Saturday, November 22, 2008
Hey girls, I hope you are gleaning much from the stories of Uzziah and Jotham this week. There are some incredible mighty truths in this week's lesson for us. I can't wait to share with you what God has been revealing to me this next Tuesday. In the meantime, be faithful read, study and reflect over the treasures God is giving you! There are so many things I love about God's word, but one of them is that these truths are timeless, they have so much to say to us today!! Have a great week and see you soon! Cynthia
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As I have been reading about the kings and how they did or didn't follow God, it was curious to me why these "high places" were not destroyed. I mean, it seems to me such an obvious place to start! Temple prostitution and child sacrifice was so obviously contrary to what God would want for his people... So I tried to find out what these "high places" actually were.
In the book, "The New Manners & Customs of Bible Times" it says, quoting:
The Canaanites believed that the gods could be helped to bring about fertility of the soil if the people fertilized one another in the places of worship. Therefore, there was a crude sexuality in the name of religion. Every Canaanite sanctuary had its own prostitutes for that purpose. Each sanctualry was dominated by a wooden pole, or asherah, which symbolized the female sex principle in the name of the goddess Asherah, and by an erect stone, or mazzebah, which symbolized male sexuality. The Canaanites believed that the gods could be persuaded, even coerced, by magic ritual. This led to the extreme of child sacrifce. Sanctuaries to the gods were made on artificial mounds, or "high places", often placed on hilltops in the belief that they brought the worshipers physically closer to the gods. Assimilation of the Canaanite religion was a steady process, and in Elijah's time the prophet believed that true worshipers of the God of Israel were a very small minority.
The reason the Canaanite religion had such an attraction was probably that when the Jews arrived in Canaan they found that they had a relatively inferior form of culture. They did not know how to build, to perform arts, or even to farm adequately because they came from a seminomadic background. The Canaanites were sophisticated and successful by comparison, and seemed to know what should be done to ensure good crops (the Canaanites attributed their sucesses to the goddess Asherah -a god of fertility). When such feelings of inferiority were aided and abetted by excuses for sexual license, it is not difficult to understand why the Canaanite religion had so great an influence.
Ah, so now I understand a little more. I can see the "success" of those around me at work (travel, money, nice homes and clothes, parties, appearances of happiness, friendships and intellect). Some of these people seem so sophisticated to me and there is a huge temptation to appear as if I am also sophisticated so that I fit.
Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the Israelites afterall.
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