Israel and Humanity - Divine Providence in the government of nations

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IV.

Divine providence in the government of nations.

§ 1.

We have so far considered that the justice of God in general. We must now consider how the Jews so deeply patriotic conceived God judge between people, defending its provident equitable various nationalities.

We see first the God of Israel to intervene in the internal government of the Gentiles. Elysium, on the order of God, anointed and dedicated Hazael as king of Syria (i Kings xix, 15) and Daniel said, in general, it is God who overturns and establishes kings It also remembers the quotes Isaiah against the tyranny of Sennacherib. Would we then present the first origin of international law which is still in process of formation? We wanted to derive it from the jus gentium of the Romans, but wrongly, because the Romans regarded their empire as large as the world. The truth is that historically Moses was the first to proclaim the principle and, philosophically, it is clear that the doctrine of the universal welfare contained the seeds for if God governs the world of nations according to inviolable laws, there is nothing more natural and more just than the nations themselves are required to observe these laws in their mutual relations.

About the destruction of the peoples of Canaan, we have seen that the Hebrews were the executors of an act of providential justice. We can report similar developments in the history of other peoples. Moses says in Deuteronomy (II, 17) that the Rephaim were destroyed by the Ammonites exactly like the inhabitants of Canaan by the Hebrews were then. The prophet Isaiah says that Israel is the God who delivers to them conquering the peoples conquered by In the prophecy of the Persian expedition against Babylon, God is represented as a commander in chief It was he who brought the nations to the north of Nebuchadnezzar and we see that "the cup of wrath" is given to drink indiscriminately to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt and the kings of the lands of Arabia and the countries Philistine Thus Israel is included in the crowd of Gentiles to receive them as punishment for his evil deeds. This principle of equal treatment from the God of Israel is pushed so far that, according to the Bible is God himself that Sennacherib had the mission to subjugate Israel.

What, in Judaism, the manifestations of international law which flows logically from the belief in a universal providence, the guardian of different nationalities? God is everywhere represented in Scripture as the supreme judge of nations. It is a crime in her eyes that violate the borders of a country and an attempt on his independence. Such is the accusation that the prophet Amos addresses in Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and later Judah and Israel themselves to the same extent as the Gentiles. Respect the right of the people was so deeply entered into the spirit of Judaism that we see his prophets wonder that God does not always protect the freedom of the Gentiles against the violence of their oppressors And this is how it should be understood, as the prophet Joel, the solemn sitting will be held in the valley of Jehoshaphat and where Israel enslaved nations who will be called for trial, not that Israel is the subject of this special favor: he is here to Jews, as elsewhere for other people, the normal exercise of divine justice between nations.

Note also that a God who takes care of not only conflict where Israel is concerned, but also those in which Jews do nothing, is really the God of humanity and its welfare is highly universal. This applies to what Amos said of Moab in the ad that is divine punishment: "Because he burned, charred bones of the king of Edom I will send fire into Moab and devour the palaces of Kerijoth and Moab shall die ... ". In the eyes of the prophet, Israel is at the same level as the Philistines and the Syrians: "Are you not for me as children of the Ethiopians, the children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of Egypt as the Philistines of Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? ".

We will have the opportunity to highlight all that is humane, magnanimous, heroic even in the Mosaic commandment not to abhor the Egyptian The people who persecuted the Jews and who therefore was justly punished, is presented in turn by Ezekiel as the object of divine redemption from the hands of their oppressors, and Israel once was its own hands. Whether Jews or other peoples, God's providence extends over all with sovereign equality, we can not push further the idea of impartial justice.

The prophecies are full of threats and promises related to pagan peoples. In Jeremiah, it in turn to be conquered Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, Gaza, that Pharaoh should win, Moab, Ammon, Elam, who, after being harshly punished for their sins, shall be restored after the time. We read in the same prophet: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will punish all the circumcised who are not heart, Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab .. . and later: "Thus saith the LORD all my wicked neighbors who attacked the legacy I gave to my people of Israel: Behold, I tear their country, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. But after I have them pulled, I will spare them again and bring them each to his inheritance, each in his country ". It is clear that in all these passages is the God of Israel itself which gives each nation a legacy to the ground it should have. Also the Bible prohibits it to Israel with full respect for the rights of nationalities whose God is the judge and avenger. "Give this order to the people: You will pass the border of your brethren the children of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be careful, do not attack them, because I do not give their country well enough to put the foot . Note that these words they will fear you, equivalent to saying: If I recommend that you respect their rights, not because I fear they do not inflict a defeat is precisely because they will fear you I urge you specifically not to yield to the temptation of an easy victory. Moab is subject to the same solicitude: "Do not attack Moab and do not engage you in a fight with him: for I will not give you to possess in their country is the children of Lot I given Ar property ".

But justice is not enough in international relations, the charity is also a place. The people owe each other assistance when they are tested. It is to have neglected this duty with regard to Israel that same fugitive Moabites were punished. Isaiah required to rescue the wandering people and we know how many passages the prophets show their compassion for the plight of the Gentiles. The pity is expressed today in the liturgy of the Jewish Passover and all the credit goes to the ancient rabbis who have said on this subject: "Why do not we read in the Torah the word joy < /i> about the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Because of the destruction of the Egyptians. Also you see that during the seven days of Tabernacles was made <i> Hallel as a whole, while, except the first night and the first day of the festival, they do not read it completely during the Passover Unleavened Bread. And why this? Because you should not rejoice when your enemy falls ".

