One of the main goals of this blog is to get you to understand the religious mindset and culture of not only the ancient Hebrews but the whole Middle East in general BEFORE Moses.
For those of us who grew up in a culture whose foundations were steeped in Judaeo-Christianity, which is pretty much the whole western world, believe it or not your thought patterns most likely conform to a Biblical worldview…
…even if you consider yourself to be an agnostic or atheist.
So what exactly was the religious mindset of the peoples of the world before Moses?
In a nutshell, their way of thinking was…
POLYTHEISTIC AND TOTALLY CONFUSED!
All the peoples of the world believed that what happened to them in this life were the results of the capricious decisions of one god or another.
Because of this belief system, the people were in a constant state of desperation and expended a heck of a lot of effort and energy trying to decipher why the gods acted the way they did AND more importantly…
...if there was a way to get the gods to fulfill their wishes.
Unfortunately, in spite of all the attempts to crack the code behind why the gods acted the way they did, for the most part, the people had resigned themselves to the fact that the spiritual world was pretty much unknowable and impenetrable.
Serendipity was more the rule than the exception.
Whether one man prospered in this lifetime or become destitute was all dependent on the whimsical desires of the gods who controlled everything.
There appeared to be little if any logic behind why one man prospered and another suffered greatly.
Again, there is no way for most of us reading this blog to be able to identify with this ancient mindset unless you grew up in a nation that had very little if any influence from the Bible.
In this sense, those of you who grew up in Asia can probably more relate to what I’m talking about here.
Let me tell you that life before Moses was always filled with worry and anxiety.
There was always this fear that one random god or another would suddenly turn your quiet little life upside down and into total chaos.
Never knowing what might suddenly happen was truly a terrible way to go through life.
In order to give you an even better idea of what I’m talking about, I’d like to share an excerpt from an ancient poem dating all the way back to the time of Abraham (around 2000 B.C.).
I’m not going to post the whole original thing here because it’s so friggin’ long, but I’d like share a few select verses that I feel really drives the point home in terms of the common plight the whole human race faced irrespective of culture, nation, or time period.
These cherry-picked verses I believe really capture the sad pre-Moses mindset prevalent at the time.
When you read these verses, you will have a true understanding of the psyche of the ancient world that Moses and the Hebrews were immersed in during the time of Exodus.
This was also the very mindset that infected the Hebrews’ way of thinking with false beliefs and enables us to understand why it was so difficult for God to get through to the Hebrews with His Teaching simply because His instructions were so radically different than anything the world had ever seen at the time.
Another benefit you’ll get from reading the excerpts from this poem is the tremendous amount of gratitude you’ll feel for the character and attributes of the God of Israel and the fact that He decided to make Himself known to us through His Torah.
This is one of the biggest reasons why I get really hot under the collar with the Christian notion that “Jesus did away with the Torah“.
Because once you throw away the Torah, not only do you throw away the foundational document for the whole Bible but you throw away the only portion of Scripture that defines who God is, namely His Character and His Attributes.
I’m taking about those very attributes that were unthinkable and actually confusing for the people during the time the Scriptures were being recorded because again it was such a revolutionary departure from everything and anything the world had ever seen up until that time.
Okay, here are some excerpts from the 4000-year old poem (author is unknown) titled “Prayer to Every God“.
“May the fury of my lord’s heart be quieted toward me.
May the god who is not known be quieted toward me;
May the goddess who is not known be quieted toward me.
May the god whom I know or do not know be quieted toward me;
May the goddess whom I know or do not know be quieted toward me.
May the heart of my god be quieted toward me;”
“In ignorance I have set foot on that prohibited by my goddess.”
“O god, whom I know or do not know, (my) transgressions are many;
O goddess, whom I know or do not know, (my) transgressions are many;”
“The transgression that I have committed,
indeed I do not know;
The sin that I have done,
indeed I do not know.”
“The forbidden thing that I have done,
the prohibited (place) on which I have set foot,
indeed I do not know.
“I am troubled;
I am overwhelmed;
I cannot see.
O my god, merciful one,
I address to you the prayer,
”Ever incline to me”;
I kiss the feet of my goddess;
I crawl before you.
How long,
O my goddess, whom I know or do not know,
before your hostile heart will be quieted?”
Now honestly, isn’t that one of the most depressing and heartbreaking things you’ve ever read in your life?
Can you now understand the utterly pathetic condition of the gentiles (even today) and how their religious systems are in a totally helpless position to do anything to solve this hopelessness?
Understand that this was how all of mankind viewed the spiritual world.
They considered themselves to be as worthless pawns whose fates were whimsically decided by the gods in the unseen realm.
There was literally no hope for hope.
But all that changed one day…
…when all of a sudden out of the complete blue…
…a God calling Himself YHWH came strutting along.
And what did He do?
He threw a monkey wrench of gargantuan proportions into the whole equation.
He plucked Moses and Israel from the mass of all humanity and then proclaimed to the world…
“…I am the only God that exists…”
“…before me there was no other God…”
“…and neither will there be any God after me…”
…AND…
“…these are my Chosen People…”
“…whoever blesses them will be blessed…”
“…and whoever curses them will be cursed.”
And to the Christians I’d like to add that another one of the Lord’s non-negotiable proclamations was that…
“God is NOT a man…”
But even more amazing than these proclamations is how God communicated to His Chosen People Israel.
He told them exactly who He is and what He expected from every human being who wished to enter into a relationship with Him.
Never before had a god communicated in such crystal clear terms HOW to live a life pleasing to Him.
As a result of this unprecedented and unparalleled revelation at Sinai, mankind would no longer live in ignorance and darkness…
…unless you accepted the ridiculous idea that His instructions had been “done away with” (pardon me for this sarcastic jab here but I just couldn’t help myself).
This is a God who loves mankind and not only does he care about every tiny detail of our lives but also wishes to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us.
HASHEM made it clear that the Torah principles He gave to Israel were not just principles for living…
…but were also the very principles undergirding the very foundation of the whole universe for all eternity.
Nothing…
…and I mean NOTHING…
…could be further away from the hopelessness of that ancient pagan poem I just shared with you.
Understand that at the time even ancient Israel didn’t really understand what God was communicating to them through Moses at Sinai.
They could hear the words but they didn’t understand everything.
Why do you think they went back and forth messing up, backsliding, repenting and then falling off the wagon over and over again?
The answer is simple.
It is simply impossible for any people group to transition from the hopeless and desperate thinking expressed in the above pagan poem to a full understanding of the Laws and love of the REAL God overnight.
This growth process takes time.
Let me rephrase that.
This growth process will take a whole lifetime.
God is NOT HIS name either, nor Jesus, or Lord.
True.