The Nomadic Alternative – Page 106

The fault lies with Jehovah. To compensate for the artificiality and anxiety of their lives, most settled peoples invent a god or goddess to deal with their separate needs. A Pantheon is rather like a cabinet of ministers each with a portfolio - for Radiant Heat, Defence, Education, Health and so on. But a transcendent god does not take the advice of experts and tries to do everything himself.

Jehovah spurned the particular. Instead of saying "I am the God of Animal Resources" or "I am the Goddess of Childbirth", he said, "I am that I am" and left it at that. Had he remained a vague controller of the heavens, sexless and aloof, life would have been less complicated. But Jehovah never relished retirement. He kept appearing as an active masculine moral force, suggesting [exhorting?] and threatening. All of his strictures were perfectly valid, but he never stuck to a consistent line. He never decided if he liked nomads or settlers or neither or both. "I am that I am" became suspiciously like "I am all things to all men." From the start his advice was ambiguous.

In one view Jehovah found the Israelites "wandering in the wilderness", heard their distress signals and "led them by the right way to a city of habitation." Psalm 107.7. By their fruits - in the increase of their wealth - they shall give thanks to their rescuer. "The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine." Deuteronomy 33.28. This is the sentiment that leads to the building of the Temple. The Lord had "walked in tent and tabernacle" (II Sam. 7.6), and was exhausted from being jolted up and down on long journeys. The Throne of David "established for ever" celebrated that the people had finally come of age. They had grown up and settled down. The Temple, promised by Nathan, signified that "they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more." II Sam. 7.10.

The other voice of the Old Testament is the voice of the nomad that sounds in the prophetic utterance of Balaam. "Behold a people that dwells alone and amid the nations and is not accounted." Numbers 32.9. "Thou art strangers and sojourners with me, saith the Lord."

In settling the land the Children of Israel had...