Yesterday, I talked about how the many gods in the land of Canaan were nothing more nor less than a continuation of the Mesopotamian deities or the gods of Nimrod.
This means that when Abraham arrived in Canaan, he wouldn’t have been surprised at all at the structure of religious worship being practiced.
Heck, he would have been quite familiar with it.
This is a key point we really need to understand if we’re going to properly grasp the thought processes of the ancient Hebrews.
It’s not like Abraham and his clan instantly cut off all ties with the pagan gods they were surrounded by in exchange for Hashem.
Again, to their minds, Hashem was just another god (albeit a powerful one) in their already existing hierarchy of gods.
The Hebrews just considered their God to be superior to the others and that’s why they called their God EL.
Throughout the Scripture, we’re constantly reminded of the Hebrews’ struggles with idolatry.
It was darn difficult for them to resist the temptation to worship the gods of their gentile neighbors.
This is such an important point that I need to make it again.
IT IS A BIG MISTAKE TO ASSUME THE FIRST HEBREWS DISCARDED THE GODS OF THE GENTILES FOR THE ONE TRUE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE.
Got it?
What actually happened was that the early Israelites accepted a mixture of their God along with other lesser gods (which they fully believed existed).
Keep this in mind because this really is the key to understanding the mindset of the ancient Hebrews.
This also explains why the Biblical prophets were always ticked off at the Israelites.
It’s because they were always engaged in multiple-god worship while at the same time pledging allegiance to Hashem and thinking there was nothing wrong with what they were doing.
We really shouldn’t be too hard on the ancient Hebrews for thinking the way they did.
For us modern believers, it’s a given that there’s only one true God who created everything but such a belief system was a big time radical notion during the pre-Solomon biblical era.
The very idea of their being only one God went against everything the human race believed at the time.
Sorry I cannot follow this they know it very well and there is no excuse Noah was even teaching Abram how would he know about the real El. and follow Him if he would not know he was intelligent or not?
I am really surprised & upset with Noah more now ,after reading your lessons.In spite of Gods grace to Noah,he sinned by becoming drunk and then lying naked in his tent.When he awoke he pronounced a curse on Cannan ,& thats a different topic ;If he had raised his children well ,than maybewe would not have all these idolatry today ;