Indeed, such cases of active interference are of rare occurrence, and He prefers to accomplish His purpose through human agents, who act unconsciously, or even in direct contravention of their own clearly, expressed intentions.* Moreover it was only by degrees that He revealed His true nature and title; the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, had called Him Elohim, or “the gods,” and it was not until the coming of Moses that He disclosed His real name of Jahveh to His worshippers.**
* Gen. 1. 20, end of the story of Joseph: “And as for you,
ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to
bring it to pass as it is this day, to save much people
alive.”
** Exod. iii. 13, 14; verse 15 is an interpolation of much
later date.
After Painting by Gerome
In a word, this new historian shows us in every line that the theological instinct has superseded popular enthusiasm, and his work loses unmistakably in literary interest by the change. We feel that he is wanting in feeling and inspiration; his characters no longer palpitate with life; his narrative drags, its interest decreases, and his language is often deficient in force and colour. But while writers, trained in the schools of the prophets, thus sought to bring home to the people the benefits which their God had showered on them, the people themselves showed signs of disaffection towards Him, or were, at any rate, inclined to associate with Him other gods borrowed from neighbouring states, and to overlay the worship they rendered Him with ceremonies and ideas inconsistent with its original purity. The permanent division of the nation into two independent kingdoms had had its effect on their religion as well as on their political life, and had separated the worshippers into two hostile camps. The inhabitants of Judah still continued to build altars on their high places, as they had done in the time before David; there, the devout prostrated themselves before the sacred stones and before the Asherah, or went in unto the kedeshôth in honour of Astarte, and in Jahveh’s own temple at Jerusalem they had set up the image of a brazen serpent to which they paid homage.* The feeling, however, that the patron deity of the chosen people could have but one recognised habitation—the temple built for Him by Solomon—and that the priests of this temple were alone qualified to officiate there in an effective manner, came to prevail more and more strongly in Judaea. The king, indeed, continued to offer sacrifices and prayer there,** but the common people could no longer intercede with their God except through the agency of the priests.
* Cf. what we are told of idolatrous practices in Judah
under Rehoboam and Abraham (1 Kings xiv. 22-24; xv. 3), and
of the tolerance of high places by Asa and Jehoshaphat (1
Kings xv. 14; xxii. 44); even at the period now under
consideration neither Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 4) nor Azariah
(2 Kings xv. 4) showed any disposition to prohibit them. The
brazen serpent was still in existence in the time of
Hezekiah, at the close of the VIIIth century B.C. (2 Kings
xviii. 4).
** 2 Kings xvi. 10-16, where Ahaz is described as offering
sacrifice and giving instructions to the high priest Urijah
as to the reconstruction and service of the altar; cf. 2
Chron. xxvi. 16-21, where similar conduct on the part of
Uzziah is recorded, and where the leprosy by which he was
attacked is, in accordance with the belief of later times,
represented as a punishment of the sacrilege committed by
him in attempting to perform the sacrifice in person.
The latter, in their turn, tended to develop into a close corporation of families consecrated for generations past to the priestly office; they came in time to form a tribe by themselves, which took rank among the other tribes of Israel, and claimed Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, as its ancestor. Their head, chosen from among the descendants of Zadok, who had been the first high priest in the reign of Solomon, was by virtue of his office one of the chief ministers of the crown, and we know what an important part was played by Jehoiadah in the revolution which led to the deposition of Athaliah; the high priest was, however, no less subordinate to the supreme power than his fellow-ministers, and the sanctity of his office did not avail to protect him from ill-treatment or death if he incurred the displeasure of his sovereign.* He had control over a treasury continually enriched by the offerings of the faithful, and did not always turn his trust to the best uses; in times of extreme distress the king used to borrow from him as a last resource, in order to bring about the withdrawal of an invader, or purchase the help of a powerful ally.** The capital of Israel was of too recent foundation to allow of its chapel royal becoming the official centre of national worship; the temple and priesthood of Samaria never succeeded in effacing the prestige enjoyed by the ancient oracles, though in the reign of both the first and second Jeroboam, Dan, Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah had each its band of chosen worshippers.***