STUDY TOPICS

1.  Read Genesis 4. 1-15.  In this story of Cain and Abel is there any hint as to how even an animal sacrifice might be true worship?

2.  Look up Hosea in the Bible dictionary, or in the chapter on Hosea in Cornill, The Prophets of Israel.  Find out more about the times in which he lived and about his personal history.

3.  Read what you can in the book of Hosea.  This is rather hard reading, but chapter 11 is not very difficult, and gives a good idea of Hosea’s style.

4.  Which kind of prayer counts more for the happiness of all, prayers for personal advantage, or prayers of love and gratitude to our Father?

CHAPTER XVII

JEHOVAH NOT A GOD OF ANGER

There are other mischievous delusions in regard to the character of God which we find among all races in the early childhood of their history.  They think of their gods not only as greedy but as having arbitrary whims and as often falling into fits of unreasonable and cruel anger.

EARLY IDEAS OF JEHOVAH’S ANGER

The Hebrews were not entirely free from these wrong notions in their conception of Jehovah.  Even in the story of Moses, for example, there is a strange narrative which declares Jehovah “met Moses and sought to kill him” and would have killed him except for the ceremonial rite which his wife Zipporah performed.

=The story of the ark and the men of Beth-shemesh.=—­Similar to this is the story of the wanderings of the ark in 1 Samuel.  This ark, or sacred chest, was regarded as the special dwelling place of Jehovah in Canaan, his permanent home supposedly being on Mount Sinai in the desert.  When the ark was captured by the Philistines a plague broke out in every city where it was taken.  Finally it was placed on a new cart with specially chosen cows to draw it, and sent back toward the Hebrew border, and in the course of time it reached the Hebrew town of Beth-shemesh.  And we read that “the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the men of Beth-shemesh, when they looked upon the ark of Jehovah.  So he smote among them seventy men."[4]

SACRIFICE AS A PROPITIATION OF JEHOVAH’S ANGER

It was just this idea of Jehovah as subject to fits of anger which prompted many of the old sacrifices.  It was not merely that Jehovah was greedy and could be bribed with gifts to grant favors, but also that he was dangerous when his anger was stirred and hence sacrifices were necessary to placate him.

=Human sacrifices.=—­An even darker side of the picture is the existence of human sacrifices, even among the Hebrews, in the worship of Jehovah.  The pathetic story of Jephthah’s daughter is the most conspicuous example.  This warrior had promised to sacrifice to Jehovah whatever first came out to meet him, if he returned victorious from war.  Alas, it was his own daughter!  Yet he did not dare to break his vow.