Israel and Humanity - The universal empire of God
CHAPTER FOUR
THE IDEA OF GOD IN ISRAEL
THE GOD PROVIDENCE
I.
The universal empire of God.
We now study under what special characters are present in the Jewish faith in the universal God. Again the Book of Psalms we open to see firstly that all humanity is invited to worship the God of Israel and no people is foreign to divine concerns. "Let all the earth fear the Lord! That all inhabitants of the world tremble before him [1] ". "Families of people, go to the Lord, go to the Lord glory and honor! Ascribe to the Lord glory to his name! bring offerings and enter into his courts. O worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him, all ye inhabitants of the earth! Let them say among the nations the Lord reigns [2] ". "Push God cries of joy, all ye inhabitants of the earth ... Let all the earth shall worship You and sing in your honor ... People, bless our God, make his praise resound [3] ". "Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye nations! for his kindness is great toward us and his faithfulness lasts [4] forever [5] "King of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of this world, young men and maidens, old men and children! they praise the name of the Lord! For his name alone is high [6]! "
It should be closer to the latter portion of Isaiah: "The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. All idols disappear [7] They announce one and the other end of idolatry and the universal triumph of pure monotheism.
Now the empire of God loves Israel knows no limits. "In your goodness, you answer us with awesome deeds, O God of our salvation, hope of distant ends of the earth and the sea! [8] ". "The LORD has established his throne in heaven and spread a reign over all things [9] ". - "All the ends of the earth shall remember the Lord and turn to him all the families of the nations shall worship before Thy face. For the empire belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations [10]
And this reign of the true God did not stop to mankind and embraces all nature and all created beings are called to praise the Lord: "Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that s therein moves! "Ps [11] and the whole psalm CXLVIII that summarizes the last word of the Psalter: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! "Psalm [12]
The sacred writers sometimes oppose a striking contrast to the universal empire of the God of Israel to that of individual gods of paganism. This is a fact whose importance is clear to all that rejects a striking manner all charges brought against national particularism Judaism. We see the nations take a language similar to that of our modern rationalist and Jewish answer them in a way that clearly indicates that the idea of a pagan god whose domain is restricted to a single sovereign nation, they seem absurd. Judge for yourself instead. We remember the Assyrian general Rabshakeh [13] which apostrophising Jews in the name of Sennacherib, reminds them that many people without the sword of the conqueror subdued, without the various gods of these nations have could still deliver them the confidence they placed in them. "The gods of the nations delivered at all his country from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? "[14] After such examples, how then would Israel be bound to the words of her King Hezekiah, who tries to make him believe that his God is able to deliver the Assyrians? "Of all the gods of these countries, which are those that have delivered their country out of my hand, for Avaya to save Jerusalem from my hand?" [15] For the envoy of the king of Assyria, the assimilation of Jews to the God of gods of the Gentiles is as complete as possible.
What will therefore meet the Israelites? The moment is solemn because their words will serve to clarify for future generations the status of their beliefs. The question is whether the God of the Jews can be rightly compared to other gods, and therefore it is true that Judaism was a national religion like the others. Listen to the wonderful prayer that Hezekiah decides in this instance. It begins with an act of worship which is of particular importance because it opposes the very notion of God in pagan system of local and national deities: "O Lord God of Israel, thou throne upon the cherubim! Thou art the only God of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and the earth "[16] Then the king of Israel, refuting the errors of Sennacherib and advance those of modern criticism, cries: "It is true, O LORD the kings of Assyria have destroyed nations and devastated their country, and have cast their gods into the fire but they were no gods, they were works of human hands, wood and stone, and they have destroyed. Now, Lord, our God! deliver us from the hand of Sennacherib and that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are God, O Lord! "[17] [18] In truth we can not imagine a more convincing proof that, for the ancient Israelites, nothing escaped the sovereign power of their God. Let's see in detail how they understood this universal providence.
