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Total Decline Of Faith In YAHWEH

They placed HIM in the motley pantheon along with a number of oriental deities

II. The Long And melancholy Reign Of Manasseh (687-642)

From 688 (the 'miraculous' liberation of Yerusalem) to 687 was a year, perhaps a year and a half, during which YeshaYahu and his policy of non-intervention were triumphant. It is quite possible that on his advice Hezekiah resigned himself to the regular payment of his tribute to Sennacherib; this was a cheap price to pay for the peace which Yahudah sorely needed.

Manasseh, the new king of Yerusalem

After a reign of twenty-nine years Hezekiah was 'gathered to his fathers'. Unfortunately his son and heir, Manasseh, was then only twelve years old. His mother, who acted as regent, was weak and was obliged to obey Sennacherib's imperious directives (Sennacherib had still six years to live). And indeed it would have been very difficult to oppose the orders of Assyria which just at this period was about to reach the height of its powers.

On attaining his majority Manasseh could only accept the situation imposed on him by force. And throughout his reign he continued to be the Assyrians' faithful vassal. As a result, Yahudah enjoyed a long period of peace and even, to some extent, of appreciable material prosperity.

But now Yahwism could not, as it had done so successfully under Hezekiah, offer a strong enough defense against the evil influences coming both from within the country and from outside influences. In a short space of time it was to be wondered whether, despite the recent reform effected by YeshaYahu, the Law of Mosheh would not disappear beneath the irresistible wave of idolatry, superstition, ancient Semitic beliefs and immoral rites. The situation was the more tragic because Manasseh's reign was to last more than half a century and his influence for a further twenty-five years after his death. Under the suffocating domination of three successive monarchs -Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, who showed no tendency to loosen their merciless grasp, Yahudah, like most of the other vassal nations, gradually lost her soul. Yahwism was on its deathbed.

Total Decline Of Faith in YAHWEH

The Book of Melechim emphasizes that Manesseh must be regarded as one of the most wicked kings who ever sat on the throne of David. According to this book of the Scripture it appears that from the time of his accession Manasseh adopted a frankly anti-Yahwist attitude and aimed at the methodical destruction of the Faith in YAHWEH of his fathers. Modern historians do not take so absolute a view. Certain details of the Scriptural narrative, and our greater knowledge today of the methods adopted by the Assyrians for the assimilation of the conquered nations, enable us to judge Manasseh less severely. Without wishing in any way to lessen his heavy responsibilities, he appears to have been weak. He was lacking in faith, in vigour and also in good fortune. In this way we can account for the development of this tragic decadence.

In those ancient days it was usual for the conqueror to require the vanquished to worship his gods. In the far off centuries when the Canaanites were under the yoke of the Egyptians they were obliged to take part in the solemn worship of Amon and Aton. At the time of Manasseh they were obliged to worship the gods of Niniveh: Ishtar, 'the queen of the sky and of the stars'. They had also to burn incense before the altars set up in honour of the astral deities of the valley of the Tigris, and to celebrate the annual funeral rites of the Babylonian god of vegetation, Tammuz, who died in the autumn and rose again in the spring. In the two courts of Solomon's Tabernacle they worshipped Baal, the powers of Heaven, and the god Shemesh (the sun). Mesopotamian religion had taken possession of the Rock of Yerusalem.

Gradually, as if competing in this return to paganism, the Canaanite rites came back to life. Of course, Manasseh could and ought to have reacted vigorously against this counter-attack of the old idols. Although he did not protect the idolatrous revival officially, he made no Law against it; he allowed it to develop freely. And so, on the high places, we find the Baals and idols of Ashtoreth suddenly coming back; everywhere raised stones were put up once more and the sacred poles. In the immediate surroundings of the Tabernacle of YAHWEH hostels for the sacred prostitutes of both sexes were established. The ancestral religion of Canaan awakened from its long sleep more threatening than ever.

From Phoenicia, which had preserved the tradition of human sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of young children by burning, these customs returned to the land of Yahudah. And so we find at this time a revival of this barbarous custom. It was true that despite the vehement prohibitions in Vayiqra (Leviticus)15 these customs had never disappeared completely from among the Canaanite groups who made up a large proportion of the population. But in the reign of Manasseh these sacrifices, intended to obtain the deity's favour, assumed proportions hitherto unknown. Manasseh himself sacrificed his own son to Molech, 'the devourer of men16 out of mere devotion.

