Bwebbservant
Sunday Evening Bible Study
June 17, 2001
I. Introduction
a. Goals of this study
i. Study 1 and 2 Samuel in their entirety as a single message
ii. Better understand the line of Messiah through types and prophecy
iii. Analyze the Shift from stoic to epicurean in society
iv. Examine Life and Times of the people 1000 years before Christ
b. How we will do this
i. Use maps, charts and graphs to understand relationships in certain areas
ii. Consider 1 & 2 Samuel as one book as the Hebrews did
iii. Evaluate civil, secular and religious life in 1000 year old terms from ancient literature
II. Previous Study
a. The End of Shiloh
b. The Death of Eli’s sons
c. The Loss of the Ark
d. The Philistines do not want the Ark any more
III. King Preparation Phase One: Seek God First
a. Conviction
i. The Ark Returns
1. It stays for 20 years in Kiriath-jearim
2. Eleazer is picked to watch it
ii. Israel Laments
1. The word for lament is naah and it means to feel guilty and cry. This activity is focused at YHWH.
2. Notice that it is all of the House, not just a few rooms
b. Repentance
i. If-Then clause
1. IF
a. You return to God with all your heart
b. Remove the foreign gods
c. Remove the Ashtaroth
d. Direct your hearts toward YHWH
e. Serve YHWH alone
2. THEN
a. YHWH will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines
ii. Destruction of the Ashtaroth and foreign gods
1. Suprisingly, Israel:
a. Removed the Baals
i. Who were the Baal’s? A.H. Sayce in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia gives us some help:
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I. NAME AND CHARACTER OF BAAL
In Babylonia it was the title specially applied to Merodach of Babylon,
which
in time came to be used in place of his actual name. As the word in Hebrew also
means “possessor,” it has been supposed to have originally signified, when used
in a religious sense, the god of a particular piece of land or soil. Of this,
however,
there is no proof, and the sense of “possessor” is derived from that of “lord.”
The
Babylonian Bel-Merodach was a Sun-god, and so too was the Can Baal whose
full title was Baal-Shemaim, “lord of heaven.” The Phoenician writer
Sanchuniathon (Philo Byblius,
Fragmenta II) accordingly says that the
children of the first generation of mankind “in time of drought stretched forth
their hands to heaven toward the sun; for they regarded him as the sole Lord of
heaven, and called him Beel-sameôn, which means
‘Lord of Heaven’ in the
Phoenician language and is equivalent to Zeus in Greek” Baal-Shemaim had a
temple at Umm el-Awamid between Acre and Tyre, and his name is found in
inscriptions from the Phoenician colonies of Sardinia and Carthage.
II. ATTRIBUTES OF BAAL
As the Sun-god, Baal was worshipped under two aspects, beneficent and
destructive. On the one hand he gave light and warmth to his worshippers; on
the
other hand the fierce heats of summer destroyed the vegetation he had himself
brought into being. Hence, human victims were sacrificed to him in order to
appease his anger in time of plague or other trouble, the victim being usually
the
first-born of the sacrificer and being burnt alive. In the Old Testament this
is
euphemistically termed “passing” the victim “through the fire” (2 Ki 16:3;
21:6).
The forms under which Baal was worshipped were necessarily as numerous as
the communities which worshipped him. Each locality had its own Baal or divine
“Lord” who frequently took his name from the city or place to which he
belonged. Hence, there was a Baal-Zur, “Baal of Tyre”; Baal-hermon, “Baal of
Hermon” (Jdg 3:3); Baal-Lebanon, “Baal of Lebanon”; Baal-Tarz, “Baal of
Tarsus.” At other times the title was attached to the name of an individual
god;
Thus we have Bel-Merodach, “the Lord Merodach” (or “Bel is Merodach”) at
Babylon, Baal-Melkarth at Tyre, Baal-gad (Josh 11:17) in the north of Palestine.
Occasionally the second element was noun as in Baal-Shemaim, “lord of
heaven,” Baalzebub (2 Ki 1:2), “Lord of flies,” Baal-Hammaôn,
usually
interpreted “Lord of heat,” but more probably “Lord of the sunpillar,” the
tutelary deity of Carthage. All these various forms of the Sun-god were
collectively known as the Baalim or “Baals” who took their place by the side of
the female Ashtaroth and Ashtrim. At Carthage the female consort of Baal was
termed Peneô-Baal, “the face” or
“reflection of Baal.”
