THE JEWS.
For those the race of Israel oft forsook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial gods; for which their heads as low
Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear
Of despicable foes, with these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phœnicians call’d
Astrate, queen of Heav’n, with crescent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs;
In Sion also not unsung.--MILTON.
The Bible utterly condemns all idol-worship. The people of Israel from
their neighbors were constantly learning of idols and were frequently
led away from the worship of Jehovah to that of false gods. It will
be profitable for us just here to turn aside and consider these gods.
The people of Israel were descended from an idolatrous race. Joshua
wrote (Chap. xxiv., 2), “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the
flood” (that is, the River Euphrates,) “and they served other gods.”
Rachel, when she left her father’s home with Jacob, stole her father’s
“teraphim.” These were images connected with magical rites and they
were consulted as oracles in later days. Laban says: “I have augured,
or foretold by observing signs.” The teraphim were used in Israel even
in Ezekiel’s time. Laban calls his teraphim his _gods_. They were
generally images with a man’s head and with bodies of various shapes,
though they were quite small, being often only about two or three
inches high.
THE PLAGUES AND EGYPTIAN IDOLATRY.
The people of Israel strangely sought to blend the worship of the true
God and of idols, they “feared Jehovah and served strange gods.” They
worshiped in turn very nearly all the gods of the Canaanites, Syrians,
Assyrians and many of those of the Egyptians. They were accustomed
to wear amulets and charms, which were supposed to place them under
the protection of the idol gods. (See Genesis xxxv., 4.) In Egypt the
people of Israel were more thoroughly tainted with false gods, and it
was a long while before they were cleansed of the taint. To the gods of
Egypt Moses flung down the gauntlet of defiance. He dared their wrath
and defied their anger. In the punishments which God sent upon Pharaoh
and his people for their refusal to let the children of Israel go, the
plagues of Egypt, as we call them, smote their most sacred symbols.
At the command of Moses, Aaron waved his rod over the Nile and its
waters were turned to blood and its fishes died. The Nile was an object
of worship to the Egyptians, as were the crocodiles and some of the
fish living in its waters. The frogs, in the next plague, were among
the sacred animals. It was a part of the Egyptian religion that the
people and especially the priests, should keep themselves scrupulously
clean, and the plague of the lice was a terrible punishment. The great
Egyptian beetle, the scarabæus, was sculptured on all their monuments
and was an object of worship. The plague of flies or beetles was
another attack upon their religion. Selected animals among the cattle
were worshiped. The murrain of beasts fell upon them, their being gods
as the Egyptians believed them to be, could not avert the plague. The
plague of boils and blains was another assault upon the purity of their
persons required by their religion. The other plagues showed most
effectually the utter inability of the Egyptian gods to help their
worshipers, and that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was the one Supreme
Being.
[Illustration: SCULPTURED LOCUST.]
THE GOLDEN CALF.
With the remembrance of God’s victory over the idol-worship of Egypt
still fresh in their minds, the Israelites soon fell into idolatrous
ways. Their leader, Moses, was absent in the mountain with God. He had
gone thither to receive the commands of God, the first of which was an
unqualified condemnation of all idolatry. As if to show the necessity
of this command, even while Moses was so engaged, the people were
demanding of Aaron that he should make them an idol. The commandments
were given to warn Israel against sin. They were as a fence to keep
them from falling into the mouth of hell. The Israelites recalled the
visible objects of worship to which they had been accustomed in Egypt,
and besought Aaron to make them gods. Weakly yielding to their urgent
request, Aaron asks for their golden ear-rings, hoping, it may be, that
they would not be willing to make this sacrifice. With the gold thus
furnished he cast a “molten calf,” the image of the Babylonish winged
bull Cherub. This he placed before the Israelites as the image of the
God who had led them out of Egypt. He then built an altar before the
idol. In the name of Jehovah, he proclaimed a festival. God is for this
cause exceedingly angry, but in answer to Moses’ prayer He finally
spares the people.
