Do you believe in God? I’m often asked. It’s complicated.
81% of Americans believe in God, according to a recent Gallop poll
published this past summer. It was 96% in 1944.
“Even at 81 percent, Americans’ belief in God remains robust, at least in comparison with Europe, where only 26 percent said they believed in the God of the Bible, and 36 percent said they believed in a higher power, according to a 2018 Pew poll.”
The numbers - lowest ever in the US - indicate societal shifts with recent trends pointing at deeper correlations between faith and political conservatism impacting responses. The numbers also vary dramatically based on the type of question asked.
It’s complicated.
No polls exist from back in the biblical days of the Judges but half way through the book, ‘The God of the Bible’ is once again low on the polls as some of today’s political leaders and deities.
Again and again, during days of relative peace, the Israelite population in Canaan turns to the local deities, switches off the Torah channel, and forsakes the historical covenant with Adonai. They are religious - just not in the way some people - including those who later edited the bible and tell us this story - count.
In practice that likely meant that they attended the local shrines of their neighbors, living with or mixing together other myths of sacred space and time, offering sacrifices and participating in economic-civic-religious rituals and cultural gatherings that indicate a healthy community and/but blur the boundaries between ethnic groups. It also may include political affinities and nationalistic aspirations that don’t always coincide with the centralist voice and demands for exclusive Judaic practice that rises and falls over the generations, with its main law requiring loyalty to the one god, one temple, one people. Again and again, those demands fail, at least for a while, and the curious cycle continues.
Chapter 10 includes a litany of perceived disloyalty and betrayal, presented as an emotional duet - an imagined conversation between Adonai and His once again, briefly, repentant people.
The impetus for their most current plea for protection is the most recent 18 year long rough occupation of Israel by their neighbors, the Ammonites from the eastern side of the Jordan river, and the Philistines from the coastal areas. Both of these nations will keep showing up in the future negotiations for power in the region - along with their many different deities and their popular appeal. It’s made clear here, quite explicitly, that the reason for their political problems are the people’s own fault - their choice to abandon Adonai’s ways is the direct cause for the rise in power of their pagan neighbors:
וַיֹּסִ֣יפוּ ׀ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת הָרַע֮ בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְהֹוָה֒ וַיַּעַבְד֣וּ אֶת־הַבְּעָלִ֣ים וְאֶת־הָעַשְׁתָּר֡וֹת וְאֶת־אֱלֹהֵ֣י אֲרָם֩ וְאֶת־אֱלֹהֵ֨י צִיד֜וֹן וְאֵ֣ת ׀אֱלֹהֵ֣י מוֹאָ֗ב וְאֵת֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י בְנֵֽי־עַמּ֔וֹן וְאֵ֖ת אֱלֹהֵ֣י פְלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וַיַּעַזְב֥וּ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֖ה וְלֹ֥א עֲבָדֽוּהוּ׃
“The Israelites again did what was offensive to Adonai: They served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines; they forsook ADONAI and did not serve Him.”
Quite the list. No less than seven deities are mentioned here:
Baalim would be the different local representations of Ba’al - the Cananite Male main God - often responsible for vegetation and life.
Ashtarot are the manifestation of Ishtar, the Goddess, Baal’s Consort, Queen of Heaven, often worshipped as a sacred tree.
The God of Aram is Hadad, the Storm-God responsible for the weather, worshipped in Sidon as Bel, the Great Storm Dragon; Chemosh is the leader among Moab’s gods, known as the Destroyer, War Lord, sometimes Fish-God, and Sex God described in Milton’s “Paradise Lost as the “obscene dread of Moab’s sons.”
The Ammonites revered Milkom, whose name appears in the Amman Citadel Inscription, one of the oldest and longest Semitic stone inscriptions ever found in that region, which includes the assurance that “amidst the columns of his temple the just shall reside.”
Dagan is the Semitic word for ‘grain’ and he was the legendary inventor of the plow, the father of the god Baal and particularly favored by the Philistines.
These seven local deities - and it’s a partial list - represent the seven - and more - local nations that were either conquered by the Israelites or stayed robust enough to offer cultural and political challenges to Adonai’s people and their aspirations of autonomy and control. Depends which narrative you read and at what point in our history. There was a lot of zig-zagging over the years.
Just a few verses after this verse that describes Adonai’s low popularity, the occupied Israelites repent again: “They removed the alien gods from among them and served Adonai; but Adonai could not bear the labored misery of Israel.”
This is a slight shift. Adonai backs out of the deal, at least for a while, His patience with the petulant people running short. “Go cry out to your new favorite gods!” He tells the people.
The people are now even more desperate for leadership, salvation and soultions that will handle their occupiers. This will lead the way to the seeking out of the next judge, a man of questionable character, coming up next.
The theological tension feels like a pretty abusive relationship overall. At least according to the agenda of the authors and editors of this text, who were likely Judean scribes, writing at a later period with clear theological and political perspectives that were way more rigid. W
The constant zig-zag patterns of fear-based faith that is lost and found defines Judges, and perhaps still echoes in today’s reality and its reflection in polls and popular culture. e are still dealing with this perspective today although it may not reflect most of our values and systems of beliefs, no matter what we said in the recent polls.
What does faith in God - or the God of Israel - mean for you, today? Which version? Whose account? How fluid and changing can our appreciation for this ‘force of nature’ be as we reconsider its role in history and in our inner lives? For some of us - very much so. For some - way less.
This question that troubled the authors of Judges may have meaningful ramifications to our own, often private struggles with faith, within our current confusing culture with its dizzying abundance of theological assumptions and spiritual systems. This winter holiday season is just one example of the co-existing myths and miracles.
This could also be a metaphor for a very private question:
How does one get back to the deeper sense of self, one’s inner being and purpose, less distracted and deluded by diversions and the ‘idols’ of the day?
For them, for us, the journey goes on, not without its price tag. Tomorrow’s chapter introduces a particular painful and questionable price for faith, patriarchy style.
Judith meets Judges! How does the lesser known heroine of Hanukkah echo the bloody tales of this book? Find out at our next free and open zoom conversation on December 15th 1-2pm ET. Join Rabbi Amichai to explore further what the Book of Judges has to teach us today about leadership and loyalty, faith and fanatics, history and myth - just in time for the winter holiday season.
Bring your questions from previous chapters!
Link here:
https://labshul.org/event/929-below-the-bible-belt-monthly-wrap-up-with-rabbi-amichai-4/
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections: Join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible, with daily reflections, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. January 2022-July 2025
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Those seven gods seem very appealing! More tangible than a faceless God. I like your call to keep the focus on one’s true god-however the divine manifests for you.
I work in Bethlehem…(PA) After reading this post I reflected on artist Shimon Atte’s installation at the gallery where I work. He first visually presents the Moravian utopian Christian religious movement that founded Bethlehem (he forgets that there were indigenous people). Then Atte moves to the soaring steel stacks that made Bethlehem the capital of steel making. They look like idols. Finally, he spotlights the sparkling Wind Creek Casino that now dominates the economic landscape of this little town of Bethlehem! From a utopian vision to casino chips!!