§ 2.

If, under the Hebrew conception, all nations in God's plan for a legal existence, if His providence extends to all alike, though each of them finally has rights at the same time as the duties, of course that the commitments they assume towards each other must be religiously respected. We cite a successful example because it is an oath to a pagan king, a king of Israel and raped by him: Zedekiah, after swearing allegiance to the king of Babylon, breaks his word and revolt against him, the Bible and the rabbis are unanimous in seeing in this violation of the oath to a foreign sovereign act criminal in the eyes of God.

Following the example of its patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac, who made a covenant with the pagan chiefs, allied with Israel repeatedly with Gentiles. The polytheism of Tyre did not prevent Solomon of contracting such an alliance with the Phoenician people, reports of this kind have discontinued the Jews perfectly legitimate. Everyone knows the story of the Gibeonites, the Canaanites in Joshua's time, fearing to share the fate of the other inhabitants of Palestine deceive the good faith of Israel, posing for a tribe and distant and cut off from a promise friendship and peace treaty. It should be noted that if he had really acted in a distant people, the pact, the Hebrews, was considered possible and permissible, since it is under the false appearance that will have the Gibeonites, but it is more significant that, despite the fraud and though the oath was taken by surprise, Israel has felt obliged to respect it. It is therefore clear that Judaism recognizes an international natural law and that, for him, the state of peace is the normal condition among people, because otherwise the name of what the supreme principle of such alliances have they been acquired? Thus we see an early war condemned; aspirations of increasingly specific to the universal peace emerge in Hebrew literature, until the voice sounds of the great prophets announcing immortal accents, the advent of the Messianic era.

On this ground, as on that of the true knowledge of God, we have no difficulty in recognizing in the Paganism traces the same aspirations. Seneca and Lucan had a presentiment of these great truths and Roman jurists like Ulpian had borrowed from Platonic philosophy and Assyrian rather than those of Epicurus, have spoken well, too, of a primitive state where he there was still no government or nationality, but where men superior in this animal, were not enemies of each other. The brilliance of these forgotten truths lights here and there a flash fleeting darkness of the pagan world, but that does not prevent the Gentiles state of war seemed to be generally normal condition of nations and Hobbes in his social philosophy, was not afraid to move within the fruit of Christianity from paganism. Plato Clénias say: "What ordinary men called peace is meaningless and in fact all states are, by nature of things, in conditions of perpetual war against each others, without this constant war may need to be declared.

To rise to the idea of a universal providence extends to all people and punishing the legitimate rights of each of them, men must cease to think outside of the national group there nothing more, so that humanity finally ends where the nation or tribe, illusion analogous to the physical and geographical limited the habitable world to tiny spaces. Horizons circumscribed, said Victor Hugo, generate ideas partial. It is not surprising that this has not been the case for Judaism who professed the unity of origin of mankind and has therefore formally proclaimed the principle of welfare equal to all. We have already had occasion to quote the words of Amos: "Are you not for me as the children of the Ethiopians, the children of Israel, saith the Lord. Have I not brought Israel out of Egypt, the Philistines of Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? . This association between race and race Ethiopian Jewish settlers who were, according to the Bible, both ends of the scale ethnographic, making it more eloquently proclaiming the equality that should see them.

But here Isaiah text of incomparable value: "In those days, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, the Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians of LORD. At the same time, Israel will, he third, united with Egypt and Assyria and these countries will be a blessing. The LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance! "Isaiah In the presence of such words, the mind remains confused and he loves. He loves to three thousand years apart, the confession most beautiful and most tender you can imagine an explicit faith in divine providence. And providence we are not saying that Paul knows neither Jew nor Greek, because it involves a race ineligible, a deletion of any nationality: we affirm the contrary it also recognizes Jews, Greeks and barbarians, in a word all races and all nations to unite, however, without blur. The blessing is given to Egypt and Assyria in terms of touching and what is more admirable in that particular appellation "My people" applied to Egypt? One might say that these epithets are contradicted by that which is conferred on Israel itself, because if Israel is the special heritage of God, equality is not she not broken? No, because the Lord is God of all mankind that receives it, especially as his inheritance, a small fraction of the human race, the oldest of the peoples, as it receives tithe fields and livestock and the firstborn of men and animals.

Let us listen to what the rabbis tell us: "The election of Israel can be explained by means of a fable. A king had a tunic he recommended to his servant and said: Shake it, fold, take in the greatest care. Lord said the servant, of all the coats you have, how is it that you do not make me recommendations for this alone? That, replied the king, because it sticks to my body. Similarly Moses said to the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the world, among seventy people you have, you give me orders for Israel. God replied: Because they belong to me as it is written: As the belt is attached to the kidney of man, so I've linked to me, O house of Israel; because they have proclaimed my kingdom during the exodus from Egypt, saying: The Lord reigns forever " , to indicate that divine providence extends to all people the same way as Jews in every nation and that there is an Israel, a heritage of God in the person of righteous men and righteous? Everything we have said previously the knowledge of God and the conservation of great religious truths in the paganism of course shown that when idolatry still prevailed everywhere, however there was a group of pagans in which Israel would recognize true children of God. The Bible only testifies does not expressly, when we speak of Gentiles favored divine revelations?

Finally, there is no arguing that the idea of a universal welfare, equal for all and govern all nations in terms of wisdom and love, reached its highest perfection in the Messianic prophecies, announcing the conversion of all mankind world the true God worshiped by Israel.