III. BAAL-WORSHIP
In the earlier days of Hebrew history the title Baal, or “Lord,” was
applied to
the national God of Israel, a usage which was revived in later times, and is
familiar to us in the King James Version. Hence both Jonathan and David had
sons called Merib-baal (1 Ch 8:31; 9:40) and Beeliada (1 Ch 14:7). After the
time
of Ahab, however, the name became associated with the worship and rites of the
Phoenician deity introduced into Samaria by Jezebel, and its idolatrous
associations accordingly caused it to fall into disrepute. Hosea (2:16)
declares
that henceforth the God of Israel should no longer be called Baali, “my Baal,”
and personal names like Esh-baal (1 Ch 8:33; 9:39), and Beelinda into which it
entered were changed in form, Baal being turned into boôsheth which in Heb at
any rate conveyed the sense of “shame.”
IV. TEMPLES, ETC
Temples of Baal at Samaria and Jerusalem are mentioned in 1 Ki 1:18;
where
they had been erected at the time when the Ahab dynasty endeavored to fuse
Israelites and Jews and Phoenicians into a single people under the same
national
Phoenician god. Altars on which incense was burned to Baal were set up in all
the streets of Jerusalem according to Jeremiah (11:13), apparently on the flat
roofs of the houses (Jer 32:29); and the temple of Baal contained an image of
the
god in the shape of a pillar or Bethel (2 Ki 10:26, 27). In the reign of Ahab,
Baal
was served in Israel by 450 priests (1 Ki 18:19), as well as by prophets (2 Ki
10:19), and his worshippers wore special vestments when his ritual was
performed (2 Ki 10:22). The ordinary offering made to the god consisted of
incense (Jer 7:9) and burnt sacrifices; on extraordinary occasions the victim
was
human (Jer 19:5). At times the priests worked themselves into a state of
ecstasy,
and dancing round the altar slashed themselves with knives (1 Ki 18:26, 28),
like
certain dervish orders in modern Islam.
V. USE OF THE NAME
In accordance with its signification the name of Baal is generally used
with
the definite art.; in the Septuagint this often takes the feminine form, Péó÷ıíç,
aischuñneô “shame”
being intended to be read. We find the same usage in Rom
11:4. The feminine counterpart of Baal was Baalah or Baalath which is found in
a good many of the local names (see Baethgen, Beitrage zur semitischen
Religionsgeschichte, 1888).
VI. FORMS OF BAAL
1. Baal-Berith
Baal-berith úéø„a
ìòÇa—, ba€al
berŒôth; Âááëâåñßè,
BaalberΖth,
“Covenant Baal,” was worshipped at Shechem after the death of Gideon (Jdg
8:33; 9:4). In Jdg 9:46 the name is replaced by El-berith, “Covenant-god.” The
covenant was that made by the god with his worshippers, less probably between
the Israelites and the native Canaanites.
2. Baal-Gad
Baal-gad ãbˆ ìòÇa—,
ba€al gaôdh; ÂáëáãÜäá, Balagañda, “Baal [lord of
good luck” (or “Baal is Gad”) was the god of a town called after his name in
the
north of Palestine, which has often been identified with Baalbek. The god is
termed simply Gad in Isa 65:11 the Revised Version, margin; where he is
associated with Meni, the Assyrian Manu (King James Version “troop” and
“number”).
3. Baal-Hamon
Baal-hamon ïBîä˜
ìòÇa—, ba€al
haômoôn; Âååëáìşí,
Beelamoôön is
known
only from the fact that Solomon had a garden at a place of that name (Song
8:11).
The name is usually explained to mean “Baal of the multitude,” but the
cuneiform tablets of the Tell el-Amarna age found in Palestine show that the
Egyptian god Amon was worshipped in Canaan and identified there with the
native Baal. We are therefore justified in reading the name Baal-Amon, a
parallel
to the Babylonian Bel-Merodach. The name has no connection with that of the
Carthaginian deity Baal-hamman.
