Exodus 20:2-3 read:  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  You shall have no other gods before Me.”  Deuteronomy 5:6-7 is identical.  According to some liberal scholars, though, Israel did not practice monotheism but rather monolatry [1] or henotheism [2], monolatry being the worship of one being while conceding the existence of other divine beings and henotheism being the worship of numerous gods that are considered to be different aspects of the same being (like the Trinity or the Hindu conception of “one god” with different hypostases).  What does the Bible say about these types of worship?  Does the Bible consider them to be acceptable worship of him so long as the supremacy of God over the other divinities with their own separate wills and contrary purposes is conceded, or is the demand stricter than that?

The Idolatry of Laban’s Household

In the story of Jacob’s dealings with Laban we have at least two indications of the idolatrous nature of the worship of Laban.  Despite the fact that Laban recognized the existence of the God of Abraham, he worshiped other gods besides this and was clearly an idolater.  Let us examine precisely how.

In Genesis 31:26-32 we read the following:  “And Laban said to Jacob,:  “What have you done, that you have stolen away unknown to me, and carried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword?  Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp?  And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters.  Now you have done foolishly in so doing.  It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’  And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”  Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force.’  With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live.  In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you.”  For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.”

Let us examine a few subjects of interest.  For one, Laban clearly recognizes that Jacob’s God is real, but the fact that he has idols of his own gods means his worship or recognition of the divinity of God is not exclusive.  Jacob, though, has a higher standard of morality.  He places a death sentence on the one who stole Laban’s gods, wanting no part in the false worship system of Laban, a death sentence that ended up falling on Rachel, who died giving birth to Benjamin (see Genesis 35:16-20), God honoring the curse and enforcing His law on Jacob’s favorite wife, who committed the sin of worshiping false gods and stealing graven images.  Let us also note that Jacob, in dealing with Laban, was willing to restore any stolen property and not keep anything that was not his.  This sort of behavior is that required of godly individuals, and has been from the beginning.

Nor was that incident the end of Jacob’s hostility to the worship of other gods within his household, bad habits acquired by the servants and family of Laban.  For let us read Genesis 35:1-4:  “Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”  And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away your foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.  Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.”

We recognize from this passage that even during the time of Jacob that the worship of God was an exclusive worship and required that the entire household of Jacob worship God exclusively, and required not merely the avoidance of worshiping foreign gods temporarily (as would be the case in monolatry) or in the belief that all the various names of false gods were aspects of the one true God (as would be the case in henotheism) but demanded purification and the exclusive worship of the one true God without idols or any false gods whatsoever.  God’s demands for exclusivity are in that sense like that of a jealous husband, not accepting merely temporary exclusivity in status while one is at home, or accepting the presence of rival lovers who remind one of different aspects of the husband, but a demand for absolute exclusivity.

The Conversion of Jethro

In a similar sense we see a change in religious beliefs with Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, in the book of Exodus.  Exodus 2:16 and 3:1 describe Jethro (who is also called Reuel) as the priest of Midian.  However, we find that his religious beliefs were not originally up to the standard of biblical monotheism.  However, we find that his eventual beliefs did meet that full biblical standard of monotheism.

We find this in Exodus 18:10-12:  “And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.  Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.”  Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God.  And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.”

Here we see that the experiences of Israel during the Exodus led Jethro to claim an exclusive worship of God that had not been present before, where God was merely chief among a pantheon of gods or one of many beings worthy of worship.  This change in belief, conversion to the true biblical faith, led him to offer sacrifices to worship God and to eat a meal in fellowship with his fellow worshipers of God.  This feasting and sacrifice was a sign of his conversion and his exclusive faith in God, a faith that he did not have originally.

But As For Me And My House

Lest we be in any doubt about the exclusivity of worship to God required in the Bible from the beginning, let us examine the way the Bible describes the original worship of the family of the Patriarchs and the standard by which God held Israel as is described in Joshua 24, remembering that the standards of God are not something that evolve but are rather an unchanging standard that mankind is to ever more closely follow as our conduct and behavior is gradually reformed to reach the divine standard.

In Joshua 24:1-3, we read the following about Abraham’s family:  “Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.  And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel:  ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the [Euphrates] River in old times; and they served other gods.  Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the [Euphrates] River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.”

Here we see that whatever standard of worshiping God the family of Abraham had, it did not originally meet the biblical standard.  God may have been “supreme” over the pantheon of the worship of the family of Terah, as with Laban, but that worship was by no means exclusive.  It is likely that Laban’s worship was of the same standard as that of Terah, which however “enlightened” by the standard of the time did not meet the divine standard of exclusive worship that God required for His chosen people.  God does not, after all, judge on a relative scale, but on an absolute one.  We are all fortunate that He is merciful.

In Joshua 24:14-18 we read Joshua’s call for Israel to worship God:  “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt.  Serve the Lord!  And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  So the people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.  And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land.  We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

Up to this point it could be argued that this worship need not be exclusive, but Joshua 24:19-25 closes off that option:  “But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God.  He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.  If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign Gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”  And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”  So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”  And they said, “We are witnesses!”  “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”  And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”  So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.”

Let us note that just as Jacob required his household to put away their idols and false gods and exclusively worship God in a covenantal relationship at Shechem, Joshua made the same call for Israel to put away their false gods and exclusively worship God at Shechem.  God’s standard of exclusive worship remained the same.  It was not sufficient for Israel to worship God in addition to other deities, but God demanded exclusive and faithful monotheistic worship, with the promise of a curse if Israel was unfaithful and adulterous in their worship.

Conclusion

Let us not reason in our hearts that monotheism was a gradual development within Israel, for by this liberal theologians deceive themselves.  The standard for Jacob, for Moses, and for Joshua was the same standard of exclusive worship.  This same standard remains in force today.  God continues to demand exclusive worship and continues to call upon people to forsake their false gods and obey Him, just as He called the household of Jacob to do so and the people of Israel at Shechem.  Will we do so, or will we be content to worship other gods in addition to God, to believe that God allows an open marriage relationship, only to face His wrath and judgment for being unfaithful and treacherous to His covenant?  Let us choose this day whom we are to serve, for the time has come for all to be held accountable.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolatrism

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism