Yahweh and Elohim: Yahweh is Not Omnipotent

Yahweh and Elohim Part 4

This is part 4 of a multipart series.

Yahweh is clearly an extremely powerful figure by human standards. For instance, in the story of Noah, he caused a flood that supposedly covered the entire earth. Another example is found in the story of Lot, where he destroys two cities, and all of the surrounding land. Genesis 19:24-28:

And the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD from the heavens. And He overthrew all those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew in the soil. And his [Lot’s] wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham hastened early in the morning to the place where he had stood in the presence of the LORD. And he looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah and over all the land of the plain, and he saw and, look, smoke was rising like the smoke from a kiln.

Many stories portray Yahweh as a commander of war, leading the people of Israel to military victory. He plays an active role in many of these battles, including in Joshua chapter 10, where Israel faced off against five Amorite kings. In this battle, he caused the enemy troops to panic, and he flung down large stones from the sky upon the Amorites. Joshua 10:10-11:

And the LORD panicked them before Israel, and they struck a great blow at Gilgal, and they pursued them on the road of the ascent to Beth-Horon, and they struck them down as far as Azekah and as far as Makkedah. And it happened when they fled before Israel, that they were on the descent from Beth-Horon when the LORD flung down on them great stones from the heavens as far as Azekah, and those who died from the hailstones were many more than the Israelites killed by the sword.

After this battle, Yahweh leads Joshua and the Israelites on a string of military victories: Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir. In every case, the Israelites “put under the ban every living thing,” meaning, leaving no survivors, human or animal. For some of the battles in this string of victories, Yahweh is given the primary credit. Joshua 10:30: “And the LORD gave it [Libnah] into the hand of Israel with its king, and he struck it with the edge of the sword and every living thing within it.” Joshua 10:32: “And the LORD gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he took it on the second day…” This string of victories is summarized with an explicit reference to Yahweh’s participation. Joshua 10:42: “And all these kings and their land Joshua took in one fell swoop, for the LORD [Yahweh] God [Elohim] of Israel did battle for Israel.”

These examples show that Yahweh is very skilled at the arts of destruction and war. We could review many more such examples, but this is probably enough. But this does not quite seem like the behavior of an all-powerful diety. In Sodom and Gomorrah, why kill all the vegetation that grows in the land? Presumably, the damage that was done by this attack affected the fertility of this land for years to come. And why make the armies of Israel go into battle at all? If he was omnipotent, he could just strike the opponents dead, and tell the Israelites to go take the land.

Interestingly enough, Yahweh does not always deliver military victories. For instance, Judges chapter 1 starts of with Judah initiating a campaign against the Canaanites. Yahweh nearly promises him victory, and Israel possession of the the lands the Canaanites held. Judges 1:1-2:

And it happened after the death of Joshua that the Israelites inquired of the LORD, saying, “Who will go up for us first against the Canaanite to do battle with him?” And the LORD said, “Judah shall go up. Look, I have given the land into his hand.”

But the land was not so easily taken. Consider Judges 1:19:

And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the high country, but he was not able to dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, for they had iron chariots.

Later on in this chapter, we read a long account of military set-backs that leave the Israelites and the Canaanites dwelling together in the same land. You can skip over this if you want, but I include it in full because it is quite interesting. Judges 1:27-25:

And Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-She’an and its hamlets nor Tanaach and its hamlets nor the inhabitants of Dor and its hamlets not the inhabitants of Ibleam and its hamlets not the inhabitants of Megiddo and its hamlets, but the Canaanite went on dwelling in this land. And it happened, when Israel grew strong, that it put the Canaanite to forced labor, but it did not dispossess them. And Ephraim did not dispossess the Canaanite dwelling in Gezer, and the Canaanite dwelled in his midst in Gezer. Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalal, and the Canaanite dwelled in his midst and did forced labor. Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, Ahiab, Ach zib, Helbah, Aphek, and Rehob. And the Asherite dwelled in the midst of the Canaanites, inhabitants of the land, for he did not dispossess them. Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh and the inhabitants of Baal-Anath, and he dwelled amidst the Canaanites inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh and of Beth-Anath did forced labor for them. And the Amorites drove the Danites into the high country, for they did not let them come down into the valley. And the Amorite continued to dwell in Mount Heres, in Ajalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph lay heavily upon them, and they did forced labor.