4. Baal-Hermon
Baal-hermon ïBîøŠç–
ìòÇa—, ba€al
hÖermoôn; Âáëáåñìşí,
Balaermoôön is
found in the name of “the mountain of Baal-hermon” (Jdg 3:3; compare 1 Ch
5:23), which also bore the names of Hermort, Sirion and Shenir (Saniru in the
Assyrian inscriptions), the second name being applied to it by the Phoenicians
and the third by the Amorites (Dt 3:9). Baal-hermon will consequently be a
formation similar to Baal-Lebanon in an inscription from Cyprus; according to
the Phoenician writer Sanchuniathon (Philo
Byblius, Fragmenta II) the
third generation of men “begat sons of surprising size and stature, whose names
were given to the mountains of which they had obtained possession.”
5. Baal-Peor
Baal-peor øBòôÀ ìòÇa—,
ba€al pe€oôr;
Âååëöåãşñ, Beelphegoôör was god
of the Moabite mountains, who took his name from Mount Peor (Nu 23:28), the
modern Fa€uôr,
and was probably a form of Chemosh (Jerome, Comm., Isa 15).
The sensual rites with which he was worshipped (Nu 25:1-3) indicate his
connection with the Phoenician Baal.
6. Baal-Zebub
Baal-zebub áeáæ€
ìòÇa—, ba€al
zebhuôbh; Âááëìõßá
Èåüò, BaalmuŒña
Theoñs (“Baal the fly god”) was worshipped at Ekron where he had
famous
oracle (2 Ki 1:2, 3, 16). The name is generally translated “the Lord of flies,”
the
Sun-god being associated with the flies which swarm in Palestine during the
earlier summer months. It is met with in Assyrian inscriptions. In the New
Testament the name assumes the form of Beelzebul (Âååëæåâïıë), in King James
Version: BEELZEBUB (which see).
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b. Removed the Ashtaroth
i. Who was this Goddess anyway? A.H. Sayce in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia gives us some help:
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ash´to-reth, ash-toô reth (úø†zÊLÔòÇ, €ashtoôreth; plural úBøz˜LÔòÇ,
€ashtaôroôth;
EÁóôáñôy, Astarteôñ):
1. NAME AND ORIGIN
The name of the supreme goddess of Canaan and the female counterpart of
Baal.
The name and cult of the goddess were derived from Babylonia, where
Ishtar
represented the evening and morning stars and was accordingly androgynous in
origin. Under Semitic influence, however, she became solely female, but
retained
a memory of her primitive character by standing, alone among the Assyro-Bab
goddesses, on a footing of equality with the male divinities. From Babylonia
the
worship of the goddess was carried to the Semites of the West, and in most
instances the feminine suffix was attached to her name; where this was not the
case the deity was regarded as a male. On the Moabite Stone, for example,
‘Ashtar is identified with Chemosh, and in the inscriptions of southern Arabia
‘Athtar is a god. On the other hand, in Atar-gatis or Derketo (2 Macc 12:26),
Atar, without the feminine suffix, is identified with the goddess ‘Athah or
‘Athi
(Greek Gatis). The
cult of the Greek AphrodŒñteô
in Cyprus was borrowed
from that of Ashtoreth; whether the Greek name also is a modification of
Ashtoreth, as has often been maintained, is doubtful.
2. ATTRIBUTES OF THE GODDESS
In Babylonia and Assyria Ishtar was the goddess of love and war. An old
Babylonian legend related how the descent of Ishtar into Hades in search of her
dead husband, Tammuz, was followed by the cessation of marriage and birth in
both earth and heaven, while the temples of the goddess at Nineveh and Arbela,
around which the two cities afterward grew up, were dedicated to her as the
goddess of war. As such she appeared to one of Assur-bani-pal’s seers and
encouraged the Assyrian king to march against Elam. The other goddesses of
Babylonia, who were little more than reflections of the god, tended to merge
into
Ishtar who thus became a type of the female divinity, a personification of the
productive principle in nature, and more especially the mother and creatress of
mankind.
