26. Sanctuaries in Ancient Israel
“The place which the Lord thy God shall
choose to place his name there” is a constantly recurring phrase in the
Book of Deuteronomy. The reference is to the centre of worship, the tabernacle
and its service, which was to be established in a convenient centre in the Land
when wilderness wanderings were ended.
Shiloh
Shiloh was the place which was chosen “at
the first” (Jer. 7:12). It was centrally situated in the territory of
Ephraim. There Joshua convened the tribes when the earliest blows of conquest
had been struck, in order to apportion the rest of the Land more precisely to
those who had not inherited as yet. But, strangely enough, it was at Shechem and
not Shiloh, where Joshua assembled the people to hear his final exhortations and
to be renewed in covenant with their God who had given them the Land. This is
doubly strange in that Shechem and Shiloh are so close together. It would have
been just as easy for the tribes to assemble in one place as in the other. How
came it, then, that the place sanctified by the presence of the tabernacle and
the ark was disregarded?
There are references to Shiloh as a centre of
worship in a section of the Book of Judges which probably belongs to the early
part of this disturbed period (18:31 and ch. 21). And again in the early
chapters of 1 Samuel, the sanctuary at Shiloh is the background to the familiar
stories of Hannah and Samuel, of Eli and his wayward sons.
Then from this period onward Shiloh as a centre
of worship in Israel disappears completely from the sacred records, apart from
two allusions in Jeremiah (7:12; 26:6,9) to the utter destruction which overtook
the tabernacle there and the town itself. It was disowned by God who destroyed
it by the Philistines (Psa. 78:60).
It is a matter for surprise that Shiloh
apparently played so little part in the history of the nation. The fact is that
Shiloh was not unique as a holy place in Israel; it was not the only
‘place which the Lord was to choose to place his name
there’.
An investigation of the various other centres,
which were used in these unsettled times as places of approach to God should not
be without value.
Shechem
Mention has already been made of Shechem which,
at the time that Joshua made covenant there between the people and their God,
was evidently already regarded as a right and proper place for worship and
sacrifice. There the people presented themselves “before God”
(Josh. 24:1). “So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day,
and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words
in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under
an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord” (Josh. 24:25,26).
This sanctuary at Shechem was probably the one called Bochim (the weeping ones)
in Judges 2:1-5. Indeed the incident described there may be the very occasion
which Joshua 24 narrates in greater detail. The similarities are certainly very
striking. This Judges narrative adds: “and they sacrificed unto the
Lord”.
Other Scriptures make it plain that at Shechem
there was an altar of special sanctity and historic importance. It was there
that the Land was first promised to Abraham’s Seed (before it was promised
to Abraham!), which gracious promise was acknowledged by sacrifice on the altar
which Abraham raised up there in thanksgiving (Gen. 12:6,7). It was to this
place that Jacob came after his encounter with Esau on his way back from the
country of Laban; and there, after repurchasing the piece of land which Abraham
had bought from the original Hittite owners (Acts 7:16), he rebuilt
Abraham’s altar (Gen. 33:19,20).
It was this altar which was rebuilt again, this
time by Joshua, when the tribes of Israel all came together between Mt. Ebal and
Mt. Gerizim to hear proclaimed the blessings and curses of the Law (Josh.
8:30).
But the re-establishment of the Hittite worship
of Baal-berith in the time of Abimelech, the unworthy son of Gideon, ended the
special holiness of Shechem until, many years later, the Son of God himself
called the people of that place to “worship God in sincerity and in
truth”, even as Joshua himself had insisted in the day of the covenant
(John 4:24; Josh. 24:14). The site of this Shechem altar, of ancient sanctity,
has lately been identified by the archaeologists (“Biblical Archaeology
Review”, Jan.-Feb. 1985; see also Jan.-Feb. 1988).
Gideon’s Ophrah
There was another sanctuary of much less
prominent character in the early days of the Judges, in Ophrah the home of
Gideon. Its origin was, of course, the consecration (as an altar) of the rock
where the angel of the Lord accepted fearful Gideon’s offering (Judg.
6:21-26). The altar from that day forth was called “Jehovah-Shalom”
— the Lord of Peace.
The language of Judges 8:27 implies that Gideon
ill-advisedly, though with the best of intentions, chose to establish and equip
at Jehovah-Shalom a centre of worship for the God who had wrought deliverance
through him. There is also the further implication that this new institution was
widely accepted as a new spiritual centre for the neighbouring tribes. This
honouring of a place which God had not chosen for such purpose would
doubtless have continued but for the defilement of it by the brutal slaughter of
Gideon’s family at the hands of Abimelech and his hired
assassins.
From this example, and others now to be
considered, it appears that God was willing, during this period when the tribes
were disturbed and incoherent, that other sanctuaries besides the main centre be
used to focus the piety of Israel.
Mizpeh of Gilead
It is clear from the story of Jephthah that in
his day there was a well-recognized sanctuary in Mizpeh of Gilead.
Jephthah’s agreement with the elders of Gilead was made “before the
Lord in Mizpeh” — a phrase which invariably has reference to an
altar or holy place where God was worshipped. Apparently too, but not certainly,
it was at this Mizpeh that Jephthah vowed his vow unto the Lord. And, it may be
that it would be at this sanctuary where his daughter would serve the Lord
during her life-long virginity — but not necessarily (“Bible
Studies”, p. 205a).
Other Mizpeh sanctuaries
This Mizpeh is always referred to with the
definite article: The Mizpeh, i.e. The Watchtower. The priests and prophets of
the Lord are frequently alluded to in Scripture as ‘watchmen’ (e.g.