While most of this list results in neighboring people becoming slaves of the Israelis, the account of the Danites stands in contrast. Here, the tribe of Dan (an Israeli tribe) were driven into the high country by the Amorites. Interestingly, there is some overlap between this list of people doing forced labor, and the list of places we just looked at in Joshua 10, where everyone was supposedly killed.

Later in history, the people of Israel were conquered by both the Persians and the Babylonians. If Yahweh is omnipotent, why does he allow for so many defeats and partial victories for his chosen people? One possible answer is that Yahweh is punishing them for not being sufficiently obeisant to Yahweh, and for serving other gods. This happens a lot. For instance, when the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, they complained to Moses and Aaron about having to fight the Canaanites to regain the promised land, as they felt they would surely be killed. Yahweh took offense at this, and punished them with another 40 years in the wilderness, delaying their return to the land he had promised them. Numbers 14:26-33:

And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “How long for this evil community that raises against Me the complaints of the Israelites? That which they complain against Me I have heard. Say to them, “As I live, the LORD declares, just as you have spoken in My hearing, so will I do to you. In this wilderness your corpses will fall and all your reckoned ones from twenty years old and up, for you have complained against Me. You shall never come into the land about which I lifted up My hand vowing to make you dwell within it, except for Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. And your little ones, of whom you said they would become booty, I shall bring them and they will know the land that you cast aside. And your own corpses will fall in the wilderness. And your sons will be herdsmen in the wilderness forty years, and they will bear your whoring until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness. …”

Once again, we are struck by just how vengeful Yahweh is. Is this the behavior of an all-powerful god? It strikes me rather as insecure.

In Judges, the military failures are explained as a test for the Israelites. Judges 3:1-4:

And these are the nations that the LORD left aside to test Israel through them – all who knew not the wars of Canaan, only so that the generations of Israel might know, to teach them warfare, which before they did not know: the five overlords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonites and the Hivvites dwelling in the high country of Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo-Hamath. And they came to test Israel through them, to know whether they would heed to command of the LORD with which He charged their fathers by Moses.

This feels like dissembly to me. At some point in time, we developed the idea that the God of the Bible was an omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent god. But even before this, Yahweh was portrayed by Old Testament authors as an extremely powerful figure. This seems to have stroked Yahweh’s ego, and anything less than utter devotion on the part of the people risked their annihilation. So shortcomings and military defeats have to be explained away somehow. But if Yahweh were omniscient, he would already know whether they would heed his command. And if Yahweh were all-powerful, he would not require that future generations of Israel be skilled at warfare.

It seems, at times, that Yahweh is even wary of being directly challenged by humans. For instance, in Genesis 3:22, Yahweh explains why he kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden:

And the LORD God said, “Now that the human has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he may reach out and take as well from the tree of life and live forever.”

Yahweh doesn’t explicate why it would be a bad thing if the humans gained such immortality. Could it be because they would potentially pose a threat to him and the other Elohim? This seems to be his motive in the story of the tower of Babel, where he is alarmed by the technical prowess of the humans. He thwarts this development by confusing their language. Genesis 11:6-8:

And the LORD said, “As one people with one language for all, if this is what they have begun to do, now nothing they plot to do will elude them. Come, let us go down and baffle their language there so that they will not understand each others’ language.” And the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth and they left off building the city.

It’s quite striking to think that even an ordinary god would be so worried about the human’s capacity in this way. If we take Yahweh to be omnipotent, it’s nonsensical. What other explanation could there be for thwarting the humans this way, aside from putting a potential future rival in check? No explanation is offered in the text.

It feels a little uncomfortable to consider just what the limits of the power of Yahweh and the Elohim actually are. But there clearly are limits. We recall the declaration from Psalm 82:7, “Yet indeed like humans you shall die, and like the ones of the princes, fall.” These Elohim may live an extremely long time compared to humans. They may even be like Tolkien’s elves, and not age. They are surely far more powerful than the humans of the time could ever imagine being themselves. But they are not all-powerful, and they are not immortal.