CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Objective

At the end of this introductory chapter, readers are expected

to be able to explain the terms monarchy and prophet, as well

as the characteristics of the prophets of Israel. They should

understand and be able to discuss the religion of the Canaanites

(Baalism), and its influences on the religion of Israel (Yahwism).

Pre-test

1. What is monarchy?

2. Describe the religion of the Canaanites.

3. Who is a prophet?

4. What were the characteristics that all great prophets of

Israel share?

Content

Monarchy

Monarchy is a political system based on a single person’s full

sovereignty or control. The phrase refers to states in which the

supreme authority is vested in a monarch, or an individual ruler

who serves as the head of state and is elected by hereditary

succession. This definition shows that a monarch is a ruler, who2Israel: Monarchy to Exile Historical Perpective

is a king, queen or emperor. Therefore, a monarch is a ruler,

just as we have them in our contemporary society today. The

Queen of Britain is a monarch; the Emir of Kano, the Emir of

Bida, the Oni of Ife and the Alafin of Oyo are all monarchs or

rulers (Ajayi, 2012).

Monarchy is a system of government by a king or a queen. A

country that is ruled by a king or queen is said to be practicing

monarchical system of government. Today, there are several

constitutional monarchies in Africa and Europe. In the days

of yore, monarchy held sway in different societies. The king

or monarch ruled through his agents such as the security

forces, who took order from him. The idea of monarchy was

initially anathematic to true Israelites, particularly right from

the settlement in Canaan (Judges 8:22-28). Through his

charismatic representatives, Yahweh ruled and saved people

(Lisdon, 2014).

Israel was heading towards embarrassing monarchy as against

theocracy, being practiced for centuries. Many of them wanted

to be ruled by human kings, but still be faithful to Yahweh.

This was in a dissonance with their professed faith, their ruler,

their saviour who delivered them right from their Exodus from

Egypt.

Israelites’ demand for a king in I Sam. 8-12 was out of the fact

the Philistines constituted a potential threat to the region. Still

fresh in the memory of the Israelites were the seizure of the

Ark of Covenant by the Philistines in the war and the death

of the two sons of Eli. Israel therefore, demanded for a king

on the ground that Samuel had grown old and was more of a

spiritual leader and less of a sound and great military leader to

effectively lead the people in a battle.3Historical PerpectiveIsrael: Monarchy to Exile

Moreover, the fact that Samuel’s sons had deviated from their

father’s ways (codes of conducts) exacerbated the drive to

demand for a new king (Barne, 2020). Israel was in dire need of

a kind. It was when God was the leading light in the rulership

of the country. In fact, Israel was desperately in need of a king

the people could confide in, had a physical touch with, see him

and talk to him. They never wanted an invisible king like God.

They recalled when they had monarchs ruling over them. They

therefore, detested theocracy which the period when they were

ruled by human agent through under the control of God. The

human agents were Moses, Judges, Joshua, Abraham and Isaac.

Abraham represented, as it were, the father of faith; he came

and was no more. Joshua who was a great solicitor, distributed

the land to Jews who came to Canaan land, but the later went

into oblivion. Moses also came to the scene; he played the

onerous roles assigned to him and later eclipsed. The Judges

also “vanished” after they had been appointed leaders. This

shows that Israel had no monarchical system that would have

served as the basis for their rulership like the other nations.

That was why they demanded for a king.

The Religion of the Canaanites

The Canaanites were the original owners of the land Israel was

to occupy. They were great farmers and had well developed

culture before the Israelites came to occupy the land. During

this period, the Jews were wanderers; they had left Egypt and

had been in wilderness, settled in Canaan and bound to God

under the Sinitic law/covenant to serve only one God. The

Canaanites had their own religions centred on a deity called

Baal. The worship of the Baal includes the belief that Baal was

a male deity with a female counterpart (goddess); and that the4Israel: Monarchy to Exile Historical Perpective

fertility of the soil was the result of sexual relation between the

Baal and the goddess. This belief also informed the practice of

prostitution among male and female worshippers in the temple

of Baal. In other words, the immoral activities of prostitutions

were supposed to be a copy of what took place between Baal

and his goddess (Dickson, 1981).

The Hebrew Bible stands as a best source of informational

detail pertaining to the religious practices of early Israel.

In pre-monarchical Israel, there was a variety of forms of

Baalism. Different understanding of Yahweh also produced

different forms of Yahwism such that Yahweh became a “god”

instead of God of Israel. In fact, there was no central authority

for orthodoxy, no committee of priests or theologians to decide

which theology was correct or heretical. There was no agency

or institution for religious matters. What obtained then was the

proliferation of religious practices which varied from locations

to locations. Moreover, religious practices took a family

dimension. There was no external authority that moderated

religious practices (Coote, 2017).

Introduced to Israel by a group that joined Israel was a warrior

god who fought for his people; and due to its assumed credibility

and functionality, Yahweh worship gained wider recognition

and spread in Israel. Yahweh was worshipped alongside with

EI, a high god of the Canaanites. This confirmed therefore;

that the people of early Israel practiced monotheism and

henotheism. With their religious belief known as polytheistic,

families focused greatly on the worship of ancestral gods and

goddesses. They, in the main, worship other deities such as

Asharte, EL, Ashera, Anat, Baal in temples and high places of

worship. While the supreme god of Canaanites was EL, other

functional god of the land was Baal. In certain religious festival,5Historical PerpectiveIsrael: Monarchy to Exile

the king played significant roles, and was therefore, revered.

