt them. A
new difficulty arose. God pulled off their chariot-wheels, and so
delayed them; and then suddenly down came the water-walls, and the poor
Egyptians were all drowned. Like the flies and the locusts, “there
remained not so much as one of them” (xiv. 28). The horses also were
drowned, and let us hope they did not come to life again.
Thus endeth the story of the miracles of Egypt, which story is part of
the Christian creed as defined by law, and which it is blasphemy to
deny.
After the Lord had thrown “the horse and his rider” into the sea, the
children of Israel went on into the wilderness, and found no water for
three days. At the end of that time they found some “bitter” water, but
the Lord showed Moses a tree which made the water sweet. Genus and
species not revealed to us. It is very odd that, when the Bible mentions
anything that might be practically useful, it never gives such
particulars as would enable us to repeat the experiment.
The next trial to our faith is the story of the manna. The people might
well ask: “What is this?” It was so expansible and contractile that,
when they measured it, having “gathered some more, some less,” if a man
gathered much he had “nothing over, and he that gathered little had no
lack” (Ex. xvi., 17, 18). This curious result of measuring it “with an
omer” is, however, susceptible of explanation, for we read, in Ex. xvi.,
36, that “an omer is the tenth part of an ephah,” whereas, in Ezech.
xiv., the ephah contains “the tenth part of an homer.” Perhaps in
measuring some of the Jews dropped their h’s. The variable expansion of
the manna is not its only peculiarity. Manna gathered on Thursday “bred
worms and stank” if kept till Friday; manna gathered on Friday “did not
stink, neither was there any worm therein” on Saturday (xvi., 20 and
24).
The bread difficulty disposed of, the water difficulty again came to the
front, but Moses smote a rock, and water came out of it (Ex. xvii., 6).
Later, under very similar circumstances, Moses smote another rock with
the like result (Numb, xx., 11.), and the Lord was very angry with him,
and refused to let him enter “the promised land.” It is curious that in
both these cases the place was called Meribah, because of the complaints
of the Israelites; but it would be blasphemy to say that two traditions
of one incident have been inserted in the text.
Soon after this a wonderful battle took place, in which Israel fought
against Amalek, and “it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that
Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed” (Ex.
xvii., 11). The relation of cause and effect is not clear, but it is
satisfactory to know that Moses’ hands were held up by main force until
evening stopped the slaughter.
It is blasphemy to say that there are more gods than one (Statute of
Will. III.), yet it is blasphemy to deny that “the Lord is greater than
all gods” (Ex. xviii., 11). It is hard to understand how the Lord can be
greater than gods which do not exist; nevertheless “he that believeth
not shall be damned.”
Chapters xix. and xx. of Exodus can only be believed by those who have
not risen above the most anthropomorphic conception of their god. God is
everywhere, yet Moses went backwards and forwards between the people and
god (xix., 3—9). God is everywhere, yet Moses “brought forth the people
out of the camp to meet with God” (v., 17), and “the Lord descended
upon” a particular mountain (v. 18), and “came down upon Mount Sinai, on
the top of the mount” (v. 20). God is invisible, one “whom no man hath
seen nor can see” (1 Tim. vi., 16), whom “no man hath seen at any time”
(John L, 18); yet he was afraid lest the people should “break through
unto the Lord to gaze” (Ex. xix., 21), and up the mount went “Moses, and
Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and
they saw the God of Israel” (Ex. xxiv., 9, 10). God dwells “in the light
which no man can approach unto” (1 Tim. vi., 16), and “God is light and
in him is no darkness at all” (1 John i., 5); yet “Moses drew near onto
the thick darkness where God was” (Ex. xx., 21). It is blasphemy to deny
that all these contradictions are true.