As Moses comes nearer to the camp of Israel, he hears the sound
of their revelry, and when his eyes behold the disgraceful scenes
attending the worship of the golden calf, in his anger he throws the
stone tablets containing the commandments to the ground. He then causes
the image to be ground into powder and strewn upon the water which the
people must needs drink. Then came the awful slaughter of those who
were not loyal to Jehovah. Just how far Israel had looked upon the
golden calf as a mere symbol of Jehovah, it is impossible to say, but
God condemns even the use of a symbol, though it may be truly said that
the symbol is not itself worshiped.
[Illustration: GODDESS ASHTORETH, ISHTAR.]
During the rest of their wandering in the desert, the people did not
again commit the sin of idolatry. The terrible punishments which had
fallen upon them were quite sufficient to deter them from it.
Into the fearfully wicked worship of Baal-Peor, the Israelites were led
by the daughters of Moab. God sent upon them an awful punishment for
this sin also. During the lives of Joshua and the elders they remained
true to their allegiance to Jehovah, but the following generation
remembered not the awful penalties God visited on idolatry, and they
were caught in the snare again.
BAAL-WORSHIP.
Baal was the supreme male divinity of the Phœnician and Canaanitish
nations. Ashtoreth was their female divinity. The name Baal means lord.
He was the sun-god. The name is generally used in connection with other
names, as Baal-Gad, that is Baal the Fortune-bringer; Baal-Berith or
Covenant-making Baal; Baal-Zebub, the Fly-god. The people of Israel
worshiped Baal up to the time of Samuel, at whose rebuke they forsook
this iniquity for nearly a hundred years. The practice was introduced
again in the time of Solomon, and it continued to the days of the
captivity.
[Illustration: PHŒNICIAN GODDESS ASTARTE.]
During the life of all the judges, Israel worshiped Baal. As soon as
Gideon was dead, the Israelites, who had during his lifetime been less
devout in this direction, returned to it again with energy. As if
in mockery of the covenant made with Jehovah, they chose to worship
Baal-Berith, “Baal of the Covenant.” We are told that this Baal’s
temple was a fortress, and that his treasury was filled with the silver
brought in great abundance by his worshipers. Before the story of
Samson is told the striking words are used, “the children of Israel did
evil again in the eyes of Jehovah, and Jehovah gave them again into
the hands of the Philistines.” _Idolatry was their national sin._
From Judges xvii. and xviii., we see that often the Israelites tried to
carry on both the worship of Jehovah and of idols, like the Saxon king
who is said to have had both an altar to Christ and an altar to the
devils in his chapel-cave. Strange to say, Moses’ own son, Jonathan,
was the priest in the idol-temple of the gods of the tribe of Dan.
These idols were destroyed by the Philistines. It was the custom of
heathen nations to carry their idols before them into battle. Idolatry
was not due to popularity alone, it was not followed merely as a
fashion, for it was often carried on secretly. (Isaiah lvii., 8, and
Hosea ix., 1, 2.)
[Illustration: THE AMMONITE FIRE-GOD MOLOCH.]
Under Samuel idolatry was formally renounced by the Israelites. But
Solomon’s foreign wives brought with them the gods of their own
nations. So the gods of Ammon, Moab and Sidon were openly worshiped;
three of the summits of Olivet were covered with the altars of
Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Moloch, the fire-god. The offering of human
sacrifice was a part of the worship of Moloch. The ceremony is supposed
to have been as follows: The priest stood on a platform in front of
the idol, and while the people bowed down and murmured their prayers,
he placed in the hands of the idol the sacrifice, frequently a little
babe. By some cruel machinery the idol’s hands came together crushing
the child, while the musicians beat their drums to drown its cries.
Rehoboam and Jeroboam both led Israel more deeply into idolatry.
Jeroboam erected golden calves, the statues of the Egyptian god
Apis, at Bethel and at Dan. To their use temples were devoted and
services, copied probably from the Mosaic ritual, were held. Incense
and sacrifice was offered before them. Asa, and Jehosophat after him,
removed all the relics of idolatry.
