Israel and Humanity - The Universal Providence

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II

The universal welfare.

Aeschylus is said, pointing to the hand of God in the afflictions nations opened by that same philosophy of history. That honor belongs to someone older than Aeschylus, it is true that in the Hebrew conception of God's providence embraces the entire universe. that is what Max Müller acknowledged in his own way when seeking a definition that could apply to all Semitic religions, he said that they consist in the worship of God in history, unlike Aryan religions which consist in the worship of God in nature

With regard to paganism, this definition seems hardly correct, because since the Aryan nations had national gods, we can not say they did not know at least one national divine providence. On the other hand, we can not argue that the Semites have ignored God in nature. What is certain in any case is that the God of Israel appears clearly with the character of universal welfare even before Moses. Do not we see the patriarch Abraham interpose in behalf of sinners of Pentapolis? "The Judge of all the earth do not there justice? "

"The Lord is to plead," said Isaiah, he stands to judge the people ". The prophet says, the next verse, that the Lord will judge Israel, but is it not because, as he just said, God is the judge of all people?

Nothing better demonstrates this concept of general welfare that the idea of genius, invisible protectors that Judaism gives every nation and which are not gods equal to that of Israel as has been claimed, but simply the one God and ministers and Supreme, esoterically, attributes, special aspects of each people appropriated the Absolute Being or whether he personnifiât in as many distinct deities, this that was the bottom of the polytheistic error, or it subordonnât conception to the belief in divine unity, which was then the true religion of the Gentiles. The Hebrew speaking God of gods , we have to study further, must be understood in this sense and confirms what we say universal Providence, because if God is the God of gods, it seems that their command and he wants to be obeyed.

How exercised for the sacred writers divine providence? "The Lord reigned forever, he has prepared his throne for the trial. He judges the world with righteousness, he judges the peoples with equity. The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of distress. Those who know your name will trust in you, because you never forsaken those who seek thee, O Lord! "Psalms "The people praise, O God! all the peoples praise you. The nations be glad and rejoice, because you judge the people righteously, and you guide the nations on earth. The people praise thee, O God! all the peoples praise you. The earth gives its products; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us and all the ends of the earth fear him "

Psalm XXXVI us a description of the welfare of a religious inspiration and poetic marvelous, "O Lord! Your kindness reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies ... Lord, you support the men and animals. How excellent is thy mercy O God! in the shadow of your wings the son of the man seeking refuge. They are filled with the abundance of thy house, and thou shalt drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life ". And the psalm says CXLV with inimitable accent: "The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee and give them their food in due time you open your hand and you satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all his works " " Already in the Pentateuch, one author modern God's action is not confined to the chosen people. It is he who sends the flood and scattered the nations after the construction of the tower of Babel is the one who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It saves the Egyptians in the famine. It destroyed Nineveh and sends the victory Cyrus . When God after the deluge, it establishes his covenant with mankind in the person of Noah and his family: "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you" And that's not all. It has often cited the gracious word of S. Francis of Assisi, who called the animals his "younger brothers". However, it is not only men but animals themselves, according to the Bible, are included in the covenant of God: "This is the sign of the covenant which I establish with you and all living things are with you ... I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature of all flesh " It is impossible that the Jewish religion, which embraced the views of Providence the animals themselves, excluded the Gentiles.

Both do not we have to look far to find a touching proof of the contrary. Joseph is not afraid to tell his brothers, the Bedouins of three thousand years ago, his descent into Egypt, has been willed by God for a purpose of mercy "to save the lives of many people" Do we not find here, besides the design of universal welfare, a more noble and more delicate, that the same events and the events which had been submitted patriarchs were in hand God, the means employed for the good of the Gentiles? And this was written after the slavery of Egypt, when the Mosaic Law required the Jews as practices designed to perpetuate the memory! We acknowledge there be exaggeration, if we should support them in this book that, in the spirit of Judaism, the dispersion of Israel and its secular woes have been intended by God to the salvation of nations? We here at the beginning of Israelite history, testimony concluded in the words of Joseph so generous and so full of feelings of universal love. We have seen in many passages of Scripture that God is qualified as a judge and that divine justice extends to all peoples. This implies a general law mandatory for all mankind and a providence, without distinction of race, applies everywhere and at all times. We will monitor the exercise of this right providence in the biblical story and the subsequent development of Jewish thought.