Paper 97 Overview: Evolution of the God Concept Among the Hebrews

The spiritual leaders of the Hebrews helped their people develop a better understanding of God without making this concept too abstract. They showed that God was like a Father who cares for his people. The idea that God is a person started with Melchizedek's teachings and grew clearer over time as Hebrew prophets taught the people.

From Moses to Malachi, the Hebrew understanding of God's personality steadily grew better. Jesus later fully revealed the idea of God as a loving Father in heaven. This evolution of the God concept is one of the most remarkable developments in religious history.

The Hebrew spiritual leaders helped people see God as less human-like without making God too abstract to understand. Common people could understand God as a Father of the whole race. The concept of God as a person began with Melchizedek but was unclear during the exodus from Egypt.

Over generations, Hebrew spiritual leaders helped people better understand God's personality. The idea that God is a person grew more consistently than other ideas about God. From Moses to Malachi, the concept of God's personality grew steadily, and Jesus later perfected the understanding of God as a heavenly Father.

The Hebrew tribes had to join together under one government to survive against enemies in Palestine. This central government helped Samuel work as a teacher and reformer. Samuel came from a line of Salem teachers who kept Melchizedek's truths alive in their worship.

Samuel was strong and determined, fighting widespread opposition to bring Israel back to worshiping Yahweh. He was only partly successful, winning over about half the Hebrews to a higher idea of God. Samuel was practical and forceful, acting more than teaching, and believed in one God who created everything.

In the tenth century before Christ, the Hebrew nation split into two kingdoms. Truth teachers in both kingdoms tried to stop spiritual decline, but they weren't successful until Elijah appeared. Elijah returned the northern kingdom to a good concept of God, similar to what Samuel had taught.

Elijah had little chance to teach advanced ideas about God because he spent so much time fighting against false gods and their altars. After Elijah left, his faithful helper Elisha continued his work with help from Micaiah. By the end of their time, the better classes had returned to worshiping Yahweh as the Universal Creator.

The long fight between Yahweh believers and Baal followers was mostly about different views on land ownership, not just religious beliefs. The people of Palestine had different ideas about owning land. Southern Arabian tribes (Yahwehites) believed land could not be sold because it was a gift from God.

Northern Canaanites (Baalites) freely bought and sold land. Baal worship was founded on property rights and the belief that Baal sent rain for crops. Elijah turned this land dispute into a religious issue when King Ahab killed Naboth to take his land, and Elijah spoke out against the Baalites.

Amos took a big step in changing the idea of the tribal god Yahweh to a God who would punish wrongdoing even among his own people. Amos came from the southern hills to speak against the bad behavior of the northern tribes. Since Moses, no one had proclaimed such strong truths in Palestine.

Amos wasn't just a reformer; he discovered new ideas about God. He bravely attacked the belief that God would allow sin among his chosen people. Hosea followed Amos, bringing back Moses' concept of a loving God and teaching forgiveness through repentance, not sacrifice.

During this time, some prophets warned about punishment for personal sins in the northern tribes, while others predicted trouble for the southern kingdom. After this awakening of conscience among the Hebrews, the first Isaiah appeared. Isaiah taught about God's eternal nature, infinite wisdom, and perfect reliability.

Isaiah told the fearful and troubled Hebrews to rise and shine because their light had come. Micah and Obadiah followed Isaiah, confirming his soul-satisfying message. These two brave messengers spoke out against the priest-controlled rituals and the sacrifice system.

While several teachers continued spreading Isaiah's message, Jeremiah took the next bold step in teaching that Yahweh was God of all nations, not just the Hebrews. Jeremiah bravely declared that Yahweh wasn't just on the side of the Hebrews in their wars with other nations. He taught that Yahweh was God of the whole earth and all peoples.

Jeremiah also taught about the just and loving God that Isaiah had described, saying God had loved his people with an everlasting love. But Jeremiah was considered a traitor when, during Jerusalem's siege, he said God had given their lands to the king of Babylon. When he advised surrendering the city, the priests and rulers threw him into a dungeon.

When the Hebrew nation was destroyed and the people taken captive to Mesopotamia, it could have helped their understanding of God grow. But the Jewish priests worked hard to make up stories about Hebrew history to keep the idea that they were God's chosen people. During captivity, the Jews were influenced by Babylonian stories and legends.

A young and brave prophet, called the second Isaiah, taught that God was loving, righteous, and merciful. He fully believed in the God of justice described by the first Isaiah and Jeremiah. His teachings were so beautiful that priests included them with the earlier Isaiah's writings, where they can be found in chapters forty to fifty-five.

The custom of viewing Hebrew experiences as sacred history and all other history as ordinary history causes confusion in understanding history. This problem exists because there is no non-religious history of the Jews. After the Babylonian captivity, the priests created a new record of God's dealings with the Hebrews and destroyed all existing records of Hebrew affairs.

To understand why the captive Jews rewrote their history, we must look at their difficult national experiences. The Jews were led by alien rulers for five hundred years, which was very hard for them. The teachings of their prophets seemed confusing and contradictory, leaving them disappointed and frustrated.

The Hebrew nation was created when the Israelites and Canaanites joined together. The Hebrews never drove out the Canaanites from Palestine, even though priests' records claimed they did. The Israeli consciousness began in the hill country of Ephraim, while the later Jewish consciousness started in the southern clan of Judah.

Actual Hebrew history begins with King Saul gathering northern tribes to fight the Ammonites who had attacked their fellow tribesmen east of the Jordan. With an army of about three thousand, Saul defeated the enemy, and the hill tribes made him king. Later, the exiled priests rewrote this story, greatly increasing the size of Saul's army.

The Hebrew leaders had taught their people that they were chosen not for special favor, but to bring the truth of one God to all nations. They promised that if the Jews fulfilled this purpose, they would become spiritual leaders of all peoples, and the coming Messiah would rule over them and the world as the Prince of Peace.

When the Persians freed the Jews, they returned to Palestine but fell under the control of their own priest-made laws, sacrifices, and rituals. The Hebrew religion preserved the concept of a Universal Father, which Jews have kept to this day. Despite its faults, the Jewish religion preserved high moral values and therefore survived.