The chief seat of the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was Erech, where
prostitution was practiced in her name, and she was served with immoral rites
by
bands of men and women. In Assyria, where the warlike side of the goddess was
predominant, no such rites seem to have been practiced, and, instead,
prophetesses were attached to her temples to whom she delivered oracles.
3. ASHTORETH AS A MOON-GODDESS
In Canaan, Ashtoreth, as distinguished from the male ‘Ashtar, dropped her
warlike attributes, but in contradistinction to Asheôraôh, whose name and cult
had also been imported from Assyria, became, on the one hand, the colorless
consort of Baal, and on the other hand, a moon-goddess. In Babylonia the moon
was a god, but after the rise of the solar theology, when the larger number of
the
Babylonian gods were resolved into forms of the sun-god, their wives also
became solar, Ishtar, “the daughter of Sin” the moon-god, remaining identified
with the evening-star. In Canaan, however, when the solar theology had absorbed
the older beliefs, Baal, passing into a sun-god and the goddess who stood at
his
side becoming a representative of the moon—the pale reflection, as it were, of
the sun—Ashtoreth came to be regarded as the consort of Baal and took the place
of the solar goddesses of Babylonia.
4. THE LOCAL ASHTAROTH
Hence there were as “many Ashtoreths” or Ashtaroth as Baals. They
represented the various forms under which the goddess was worshipped in
different localities (Jdg 10:6; 1 Sam 7:4; 12:10, etc.). Sometimes she was
addressed as Naamah, “the delightful one,” Greek Astro-noeô,
the mother of
Eshmun and the Cabeiri. The Philistines seem to have adopted her under her
warlike form (1 Sam 31:10 the King James Version reading “Ashtoreth,” as
Septuagint), but she was more usually the moon-goddess (Lucian, De Dea
Syriac., 4; Herodian, v.6, 10), and was accordingly symbolized by the horns
of a
cow. See ASHTAROTH-KARNAIM. At
Ashkelon, where Herodotus (i.105)
places her most ancient temple, she was worshipped under the name of Atar-
gatis, as a woman with the tail of a fish, and fish were
accordingly sacred to
her. Elsewhere the dove was her sacred symbol. The immoral rites with which
the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was accompanied were transferred to Canaan
(Dt 23:18) and formed part of the idolatrous practices which the Israelites
were
called upon to extirpate.
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c. Finally those who served YHWH alone
c. Reparation
i. They had been at war with God
ii. Gathering at Mizpah
1. Mizpha in Hebrew ätÈöÀîÄ means an observatory, or a watchtower. It is located about 7 miles north of Jerusalem though no one is sure of the exact location.
Factiod:
I think that the exact location of the city was important to those involved in the return to God at that time. While each successive generation can have a similar experience at their own ‘mizpah’ each location is special to god and the participants alone.
iii. Pouring out of water
1. Water in a dry place symbolizes the extravegance they wasted apart from God and the rest in His provisions even though they caused the offence.
d. Demonstration
i. How can we know we are forgiven?
1. Israelites trust God, but will the forgiveness equal deliverance?
ii. The Philistines gather to fight
1. When the Philistines heard that Israel was on the watchtower, they thought this would be a good opportunity to destroy the rest of them.
2. I tend to believe this is not to long after the Ark returned, yet there is no way to prove this
e. Deliverance
i. Confusion from the Lord
1. Hamam means to put in commotion.
ii. Route to Beth-car (house of the lamb)
1. Another unknown location
iii. The New Ebenezer (stone of help, stone of deliverance)
1. Not the Ebenezer we were at in 4:1
iv. The Philistines are routed for a long time
1. We do not know how long they stayed at be.
v. There was a peace between Israel and the Canaanites
1. This peace comes from strength and sutainance of God
f. Abiding
i. Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life
ii. The annual circuit of Samuel
iii. Samuel’s house and Alter to YHWH
IV. Conclusion
a. This week we have seen:
i. Salvation (in the operative sense) comes as we are:
1. Convicted
2. Repentant
3. Reparative
4. Tested
5. Delivered
6. Approved & Abiding
b. Next week we will see:
i. Read 1 Samuel 8:1-22
I.
“King Preparation Phase Two: Our Way, Right Away”
Any Questions? Contact the Webbservant at… stephen.mack.howard@juno.com