The altars for these vile sacrifices had been put up on mounds of earth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom to the south of the Rock of Yerusalem. There, near the Potsherd gate, these mounds could be seen where the flames from piles of wood burned almost continuously. Devout Yahwists when obliged to pass this place would spit in the direction of the fires as a mark of disgust and reprobation. The place thus came to be known by the name of tophet (spittle). Subsequently this site became a place of terror -Gehenna (the valley of Hinnom).

It was as if Yerusalem had returned to the times of the Jebusites. At the same time there occurred a wave of superstitious practices. Conjuring up of the dead had always been practiced in Canaan; the Scripture describes the frightening scene in the cave of the witch of En-dor where Saul had gone to ask her to put him in touch with Schmu'el, the dead prophet (1 Schmu'el. 28:3-25). This had happened six hundred years previously17 And now YeshaYahu informs us that in his day, right in the eighth century, these customs were far from being given up in Yisrael. Sorcery and divination in all their forms also flourished. The king himself supported these 'abominations', as the Scriptural writer calls them, and practised soothsaying and magic and introduced necromancers and wizards (2 Melechim 21:6).

It may seem surprising to the reader to find Yahudah, under its own sovereign in this curious adventure, thus deliberately abandoning its own ancestral YAHWEH, the one Sovereign Ruler of the tribes of Yacob. There is however a historical explanation for this.

YAHWEH had revealed himself to HIS chosen few

From the time of Abraham (about 1830) and, even more from the times of Mosheh (about 1225), YAHWEH had revealed himself to HIS chosen few from Adam down through Noah, Abraham and on to Moshe and on till today. First, HE was the Sovereign Ruler of the Twelve Tribes of the descendants of Yacob called Yisrael. HE was the Sovereign Ruler over the nation at the time of David, who united kingdom of Yahudah-Yisrael. Ideas about YAHWEH were still too obscure, except of course, for a few clear-sighted prophets, for the notion of a universal Sovereign Ruler to be accepted. It is still like that today with a very few clear-sighted men of YAHWEH that have understanding.

For the time being, therefore, YAHWEH, was to remain the only Sovereign Ruler of the children of Yisrael ('I am a jealous EL') to whom they had to pay exclusive worship; this was the original character of this new faith in YAHWEH. In addition, the Yahwist more or less confusedly admitted the existence of other foreign deities, the protectors of the neighbouring peoples. Nonetheless, in spiritual circles in Yahudah the general conviction was that HE was the most powerful of the gods.

Then, suddenly, and unexpectedly, HIS power seemed to wane. Yerusalem became an Assyrian province; soldiers from the banks of the Tigris were the masters; they had even installed their idols in YAHWEH's own tabernacle. The people were ashamed and humiliated. And YAHWEH made no move. In the last resort, was YAHWEH of Yisrael less powerful than the deities imported by the conquerors and set up on the Rock of Zion?

In vain the prophets might proclaim to their contemporaries that the misfortunes of the capital of Yahudah were the price exacted for the immorality, perversion and idolatry engulfing the city of David. No one paid any attention to these preachers. In the opinion of the ordinary people YAHWEH did not come to the help of HIS chosen people because HE was less powerful than the gods of their conquerors.

Almost more startling was the fact that YAHWEH did not disappear completely from the faith in YAHWEH of Yerusalem; a place was kept for HIM in the motley pantheon along with a number of oriental deities. Thus YAHWEH, WHO spoke on Sinai, who gave the Law to Mosheh, was placed on the same footing as Molech of Tyre, the Canaanite Baal, the immoral Asherah of Babylon and the Sun (Shemesh) worshipped at Niniveh.

 

15 'You must not pass over any of your children to have them passed to Molech (Moloch) nor must you profane the name of your Sovereign Ruler in this way I am YAHWEH' (Vayiqra 18:21)

16 In reality it was to Baal, who had been given the name of Malek (king), later corrupted into Molech and then Moloch.

17 See David in this series

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