It is blasphemy to deny that god, on Mount Sinai, gave commands among
which we find the following revolting and immoral ones: If the owner of
a Hebrew slave give the slave a wife, and the slave goes out at the end
of seven years, “the wife and her children shall be her master’s; he
shall go out by himself” (Ex. xxi., 4). The wife is like any other
female animal; she and her young belong to her master, and she may be
used to increase his stock. If the husband and father clings to his
family, god mercifully allows him to buy the right to live with them
with the price of his freedom. A man may sell his daughter to be a
concubine, and if her purchaser starve her, or let her go naked, or does
not perform his marital duty, she may leave him (vv. 7—11). A man may
beat his man or woman slave to death, provided that he or she lives “a
day or two” after the flogging, for “he is his money” (vv. 20, 21), and
the loss of his valuable chattel is punishment sufficient. If an ox gore
a man, the ox is to be stoned (v. 28), a form of vivisection which Lord
Coleridge can scarcely approve; but, as Paul says: “Doth god take care
for oxen?” (1 Cor. ix., 9). If the ox gore a slave, the owner of the
slave is to be paid for the value of his property (v. 32). If a thief be
unable to restore the double or fourfold value, as the case may be, of
that which he has stolen, “then he shall be sold for his theft” (xxii.,
3). A witch is to be murdered (v. 20). An idolater is to be murdered (v.
20). “The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt
thou do with thine oxen and with thy sheep” (vv. 29, 30). Is it credible
that by the law of England it should be blasphemy to deny that these
horrible commands are “of divine authority”?
And as though to show that this book is of purely human origin, with the
mingled good and evil inseparable from all early efforts at legislation,
we read, after the foregoing horrors the following noble and generous
teaching:
“Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked
to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do
evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest
judgment. Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.
If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely
bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee
lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt
surely help with him. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in
in his cause. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and
righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. And thou
shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the
words of the righteous. Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye
know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of
Egypt.” (xxiii., 1—9.)
Here we see the pen of some lofty and tender lawgiver, who has nothing
in common with the savage chief who “breathed out threatenings and
slaughter.”
It is blasphemy to deny that the Lord on Mount Sinai gave a number of
frivolous commands, about a candlestick (Ex. xxv., 31—39) with its
snuff-dishes, and curtains, and hangings, and dresses, with their
trimmings of “a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a
pomegranate, upon the hem,” and “holy ointment,” and “perfume,” etc.,
etc. (Ex. xxv.—xxx.). After the making of stars and suns it seems but
poor work to give directions about “loops,” and “taches,” and a “curious
girdle,” fitter employment for a cabinet maker and a tailor than for a
god with “thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and
the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud.” While Moses and the Lord were
discoursing on upholstery the people were getting into trouble down
below, and god, who is “without passions,” (Art. 1) felt his wrath “wax
hot against them” (Ex. xxxii., 10). Moses did not ask for forgiveness on
the ground of god’s goodness, but he appealed to his vanity, and
reminded him that the Egyptians would crow over him if he destroyed his
own people (xxxii., 12.) Thereupon god, who is not a man “that he should
repent” (Numb, xxiii., 19), “repented of the evil which he thought to
do” (Ex. xxxii., 14). God who is “without body” (Art 1) had written two
tables with his “finger” (Ex. xxxi., 18), and these tables “were the
work of god, and the writing was the writing of god” (xxxii, 16). So
careless was Moses of this unique specimen that he lost his temper and
broke it in pieces, and then, arriving at the camp, he sent the sons of
Levi through the camp, bidding them “slay every man his brother, and
every man his companion, and every man his neighbor,” and when 3,000 men
had fallen he bade the murderers: “Consecrate yourselves to-day to the
Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may
bestow a blessing upon you” (w., 27—29). Yet it is blasphemy to deny
that this great wickedness was god-inspired.
It is blasphemy to deny that “the Lord spake unto Moses face to face”
(Ex. xxxiii., 11); also it is blasphemy to deny that god told Moses:
“Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live” (v.
20, compare with ch. xxiv., 10, 11). And while it is blasphemy to deny
that god is “without parts” (Art 1), it is equally blasphemy to deny
that he has “back parts” (Ex. xxxiii., 23). Either the Prayer Book or
the Bible clearly needs revision; meanwhile it is blasphemy to deny
either.
