(2) The Exodus to the revolution of Jehu. — From the Exodus onward J" was the God of Israel. People and prophets were at one in this. Israel never had any other native God but J" ; if por- tions of the people declined to the service of the local Baals, J" was always the national God, and a conscience ■vvithin the people constantly recalled them to His service. From Hosea downwards writers are in the habit of stigmatizing the corrupt worship of J" at the hijjh places as Baal worship, — as no doubt in principle it was, — but probably strict idolatry, in the sense of worship of other gods than J", was never very widespread either in the north or south, though towards the decline of the Judsan state various Eastern idolatries were practised by some classes of the people. That J" was God of Israel was the faith of all, though the
faith might mean dillerent things to dill'erent minds, or among dill'erent cla.sses. To some it might mean merely that .1" was Israel's national God as other peoples had also their gods (Mic 4') ; to others it might nie.'in somethiii'' higher. A Shemitic mind might rise to general conceptions very slowly ; and while practically J " was the only God to him, the theoretical notion that He was God alone might not have occurred to him. It perhaps needed that internal conlliet which arose through the slowness of the popular mind, and that outward collision with idolatrous nations which occurred in the days of the great i)rophet8 to bring the unity of God to speculative clearness. Heb. tradition places the Decalogue at the begin- ning of Israel's national development, and the prophets by their references to the moral Turah as known to the people from the first, but ' for- gotten'by them, appear to follow the tradition. Aloses is everywhere regarded as a prophet, and probably his teaching, like that of the prophets, consisted (apart from his lofty conceptions of God) in the main of social and civil ethics. Though the first commandment does not say that J' is God alone, the negative element, ' Thou shall have no gods before me,' is without a parallel in the history of religions. J" was a jealous God. Why was He jealous? Jealousy is the reaction of one's self- consciousness agamst a wrong done him. What was the idea held of J" when it was thought His consciousness of Himself would feel other gods beside Him intolerable? If the Decalogue be Mosaic, there was virtual monotheism in Israel since the Exodus, though it might be only among the higher minds, and more latent than conscious. And that which made J" unic|ue at least, if not alone, was His moral being. A\ riters of all schools are agreed that ethical elements entered into the conception of J ' from the beginning. There was at least on His nature a crescent of light, which waxed till it overspread His face, and He was light with no darkness at all. When Moses sat judging the people, dispensing right and justice in the name of their God, it could not but appear to the people that He was a God of righteousness. It has been contended that in subsequent history J" some- times displayed ' unaccountable humours,' that is, moods of mind and a kind of action not reducible under the moral idea. The arguments for this are not quite cogent. At all events, Israel entered upon national existence with two articles of faith : that J " was their God alone, and that in His Being He was moral, the imijcrsonation of Right and Kighteousness. And emotional energy was given to these two articles by the consciousness of having been redeemed by their God. Behind the people's national life lay the consciousness of redemption as much as it lies behind the life of the Christian,
Israel's self - consciousness as a nation was virtually identical with its consciousness of J", its God. J", indeed, was all in all, the people little else than the medium through which He displayed Himself. The old anthology recording Israel's conflicts with the nations is called ' The Book of the Wars of J"' (Nu 21"). Meroz is cursed, because it came not ' to the help of J" ' (Jg 5^). The people's victories are ' the righteous acts of J", the righteous acts of His rule in Lsrael ' (Jg 5"). The furore of enthusiasm for J" in the song of Deborah reflects back light on the Exodus and the work of Moses. The conceptions regard- ing J" found in the oldest literature dilier Tittle from those of the prophetic age and subsequent times, except that they are less broadly expressed, (a) The dwelling-place of J" was often at least conceived as superterrestrial. He ' came down ' to see the tower which men did build (Gn 11°), and to discover if the wickedness of Sodom corre
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