With Ahab’s coming to the throne, Baal’s worship was re-established.
This was done at the request of Jezebel, the Sidonian princess. Ahab
did “more to provoke Jehovah, God of Israel, to anger than all the
kings of Israel before him.” From this time Baal-worship is interwoven
with all the life of Israel. The idolatrous priests became more and
more numerous and important, being patronized by the court and fed at
the royal table. Finally came the grand trial scene. As in Egypt long
before, God was once more about to vindicate His supremacy. On Mount
Carmel the trial took place.
“By scores, by hundreds, chanting to their god,
Clad in white stoles with frontlets of red gold,
Baal’s prophets marched.
The crowd through all its myriad ranks was still,
With wide, expectant eyes the king in front.
Forth stepped Elijah; melancholy fire
Burned in his swarthy-glowing eye; he looked
In angry love, impatient, scornful grief,
Wonder and pity, on the multitude.
‘How long,’ he cried, with voice like autumn blast,
‘How long, O Israel, halt ye between two?
If Jah be God, then serve ye Him: if Baal,
Then Baal.’ The great crowd stretched to him, and rocked
In mighty agitation to and fro.
The gray crags caught his words, and echoed them
To Carmel’s crest; it threw them to the peak,
Snow-crowned, of Lebanon, which tossed them far
Along the surges of the boundless sea.
He spake again: ‘The God that answereth
By fire, let Him be God.’ As when a wave,
That rears itself, a wall of polished glass,
For leagues along the shore, and hangs in air,
Falls with one deafening crash, so rose the shout
Of answering acclamation from the crowd.
White-faced, with restless lips and anxious eyes,
Baal’s prophets heard, their hundreds cowed and mute
Before one man. They dared not, in mere shame,
Decline the challenge. While the dusky gray
Of earliest dawn was fluttering into blue
They built their altar; and when first the sun
Showed his clear forehead on the mountain-tops
Their chanted prayer to the appearing Baal
Rose loud and shrill, that he would stretch his hand
With burning torch to light the sacrifice
And prove himself a god. The sun rose calm,
Springing as if in joy from earth’s low hills,
Upon the vaulted radiance of the sky,
All unregarding these his worshipers.
The hymns’ last echoes died away; the sun
Burned with fierce heat, swift striding up the blue.
Standing on that scorched hill, we felt his rays
Prick like sharp spear-points. Then I heard again
Elijah’s voice. I had been watching close
Baal’s prophets, but I now looked straight at him.
A fearful gleam was in his eye, a mirth
Too stern, methought, for man of woman born;
His glance was vexing those robed prophets more
Than the sun’s fire; and then be gave it words.
‘Might he not spare one little spark, but one,
Your fine god riding there,’ he cried, ‘to light
Your sacrifice? He surely has enough;
He’s burning you, if not your offering.
Poor souls, I pity you!’ They screamed for rage.
‘A little louder,’ smiled he, ‘for perhaps
In his warm chariot he has fallen asleep.’
They leaped, they danced, they cut themselves with knives,
Till the blood soaked their robes and poured in streams
From their lanced foreheads. Then he laughed aloud
Great shouts of laughter, till the echoes rang
From crag to crag on Carmel. ‘Keep it up,
Another dance!’ he shrieked; ‘another song!
Leap rather higher; never grudge some drops
Of your dear blood, so precious in his sight.
Ye know he is a god, my reverend friends;
How often have ye told the people so?
Your pretty speeches and the miracles
Which ye have shown them, these were not, of course,
Mere lies accursed. He is a god, you know.
Louder, I say; he’s old, perhaps, and deaf;
Out with your beards--that’s hopeful--crack your throats
In yelling chorus. Good, good--ha, ha, ha!’
