Reply #9: A littler humbler origin

[PATRICK]

Moses borrowed the fire god of the shepherd Kenites who resided on Mt. Sinai. A tribal nature deity became identified with his own humble traditional faith he little knew. Jerusalem also belonged to another priestly cult that also peacefully merged with the Israelites.

In the remnant that survived assimilation in Babylon long after King David, they countered that major pagan faith with very broad and sweeping reflections and faith statements on the equality of the sexes and man made in the image and likeness of God(Genesis). This is more a refined reaction against their pagan captors where MOST exiles assimilated and never returned, just a faithful elite. Unfortunately they returned as a bit too self protective, idelaist fanatics trying to repossess the land and vacate the recent "impure" inhabitants, also assimilated Semites, like the Samaritans who practiced the faith in a more primitive thought framework. This is somewhat like the current overstrong repossession of Israel and the unethical results.

God was not defined other than in the saving covenant actions the people experienced as slaves delivered by a God more powerful than the cruel sponsors of greater nations. For more power THEIR God had to be more powerful and the only way open was a more personal, higher ethical and exclusive relationship. As the nation gained or sought national power, so that new God declined in its progressive relationship. And the nation fell over and over and over again as the idea and relationship went on through the unlearned mess.

Power and truth in littleness and weakness. An impossible thing for humans to grasp? But then who needs to know the Judaeo-Christian God when you "have it all"? There are easier Gods to grasp and worship. And they are far crueler and less reliable.

The anger of God is directed at the self hurt of fatal abandonment for lesser falsities and missing the pat more and more like a troubled parent than an avenging monarch.