As I’ve been hammering homes countless times, in the ancient world it was just understood that the gods respected national borders.
It was a no-no for one deity to travel from one nation to another minus his or her “vaccine passport” so to speak.
Hence, when you left your hometown to travel to another country, you just accepted the fact you could no longer rely on the protection of your god.
Why?
Because his or her power would be greatly weakened or completely gone when you ventured off into another land.
But what if you wanted the power of your god to stay with you when you traveled from one region to another?
In that case, you took your gods with you in the form of a carved stone or a wooden miniature figurine.
Carrying your god with you was just as important as having a supply of water on you when you were on a long trip.
If you lost your god, you were in big trouble.
Remember, this is exactly why Rachel stole her father’s gods.
“When Laban had gone to shear his sheep,
Rachel stole her father’s household gods.”
-Genesis 31:19
Why did she do that?
She did that because she wanted to make sure the blessings she believed came from those idols would stay with her.
As we move forward, here’s what I want you to keep in mind.
Even though the Israelites were led by their God when they conquered the land of Canaan, they still continued to think like their pagan neighbors in terms of how the spiritual world operated.
That’s why there’s so many warnings in the Scripture to stay away from idolatry.
Hi,
Do you have any other biblical scriptures to support this idea? Just asking, when it comes to territorial gods, and what the Ancient Israelites believed
Hi Felicia, There are quite a few. They are peppered throughout the Tanak.
Jasher 31:40-49
[40]And Rachel stole her father’s images, and she took them and she concealed them upon the camel upon which she sat, and she went on.
[41]And this is the manner of the images; in taking a man who is the first born and slaying him and taking the hair off his head, and taking salt and salting the head and anointing it in oil, then taking a small tablet of copper or a tablet of gold and writing the name upon it, and placing the tablet under his tongue, and taking the head with the tablet under the tongue and putting it in the house, and lighting up lights before it and bowing down to it.
[42]And at the time when they bow down to it, it speaketh to them in all matters that they ask of it, through the power of the name which is written in it.
[43]And some make them in the figures of men, of gold and silver, and go to them in times known to them, and the figures receive the influence of the stars, and tell them future things, and in this manner were the images which Rachel stole from her father.
[44]And Rachel stole these images which were her father’s, in order that Laban might not know through them where Jacob had gone.
[45]And Laban came home and he asked concerning Jacob and his household, and he was not to be found, and Laban sought his images to know where Jacob had gone, and could not find them, and he went to some other images, and he inquired of them and they told him that Jacob had fled from him to his father’s, to the land of Canaan.
[46]And Laban then rose up and he took his brothers and all his servants, and he went forth and pursued Jacob, and he overtook him in mount Gilead.
[47]And Laban said unto Jacob, What is this thou hast done to me to flee and deceive me, and lead my daughters and their children as captives taken by the sword?
[48]And thou didst not suffer me to kiss them and send them away with joy, and thou didst steal my gods and didst go away.
[49]And Jacob answered Laban, saying, Because I was afraid lest thou wouldst take thy daughters by force from me; and now with whomsoever thou findest thy gods he shall die.
According to Jasher 31:40-49 Rachel’s only reason for stealing her father’s idols was to prevent him from tracking her husband’s location by divinition and not for protection or blessings or as an act of worship or desire for blessings.
Well I have tried my best to encourage you earlier to use scripture to interpret scripture rather than etymology but your mind is already made up like you said earlier so I guess I’d leave you to your “adventure” as you call it.
Interpreting scripture is like a derivative equation. The answer you derive from Question A is the variable that will be used to answer Question B. Once you get it wrong from the beginning, the error perpetuates down the road and the only way to correct it is to get back to the drawing board.
It is a historical fact that human languages and communication since the Tower of Babel incident in Genesis 11 has always been influenced by geographical location. That will naturally include the words and phrases used in describing God or gods throughout the generations of mankind. Every evangelist experiences this limitation of language in communicating the gospel as a fact including Paul.
If you go to a new territory to share the gospel using the language and communication skills available to you, your preaching will naturally be limited by their language and understanding of God or gods. The fact that your God is described to them in their language of origin in teaching your gospel doesn’t mean the preacher’s understanding of God has been influenced by his geographical location. It is simply what it is. Limitation of language and nothing else.
Using etymology as a basis for judging Abraham’s beliefs or conviction is therefore an erroneous premise in the interpretation of scripture. It should be the reverse. It is the understanding of ones beliefs or conviction that should form the basis of his choice of language in communicating the scriptures. Take Paul for example. When he went to Corinth, he used their “altar to the unknown god” as his premise to teach the resurrected Christ. Whatever they may have believed their “unknown god” to be was irrelevant to him. His conviction of God wasn’t influenced by it but rather it was his conviction of God that influenced his choice of language and communication to introduce the gospel to Corinth by starting with something familiar to their understanding (the unknown god) before venturing into depths beyond their understanding (the resurrected Christ). That’s progressive revelation.
The best way to interpret scripture is by comparing scripture with scripture because scripture interpretes itself. Not etymology. Shalom.