Hab. 2:1; Ezek. 3:17 and 33:2-7; Hosea 9:8; Isa. 29:20 and 56:10 and 21:6; Jer.
31:6 and 6:17). This detail, combined with the reference in Joshua 13:26 to
“Ramoth-Mizpeh” in Gilead, suggests fairly strongly that Mizpeh was
an alternative name for Ramoth-gilead, which was one of the cities of refuge in
eastern Israel. It seems not unlikely that Ramoth-gilead was also the Mizpeh
where Jacob and Laban agreed to disagree, and where Jacob also “offered
sacrifice upon the mount” (Gen. 31:48-54). If so, its sacred associations
in Jacob’s day might well single it out in later times for
re-consecration.
It may well be the same Mizpeh that is mentioned
in 1 Sam. 7:16 along with Bethel, Gilgal and Ramah as one of the centres of
Samuel’s administration. The Septuagint adds significantly in that place:
“and he judged Israel in all these
sanctuaries.”
The possibility should be considered of Mizpeh
(watchtower) being a kind of technical term for a sanctuary in ancient Israel
very much as ‘Ebenezer’ or ‘Bethel’ became for many a
Methodist community in the last century a well-recognized name for their place
of worship.
For instance, Mizpeh of Moab (1 Sam. 22:3), where
David met the king of Moab when seeking refuge for his parents from the vengeful
jealousy of Saul, may well be Bezer, the city of refuge, which was situated on
the borders of Reuben and Moab.
There is another Mizpeh mentioned in Judges
20:1,3 and 21:1 in connection with the controversy between Benjamin and the rest
of the nation. Geographical considerations immediately rule out the possibility
that this might be Mizpeh of Gilead. But the text calls it “the house of
God”, i.e. Bethel (20:18,26,31 RV and 21:2 RV), on the northern border of
Benjamin. Some, however, identify it with Shiloh.
It is not certain where was the Mizpeh to which
Samuel rallied the tribes for repentance before God (a long-neglected Day of
Atonement?) and for resistance against further Philistine aggression (1 Sam.
7:5-16). Most probably it was the Gibeah (the priestly and Benjamite part of
Kirjath-Jearim; Josh. 21:17; 18:14,28) where the ark was lodged after being
returned by the Philistines. This may also have been Samuel’s Ramah, for
that became a well-recognized religious centre during his lifetime. There is a
good deal of uncertainty about some of these
place-identifications.
Nob
Nob, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, is stated to
have been a place of organised worship of some considerable importance. It had
“fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod”; and
Ahimelech himself, high-priest of the line of Ithamar and Eli, officiated there
(1 Sam. 21 and 22:18,19). It was this place which is referred to in the
narrative of the slaying of Goliath: “And David took the head of the
Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem” (1 Sam. 17:54; cp. 21:8,9). It is
difficult to see just how or why Nob came to achieve such high but short-lived
importance.
Gibeon
Lastly, mention must be made of Gibeon,
“the great high place” (1 Kgs. 3:4). “There (at the beginning
of Solomon’s reign) was the tabernacle of the congregation of God,
which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness”
(2 Chron. 1:3).
This very tabernacle, first fashioned under the
shadow of Mount Sinai, had undoubtedly been set up originally in Shiloh. How
then did it come to be at Gibeon? One can only surmise. If the identity of
Gibeon-Gibeah-Ramah be accepted (and a pretty good case can be made for this),
then probably, when there was a serious threat, after the death of Eli, of
Shiloh being overrun by the Philistines, Samuel had the tabernacle dismantled
and removed elsewhere. When his administration settled down at Ramah-Gibeon he
would have the sanctuary re-erected there; and there it continued right through
the reign of David. If this identification of Gibeon is not accepted, then it is
necessary to postulate that irreligious Saul took the trouble for no known
reason, to have Moses’ tabernacle re-erected at a place which gets no
mention at all in the history of his reign.
The numerous offerings which Solomon made at
Gibeon (1 Kgs. 3:4) probably marked the formal closure of the sanctuary at
Gibeon as “the great high place”. Whatever may have been its precise
function hitherto, this would now be completely superseded by the temple that
was a-building in Jerusalem.
Likely conclusions
It would seem, then, beyond question from the
evidence available that during the period between Joshua and David quite a
number of holy places were in use at various times for the offering of
sacrifices and for approach to God. This fact suggests a different view of the
often repeated phrase in Deuteronomy: “the place which the Lord thy God
shall choose to place his name there”. Instead of regarding it as an
allusion to the one unique place, Shiloh, which was appointed as the
centre of worship for the nation, perhaps it should be read as signifying the
place (i.e. any place) which has been sanctified for that
purpose.
In harmony with this suggestion are the words of
Nathan the prophet to David: “Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me
an house to dwell in: for I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I
brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from
one tabernacle to another. Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake
I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people,
saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?” (1 Chron.
17:4-6).
This diversity of holy places helps to a clearer
understanding of the repeated criticism made in the later history that
“the high places were not taken away” by the kings of Judah. Gibeon
is called “the great high place”. The sanctuary where the prophet
Samuel ministered is called “the high place” (1 Sam. 9:13). And
when, in a Hezekiah psalm, Assyrian invaders are said to have “burned up
all the synagogues of God in the Land” (Psa. 74:7,8), the reference is
most probably to the various religious centres mentioned in this compilation, to
which a certain sanctity still clung