He rubbed his hands, waved wildly in the air
His sheep-skin mantle, laughed until the tears
Streamed down his face, and all his body shook
With paroxysms of mirth and scorn. Ah me!
That laughter sounded fearfully, and seemed
Not human in its fiery ruthlessness.
But as he stood on Carmel, charred and gray,
A dead land lay below, his native land;
And the white corpse-eyes made appeal to him
Against its murderers, murderers of the truth,
Baal’s lying prophets. Furthermore, I think
That this Elijah is not to be judged
Like common men. The little rippling lake,
Safe hid among the hills, can never know
The ocean’s tempests.--So they writhed and tore,
In ecstasies of grief and rage. At last
They hung their heads in mute despair, and looked
Upon the ground.
Elijah stood erect,
Terrible earnestness and majesty
Now sitting on his brow. Twelve stones he took--
Mark, twelve; this challenge in the full name
Of Israel as it stooped to David’s hand,
And with one mighty throb the multitude
Approved Elijah’s purpose;--twelve smooth stones
From Carmel’s side, and with them he repaired
Jehovah’s altar. Then, at his command,
We filled the trench with water, till it ran
Around the altar like a surging stream,
And washed the stones, and soaked the wood beneath
The sacrifice. He knelt upon the ridge,
Against the golden, placid sky of eve;
Brief, simple, clear, his words arose to heaven;
‘That God would testify unto Himself
And to His prophet, and would turn the hearts
Of His own people back to Him again.’
Scarce had he spoken, when a broad white glare,
Scattering earth’s light like darkness in its path,
Keener than lightning, calmer than the dawn,
The sword of God that proveth Him by fire,
That proveth Him by fire in every age,
Stooped from above and touched the sacrifice.
In the white blaze the sun grew wan, and hung
Like a pale moon upon the glimmering sky.
The fierce flame licked the water up, the wood
Crackled aloft, the very altar stones
Glowed fiery red. The pillared smoke arose
Through the hushed air in towering flawlessness,
Then spread out calm and broad, like God’s own face
Breathing acceptance. But Baal’s prophets shook
In utter fear, and smote upon their breasts,
And groveled, moaning, down into the dust.
Clear broke the shout from that great multitude,
‘Jah is the God! Jehovah He is God!
‘Take them,’ Elijah said; ‘let none escape.’
We closed around Baal’s prophets, thrust them down
To where the thirsty Kishon slowly crawled.
There made Elijah bare his arm, and score
By score he slew them. From the heap of dead
Oozed a broad rill of blood, that swelled the wave
Of slumbrous Kishon.”
[Illustration: JEHOVAH’S TRIUMPH OVER BAAL.]
This was a severe blow to this form of idolatry in Israel for the time
being. But in Judah, Baal continued to be worshiped. Baal and other
gods were worshiped at their own shrines. Ahaz built altars to them
at every corner of Jerusalem, and high-places in every city of Judah,
replacing the brazen altar of burnt-offering by one made after the idol
altar at Damascus.
The time for the final act in the drama of abominations is at hand.
The last scene opens with the captivity at Babylon. One would expect
that this terrible punishment would immediately cause Israel to turn
to the true God, but it did not. In the land of their captivity they
took to them foreign wives and with them their idols. But there were,
through all the history of the Jews, a faithful few who adhered to the
pure worship of one God. Even at the time when Baal-worship was most
prevalent there were 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to
Baal (1st Kings, xxix., 18). Excepting these few, the chosen people
were almost as much given to idolatry as any nation around them.
“Israel for many days had no true God, and no teaching priest, and no
law” (2d Chronicles, xv., 3).
Foreign wives, foreign allies, and the unnatural tendency to desire
visible objects of worship caused this prevalence of idolatry in the
very nation to which God made especial revelations of His character
and purposes. In spite of God’s promises and threats, commands and
entreaties, punishments and pardon, Israel still sinned.
The false gods mentioned in the New Testament and some of those
referred to in the Old Testament, will be spoken of further on in
describing the religions to which they severally belonged.