A multitude of gods

Thousands of years ago a man named Moses (known affectionately to his friends as simply, Mo) walked up a mountain to meet God (known by His friends as YHWH)face to face. Up to this point he had only known Him by His actions. He met Him first in a bush that was burning, but refused to become ash. Soon, however, His mighty acts were seen by all of Egypt and their Hebrew slaves, who YHWH had decided were His. Plague after plague was thrown down upon Egypt as they refused to release God’s people and ultimately refused to recognize YHWH as THE God.

The lack of recognition was understandable (at first) considering the fact that the Egyptians had enough gods to cover all their needs already. The gods the Egyptians worshiped tell us what was important to them. After all, unlike YHWH, these gods were created to represent that which the Egyptians relied upon for crop growth and that which they feared would destroy it. Thus, Ra, the god of the sun, was worshipped, because he brought about growth, but feared, in that he could also scorch the crops. The Nile was worshipped as a life source, bringing water to the kingdom. Yet, if it overflowed it could cause great damage.  The plagues were not simply a judgement on Egypt and their Pharaoh, but on all the gods they looked to in order to survive.

The cobra was a symbol of Egyptian sovereignty. Thus, when Moses came into the throne room of Pharaoh and turned a rod into a cobra, (and perhaps more importantly, when it swallowed up the snakes of Pharaoh’s magicians), he was showing the complete sovereignty of YHWH. It was a way of saying, “You are no longer the greatest power, and I’m going to show you.”

Because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness, miraculous sign after miraculous sign came, not simply to pummel him until he said uncle, but to show the all encompassing power of YHWH; the God of Israel; a God whom they had not even met with yet. He, for some reason, had decided that they were going to be His. The signs where just that; signs of how much greater YHWH was than all the gods of Egypt. They had no true power. The gods of the Nile, the gods who brought good crops and strong cattle, the gods who controlled the sun (Ra), and finally the gods who were in control of death, all were shamed by the self appointed God of Israel (who hardly even knew they were a people yet). Thus, the signs were perhaps not as much for Pharaoh, or the people of Egypt, but for the Hebrew people; to establish the great power and extreme concern YHWH had for His people.

Now imagine it is three months later, the Hebrew people have just been released from 400 years of slavery, because their God did all these things to purchase their release. They are finally about to hear from Him.  They have seen what He will do for them, now they will find out what He would have them do in response. I wonder how surprised Moses was when the first thing God asked was that He be the only God of Israel. Imagine that! All you have ever known is Egypt, every deity you know of outside of this YHWH has just been shamed (or more importantly shown to be false), and now He asks to be exclusive.

It seems obvious doesn’t it? I imagine Moses saying (or at least thinking) something like “Of course You’re going to be our God, God! Who else is there? Everything we’ve been taught, everything we were told should define us, everything we were told to consult, You have shown to be false and worthless. You saved us when we didn’t even know Your name. We have done nothing for You, and you have done everything for us!! You want to be our God, well let me answer for the people that you saved…. YES, PLEASE!!!”

It seems obvious doesn’t it? But we all know what happened.

As years went by, and the influence of other nations seeped in, the first commandment didn’t seem to be so obvious. The people of Israel had to be reminded from time to time (to time, to time, to time….) that their God was the God who saved them from slavery. Time and time again prophets and other people of God reminded the Hebrew people of where they once were, where they were now, and Who it was that brought them there.

So here is my point, (I do have one). Every once and awhile you and I need to be reminded of where we came from, remember the gods we once served, and get back to the YHWH who saved us.  Too often we decide to follow the old gods. The gods that the society around us says are substantial, but which God has shown us (and even our own experience has shown us) are not gods at all. We say we have left Egypt behind, but some of us are still clinging to its beliefs; belief in the god of possessions, the god of sex, the god of pride and the god of revenge. We forget the God who delivered, and thirst for the old days, without a God who wants to be ours and we His.

However, there is a problem with those gods and the life surrounding them. We have forgotten that when we served those gods, we were slaves.

  “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place……”

Exodus 13:3a

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