I thought that hypothesis some or many attributed miracles from God through Moses to be from pagan gods interesting, though it should have to stand up to the details of Exodus when read through fully. We get so many details when we read through fully that are far more than only a good summary. Did you happen to have read through very recently? Though I did about 2 and 1/2 years ago, you made me curious to read through again to pick up details. Because one thing we'd wonder about regarding the attribute-to-pagan-God hypothesis is how would that work during the actual passover, where those that painted the lamb's blood over their door were passed over, and Egyptian gods very clearly didn't protect Egyptians even the tinest bit of course, and what a lesson to hit home and be remembered by every family in Israel (you'd think at least).
And what of the parting of the sea, when it then collapsed onto the Egyptian chariots and wipes them all out, whereas Israel has passed through unharmed entirely?...what a contrast. Later the water from the rock with Moses disobeying God and striking the rock instead of speaking words, but for Israel, very very very aware of its thrist -- what a powerful demonstration of the connection to God through Moses.
How could anyone in Israel then think otherwise after things like these (as they did)? See, that's what I was exclaiming on above, not the other parts that also seem meaningful but less prominent -- the still notable fact they brought their 'household gods' with them! Not a small thing, but...so much smaller than the miracles so sharply clear to be via Moses from God. I don't discount those other beliefs to zero...but. Now, I have to admit that Moses gone for 40 days is...
...well, that's just a really, really long time. That's fair to admit. So, one could see how some would revert finally, after so long, but....what were they truly reverting to precisely? Yes, everyone knows the golden calf god, akin to Eygptian ways of gods presented in animal form, etc. But... But, that gold used for that calf was from the Egyptians surrendering it directly to Israel after the death of their first born. Altogether, it takes a lot of ignoring and forgetting to revert to those gods, eh?
So, see, I'm feeling not too sure it was belief in those gods, any actaul belief in the golden calf for instance....wondering about that. I wonder instead if it's more about the comfortable familiar empty ritual -- the comfort of the familiar.
And that itself would be an aspect of hardness of heart, it seems possibly. In our hardness of heart, we revert to what it comfortable from the past. We can do that too, today, you and me and any Christian, if we stop looking to Christ in a bad moment, and revert back to the ways of the flesh, the comfortable ways of not loving our neighbors, not loving our brothers and sisters in our church. Those are making me think of hardness of heart. We know that hardness of heart is one of two specific reasons people don't believe according to what Christ told us in the gospels.
Regarding the more wholesale of Israel later following gods from Canaan, like B'aal and several more (and the shocking fact of what they then eventually did becasue of such), that's actaully pretty far later in time, btw.
Exodus 32:4
He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt”
The descendants of Jacob and his sons wound up enslaved in Egypt, along with numerous other Semitic Speakers from Canaan. They all escaped from Egypt as a "mixed multitude".
Maybe there was already a mixture of cultures, Israelite and Canaanite, in Egypt? In Chapter 7 of the book
is God, a moral monster? Paul Copan shows how every time the words. "They believed and they had faith" Are used in the books of Moses? That the reference is positive. To Abraham and the patriarchs before. The law was given at Mount Sinai. In exodus 20. But negative after that.
Abraham saw and believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. But Moses and the Israelites? The "mixed multitude" did not believe. They never really wholeheartedly believed. Not in the wilderness, and not in the promised land. That's why neither they nor Moses were allowed to enter the promised land but were confined to the wilderness for 40 years.
Gen15:6
Ex4:5
5“So that they will believe that YHWH, their fathers’ God, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God, has appeared to you!”
Ex14:31
30And YHWH saved Israel from Egypt’s hand that day. And Israel saw Egypt dead on the seashore, 31and Israel saw the big hand that YHWH had used against Egypt, and the people feared YHWH, and they trusted in YHWH and in Moses His servant.
Ex19:9
7And Moses came and called the people’s elders and set before them all these words that YHWH had commanded him. 8And all the people responded together, and they said, “We’ll do everything that YHWH has spoken.” And Moses brought back the people’s words to YHWH.
9And YHWH said to Moses, “Here, I am coming to you in a mass of cloud for the purpose that the people will hear when I am speaking with you, and they will believe in you as well forever.” And Moses told the people’s words to YHWH.
Vs.
Num14:11
11And YHWH said to Moses, “How long will this people reject me, and how long will they not trust in me, with all the signs that I’ve done among them? 12I’ll strike them with an epidemic and dispossess them, and I’ll make you into a bigger and more powerful nation than they are.”
Num20:12
12And YHWH said to Moses and to Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to make me holy before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this community to the land that I have given them!”
Deut1:32
And I said to you, ‘Don’t be scared and don’t be afraid of them. 30YHWH, your God, who is going in front of you, He will fight for you—like everything that He did with you in Egypt before your eyes 31and in the wilderness, as you’ve seen that YHWH, your God, carried you the way a man would carry his child through all the way that you’ve gone until you came to this place. 32And in this thing, don’t you trust in YHWH, your God, 33who was going in front of you on the way to scout a camping place for you, in fire at night to let you see the way in which you would go, and in a cloud by day?!’
Deut9:23
22“And at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you were making YHWH angry. 23And when YHWH sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I’ve given you,’ then you rebelled at the word of YHWH, your God, and you didn’t trust Him and didn’t listen to His voice. 24You’ve been rebelling toward YHWH from the day I knew you