The culture of Canaan affected many lives, particularly of the

Jews. For example, the son of Saul was named Ishbaal, implying

the “man of Baal”. These people never remembered what was

contained in the book of Exodus 23:34 “you shall not bow

down to their gods, nor serve them nor do according to their

works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely

break down their sacred pillar” (Flanagan, 2009). The land of

Canaan’s broken geography tends to breed dozens of different

variants of Baalism, each with its own set of practices, content,

and understanding that varies from family to family, village to

village, and region to area. There was no one version of Baalism

(Corollen, 2014).

The worship of Yahweh as a warrior god who fought for the

humbler classes of society and for his people was introduced

to Israel by one or several of the groups that joined Israel.

The popularity of Yahweh worship spread in Israel due to its

functionality. Yahweh did not take the place of El, the Canaanite

high god, but was worshipped alongside him. Thus, early

Israel did practice monotheism, alongside with henotheism.

The religious beliefs of the Canaanites were polytheistic,

with households worshiping ancestral household gods and

goddesses while honoring prominent deities like as El, Ashera,

Baal, Anat, and Asharte at numerous public temples and high

sites. The main functional god of the land was Baal, but the

supreme god was El. Canaanites kings also played an important

role especially in certain religious festivals and ceremonies,

and may have been revered as gods. Canaanites’ religion was

well developed along the agricultural lines.

This kind of religion eventually affected the lives of the Jews6Israel: Monarchy to Exile Historical Perpective

who copied, intermarried and embraced the culture of Canaan.

For instance, Saul named one of his sons, Ishbaal, meaning

‘man of Baal’. They forgot the instruction given to them in the

book of Exodus 23:24, which states that “you shall not bow

down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their

works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely

break down their sacred pillar”.

This strange Canaanites religion, with its immorality and human

sacrifices, had significant negative effect on the worship of

Yahweh, the God of Israel. As Israel learnt to cultivate the soil

in the land of Canaan, they tended to believe that unless they

recognised the authority of the Baal who was supposed to have

the charge of land, their seed wound not grow and they would

have no food. As late as the time of Hosea the prophet, that

is in the 800 B.C., some of the Israelites not only worshipped

Yahweh in the way the Canaanites worshipped Baal in order to

have the blessings of fertility but they also called Yahweh Baal

(Hosea 2:16). Although their religious leaders cum prophets

and the priests warned them against this kind worship yet they

continued to worship according to the pattern of Canaanites.

The result was that they were always under oppression and

wars from their neighbouring nations (Redford, 2013).

Prophets in Israel

The Old Testament prophet is a person who is called, sanctified,

and divinely inspired by Yahweh to disclose Yahweh’s will to

the people, effectively acting as a conduit between God and His

people. In light of this era, the prophet foresees approaching

calamity and warns his contemporaries; as a result, the prophet

is essentially a preacher who invites people to repentance and

teaches them good life. Israelite prophets served in a number7Historical PerpectiveIsrael: Monarchy to Exile

of capacities in ancient Israel, particularly throughout the

monarchy’s reign. According to Vangemeren (1990), the two

fundamental functions of the Israelite prophets are covenant

preservation and tradition preservation.

The Bible mentions the places where some of the prophets

were born and prophesied. Samuel, who was both a prophet

and a judge, utilized his hometown of Ramah as a base from

which he travelled around the country every year. Elijah and

Elisha, two additional early monarchy prophets, had houses

in the northern kingdom (Israel). Only Hosea and Jonah were

from the north among the prophets who wrote (Israel). Hosea’s

house and ministry location were unknown at the time. Jonah

was originally from Gath-Hapher, but his ministry took him

to Nineveh’s foreign cities. While some prophets lived in the

south (Judah), they prophesied in the north (Israel). Amos was

from Tekoa, yet he preached against the northern kingdom’s

religious center at Bethel (Israel). The Elkoshite designation is

the only indication of Nahum’s residence (Boadt, 2010).

Micah’s messages were targeted to both Israel and Judah.

Several prophets focused their ministry on Judah and Jerusalem,

the capital city. Isaiah’s, Jeremiah’s, Zephaniah’s, Ezekiel’s,

Haggai’s, Zechariah’s, and Malachi’s teachings span a long

period of time, yet they all deal with Jerusalem’s impending

destruction, fall, or rebuilding. Geographical information

is missing for several prophets, such as Joel, Obadiah, and

Habakkuk. Seters (2014) asserts that an Israelis king never

waged war without having a prophet beside him. This assertion

on how prophets function during the monarchical period will

be demonstrated fully in subsequent chapters.

All great prophets of Israel, according to Tullock (1992), share8Israel: Monarchy to Exile Historical Perpective

the following characteristics. They were God-moved men

whose message was, “thus says the LORD”. They were fearless

men, unafraid to communicate their message even if it meant

putting their lives in jeopardy. They were sincere men who

were always looking for the truth. They were moral men who

preached a message that required their listeners to live up to

the greatest moral standards. They were ardent folks who could

hear the cries of the oppressed. They were sensitive men who

were aware of what was going on in the world around them and

believed that God was in charge. They were concerned with

their own time and what was about to happen to their people.

Summary

Monarchy is a government under a king/Queen on the basis

of hereditary power. Polytheism is the best description of the

meaning and nature of the Canaanites’ religion of Baal whereas

its adoption by Israel was explained as a form of henotheism,

which is the worship of several gods and goddesses with

a firm belief in Yahweh as the Supreme Being. The general

characteristic of the prophet is that of an intermediary between

God and his people as well as moral adviser.

Post test

1. What do you understand by the term monarchy? Give

examples of monarchs in Nigeria.

2. Describes Baalism. In what way was Israel influenced and

corrupted by the religion of the Canaanites?

3. Who is a prophet? Mention two primary functions of

Israelis prophet.

4. What were the characteristics that all great prophets of

Israel share?