It is interesting to observe the fashion in which Christians pick and
choose among the commandments given “by divine authority” while they
imprison heretics for attacking those of which they, in their turn,
disapprove. Thus we have (Ex. xxxv., 2, 3): “Six days shall work be
done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath
of rest to the Lord; whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath
day.” The Sabbatarians quote verse 2 as a reason for shutting up all
museums and art galleries on “the Lord’s day,” and they abuse as rebels
against the law of god all the liberal-minded of their own creed. But
they quietly ignore verse 3, because that would cause discomfort to
themselves, and the very peers who, in the House of Lords, vote to shut
working men out of art education go home to sit over their comfortable
fires, and to wander through their own galleries wanned by a fire
kindled against their god’s direct command. Wonderful, indeed, are the
ways of religious men!
The book of Leviticus is “of divine authority.” It is blasphemy to deny
that a bullock, flayed and cut into pieces and burned, makes a sweet
smell to god (Lev. L, 5—9). Tastes differ. Also burning a goat, with
“the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the
inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by
the flanks” (iii., 14, 15), makes a sweet savor as it frizzles and
drips. The tabernacle of the congregation must have smelt like the
kitchen of a dirty cook. Yet it is blasphemy to deny that god enjoyed
it. “All the fat is the Lord’s” (16). Not a morsel of fat might the
Israelite eat (17). Personally, I should have been quite willing to give
all the fat to the Lord, but some of the people probably felt envious.
It would be wearisome to recite all the extraordinary commands given by
god in this “third book of Moses.” Christians disregard them, on the
pretence that the ceremonial law is not binding on them, yet it is
blasphemy to deny that “whosoever shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in
the kingdom of heaven” (Matt, v., 19).
It is blasphemy to deny that the hare chews the cud (xi., 6); as a
matter of mere fact it does nothing of the kind. It is blasphemy to deny
that the locust, the beetle, and the grasshopper have more than four
feet (xi., 21—23); as a matter of fact they each have six. It is very
awkward when fact and faith clash in this numerical fashion.
It is blasphemy to deny that god concerns himself with the way a man
cuts his beard; “neither shalt thou,” says he, “mar the corners of thy
beard” (xix., 27). Is it conceivable that the creator of the universe
should trouble himself with such barber’s work as this? If such a being
existed would it not rather be blasphemy to ascribe such directions to
him?
It is blasphemy to deny that Jahveh, like other gods of his time,
commanded human sacrifice. He says: “No devoted thing that a man shall
devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both _of man_ and beast, and
of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted
thing is most holy unto the Lord. None devoted which shall be devoted
_of men_ shall be redeemed, but _shall surely be put to death_” (xxvii.,
28, 29). This abomination is commanded by divine authority, and he is in
danger of gaol and damnation who shall honestly repudiate the detestable
thing.
It is blasphemy to deny that Jahveh ordained the disgusting trial of a
wife suspected of infidelity which is related in Numbers v., 12—31. If
the “spirit of jealousy” come on a man, he is to bring his wife to the
priest. “And the priest shall take holy water in an earthern vessel; and
of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall
take, and put it into the water;” this delectable but dirty drink is to
be swallowed by the woman, after a charm has been repeated by the
priest, as “an oath of cursing,” and if the woman has been unfaithful
the water will have very unpleasant physical results, while if the
suspicion of her husband be false “she shall be free.” This prompt way
of settling matters would obviate all the expenses and formalities of a
divorce court, and if the arrangement could be extended to include
unfaithful husbands, this Christian country would be saved much cost.
But though the Christians punish other people for unbelief they are
thorough infidels themselves in all practical matters. They would far
rather trust Sir James Hannen than dirty holy water, when they suspect
conjugal infidelity.
It is blasphemy to deny that Jahveh was so passionate (God is without
passions, Art. I.), and so vain that he could only be restrained from
smiting his people by the appeal of Moses to his vanity: “Then the
Egyptians shall hear it.... and they will tell it to the inhabitants of
this land.... the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak,
saying: Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land
which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the
wilderness” (Numbers xiv., 12—16). This suggestion, most ingeniously
introduced by Moses — who “managed” Jahveh with admirable tact — proved
successful, and “the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word”
(v. 20). Yet it is blasphemy to say that god changes his purpose.