The story only makes sense in light of the prevailing beliefs of Elijah’s day. There’s a fire, but God is not seen in the fire. There’s an earthquake, but God isn’t seen in the earthquake. There’s a great and powerful wind, but God doesn’t show himself in the wind. Depressed and fearful, Elijah finds himself in a cave when God declares he will reveal himself. In the account, the famed prophet Elijah is seen fleeing for his life from the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The God who SpeaksĪ well known biblical story (1 Kings 19) reveals just how Yahweh was different from the gods of the day. Yahweh, (the Hebrew name for God) was vastly different to the gods worshipped by the tribes around Israel. It is only in understanding this ancient view of the gods that we can fully understand the significance of the God of the Bible. Archaeologists believe that the children were sacrificed in order to stop disasters linked to the El Nino phenomenon – a weather event known to trigger disastrous flooding and landslides in the area. This appears to be what was happening amongst the Chimu in Peru. In such cases, the only way you could fix the situation was to appease the gods by performing acts of worship and sacrifice. However, if you faced disasters such as famines, droughts, earthquakes and the like, you knew the gods were angry. If the crops were flourishing, you knew the gods were happy and life could go on as normal. The only way to “know” how the gods felt was to look at what you saw going on in the world around you. People related to the gods, but it was difficult to know what they were thinking. The gods were responsible for different aspects of life and were often linked with geographical phenomena. In the ancient world, people typically believed in a variety of gods. It only makes sense when you understand how the gods were viewed in tribal societies such as the Chimu. From our modern-day perspective, it is difficult to fathom how this horrific ritual could happen. The children were between the ages of four and 14. Their work shows that around 1400 years ago, 227 children from the Chimu civilisation were all brutally killed at the same time. In an area just north of Lima, archeologists have recently uncovered the burial site of the largest child sacrifice ever recorded. The findings of a recent archeological dig in Peru gives us insight into the uniqueness of this belief in the personal nature of God. Many of us believe in a God who speaks, but it wasn’t always that way.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |