In order to get at the truth, so as to arrive at something like certainty, and as Infinite Wisdom makes the choice, we must inquire—For what end were they chosen? and did they answer the end of such choice? If they were really chosen by the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, they must, however strange they acted as a nation, have fulfilled the purpose of their choice; because, whatever they did, was known to Jehovah before the choice was made. How, then, can we reconcile expressions of regret and disappointment by Jehovah after he had selected them as his own peculiar people—such as, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me?” And again—“He hated his own inheritance,”—and also his stirring up and supporting heathen kings to subjugate them as slaves. Is this not the language of disappointment and regret? In fact, no learned divine can get over this striking truth that the Bible fully holds out in the plainest manner, that Jehovah was disappointed in his choice of the Jews as his favorite people. Were they, then, chosen to raise up and support the religion given to them by God himself? No, impossible! they continually rebelled against Jehovah and worshipped strange Gods; and even Solomon himself built temples for idolatry, contrary to express command. Jehovah says of the Jewish nation—that he did not choose them because they were better than others, for they were always a stiff-necked people; but because he loved their fathers. Poor, miserable reasoning, indeed; to choose one of the most contemptible races of men, because their ancestors, some hundreds of years before, had superior qualities to their degenerate race.
Again, another reason given why Jehovah continued to protect them, is, that the promises before made to Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, bound him in honor so to do. Did not Infinite Wisdom foresee that the seed of Abram would not follow in the faithful footsteps of their great progenitor? If this was not foreseen, then we can discover clearly the reason why Jehovah complains of their rebellious conduct. It will be a vain attempt in ministers of the gospel, to reconcile those complaints, if Jehovah had foresight of what the seed of Abram would do. If “God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,” how did it happen that he appeared so regardless of the fate of mankind, as to allow some hundreds of years to pass away from the time of the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, till his visit to the tent of Abram, during which time, according to Bible history, Jehovah had no worshippers on earth? The whole of mankind were left to make the best of their deserted situation; to worship the Gods of their imagination; and they founded mighty empires, and became powerful on the earth.
Before the Lord called on Abram and Sarah in their tent, something like the following mode of reasoning probably took place in the mind of the Jewish God:—
“I have made a world and peopled it with inhabitants; Adam and Eve rebelled against me; their descendants followed in the footsteps of their progenitors; I have destroyed them all (eight only excepted,) from whom I expected better things. But, alas! they have also sinned against me; and to such a height of wickedness did they arrive, that they began to build a tower to reach my holy habitation. I have sent them off in confusion: and now I have no church, no worshippers,—not even a song of praise to my name. I possess universal empire, without even one single subject to obey me. What is to be done? A thought has struck me:—I will call on honest old Abram.”
And here let me remind the reader, that the Bible clearly represents the Jewish God as being as changeable in his disposition and mode of acting as mortals. Like man, he is sometimes in a state of inaction, towards the fate of his offspring: at other times, he arouses from this torpor, and is the most sensitive and active. Sometimes he appears to repent of some failure in the calculations he has made concerning his creatures; attempts to rectify the error, and again blunders. He at one time says: “fury is not in me,” then again he is all fury. No truth is more striking than this,—that the Jehovah of the Bible is not, cannot be, the universal governor of the universe, but merely a creature of the imagination, whose power is confined, having no existence without the covers of the Bible.
But to return to Abram:—Jehovah either goes to him, or sends to him delegates, to acquaint him of the choice he is about to make of “Abram and his seed forever.” This is but the beginning of a new experiment on the human race. And here does it not plainly appear, that Jehovah’s mode of acting, in this case, is unworthy of the governor of the world? Does it not prove his total disregard for the welfare of the rest of mankind? Good heavens! the believers, one and all, of such absurdities, have ever been, and are still insane.
These heavenly visiters find Abram and Sarah living comfortably in their tent, watching flocks and herds. They (the angels) are treated with the hospitality common in pastoral life. They have their feet washed; they are invited to dine on the best; the calf is immediately killed; and Sarah, was not slow on her part, in the cooking department, from which, one might be induced to think, that over the door of the tent was written: “Dinners Dressed at the Shortest Notice.”—Soon after being seated, the messengers make known their errand; Abram was much pleased; Sarah laughed outright. The promise was now ratified that had before been made to Abram, that his seed should be as the sand of the sea in number, for that Sarah should have a son in her old age. This, to say the least of it, was good pay for a good dinner.
Here, then, the reader will please to notice, was the final settlement as it regards the Jews being the chosen people of God. And here the following ceremony took place:—Three men, angels, or messengers, came from Heaven; they had their feet washed, agreeably to eastern custom; they sat down and did eat, and we may suppose did also drink with Abram and Sarah; one of the three was called the Lord.
I have here strictly adhered to the Bible history of this surprising account; and if it be not literally true, the choice of the Jews, and also the whole of the Jewish and Christian theology, falls prostrate. The account winds up with the departure of the angels to Sodom; where, after having dined with Abram, they took supper with Lot. The day following, Sodom was burnt by fire from Heaven; Lot’s wife (by way of making the most of her) was turned into a pillar of salt, because she looked back on her old habitation. What became of the angels, Heaven only knows!
But to return to the Jews, as a nation. For what purpose were they chosen? It could not be to establish and support the only true religion on earth, whereby they became the constant and obedient servants of the Most High, because they continued to rebel against Jehovah; and in spite of all his commands to the contrary, to worship other gods, which conduct provoked the Lord to anger, and the most dreadful punishment followed for their disobedience. They were not chosen to convert other nations to the faith and worship of the God of Israel, because they were ordered to take the property and destroy the inhabitants of towns and cities, with whom they had not the most distant quarrel. Once more,—Were they chosen for the purpose that Jehovah should be their God, and that they should be his people? No, because they, time after time, rejected his authority as their God, and worshipped strange gods, unknown to their fathers; for which He sent “prophets and holy men” to remonstrate with them. But they killed the prophets; and, as a nation, never were for any length of time converted to, nor obeyed, the God of Israel.