Yahweh as Warrior-Hero
Posted by Lyn Perry on Aug 3, 2011 in News | 17 commentsWhen Jason asked me to contribute to the Home of Heroics, my initial thought was to say no. I’ve not written many sword and sorcery stories, and while I enjoy reading heroic adventure, I have to admit, I’m not that well-versed in the genre. I can barely tell you the difference between Conan and Elric.
There, I’ve lost some of you already. So why am I here today? Because of this one line in Jason’s email: “All you’d have to do is discuss something heroic…”
Something heroic. Any genre? Any era? Well, that I can do. But I may lose more of you here. Because I’m going to go Biblical for a moment. I want to briefly discuss Yahweh as Hero. My premise is that God (Yahweh) is a Warrior Par Excellence, one worth following into battle, one worth dying for. And if you stick around to the end, you can give me your take on God, Hero-worship, and whether we ought to be discussing this topic at all.
First, a prolegomena. Please do not interpret this piece as me advocating genocide in the name of God. We’ve had quite enough of that tragic nonsense throughout history. And while there are plenty of stories in the Bible that people use to justify this position, my goal here is to point to a larger reality. I don’t want to get into whether or not God is behaving badly in the Old Testament by commanding the destruction of the Amalekites.
Instead, I want to focus on a particular narrative drive. A mythic (and, yes, metaphorical or literary) truth. And that is, Yahweh (the Biblical name for God) is a warrior who fights on behalf of his people; he is a hero they can follow into battle. So yes, there is war. And it is epic. In fact, it’s really a Battle of the Gods.
What am I talking about? I’m referring to the conflict that Yahweh sought out—yes, sought out—with the gods of Egypt. Ready for a story? Okay, grab your blanky. You see, one day Yahweh went down to Egyptland and picked a fight. Here’s why.*
The Egyptian gods (Ra, Isis, Osiris, etc.) had enslaved Yahweh’s people, the Israelites, and Yahweh showed up to rescue them. Years before, Yahweh had appeared to a man name Abram and made a deal: follow me and I’ll lead you and generations of your descendants to a land they can call their own. Those descendents were named after Abram’s grandson, Israel. Their homeland was Canaan.
The early Israelite clans would often travel back and forth to Egypt on ancient shopping trips and one day the gods of Egypt lured them there to stay. It made sense: instant work force. Pharaoh, acting on behalf of the god Horus, enslaved the Israelites for many years. Eventually, they cried out to Yahweh who sent his representative, Moses, to confront Pharaoh. You remember Charlton Heston’s famous line, “Let my people go!” At any rate, Pharaoh said no. Repeated nos. No. No. No.
So what happened? Yahweh sent ten plagues, plagues that mocked some of the major gods in Egypt, to show he meant business. The plague of darkness, for instance, was Yahweh slapping the face of Amon-Ra, the Sun god. The outbreak of boils probably infuriated Isis, the goddess of protection. And the frogs? What, Heqet, the frog-headed goddess, can’t control her pets? Take that! Round after round, Yahweh would enter the ring and come out the victor.
Of course, every now and then Moses would check back with Pharaoh to see if he was ready to “let my people go,” but the answer was always the same. The Israelites will remain our slaves, and Yahweh can kiss my…Well, you get the picture. And so, one last knock-out punch remained. The plague of the death of the firstborn. The power over life and death. Who’s really in charge? You know the story; Pharaoh’s son dies—the future incarnation of Horus! A direct hit against the supreme deity of Egypt.
Yahweh’s goal in all this? To rescue his people, bring them out of Egypt, and lead them back to their own land of Canaan. What a hero to have on your side, eh?
And that’s what happened. Pharaoh finally relented and let Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt. But then right at the last minute Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his troops to recapture his former slaves. You probably remember Charlton Heston again. Standing at the Red Sea, arms raised parting the waters, the Israelites racing through to the other side, Pharaoh’s chariots following. Moses drops his arms and the waves come crashing down, drowning the pursuers. The final insult, and Yahweh wins the battle.
On the other side of the sea, safe at last, the Israelites celebrate the victory with an epic hymn. Here are the opening lines:
I will sing to Yahweh, for he is highly exalted;
The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.
Yahweh is my strength and song,
And he has become my salvation…
Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is his name. (Exodus 15.1-3)
That’s it. Yahweh is a warrior. A Warrior Par Excellence. The Bible is full of epic adventure, friends, no doubt about it. And this story in particular is a great story about a great God, a Hero God, who rescues his people from slavery. Yahweh. I don’t know about you—and no disrespect to Conan or Elric—but that’s the kind of Warrior-Hero I’d want to follow into battle.
~~~
*You can read it all for yourself in the first two books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus.
Good point, and one often overlooked. I suspect that the character of Gods such as Yahweh, and perhaps Allah, and certainly the Greek, Roman, and Norse gods were developed out of the same basic urge and need for mythologisizing that drive some humans to write heroic fantasy
As Charles said, you’ve found a nice point often overlooked. It seems from what I remember that most of God’s actions in the Bible are worked through people, but in the case of the Egyptian plagues, He is taking a (rare) direct hand in the matter.
Beyond the plagues, History (channel) had a very interesting theory on Moses and the march through the desert. It was an episode of ‘Battles B.C.’ The theory is that the Israelites weren’t slaves as much as mercenaries who were put to menial tasks when the contract was finished. Some of the Israeli actions in Exodus actually match Egyptian war tactics of the time.
As you said, you can ‘lose’ people in conversations like this
Some folks I know will automatically stick their fingers in their ears when it might be that something supernatural can be explained terrestrially, but personally, that is what fascinates me. Finding the true stories behind the myths. Your milage may vary, as they say. 
Very interesting article! Never would have thought of this myself. I also really admire your teaching philosophy. Getting kids to read and write is #1 in my book.
Thanks Charles, Paul, and Joe. Seems anything supernatural today is a lightning rod for disagreement. But to me, it is a fascinating topic and I’m okay with a literary approach to reading the bible if it gets people talking…and reading!
That being said, while it didn’t fit the flow of my essay, I do want to clarify my personal conviction. I believe that although many biblical stories are characterized by a mytho-epic structure, I also hold to a grand narrative unity (and the basic historicity) of both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. In other words, these aren’t just human explanations that fulfill a need for heroic/divine guidance. I believe these are somehow revelations of a real being who self-identifies as Yahweh. Controversial in this day and age, I know.
Now again, if we haven’t plugged our ears, lol, let the discussion continue!
No need to explain your position, Lyn. Here’s what I try to tell people. What if the reason “God” created and inspired so many different races, creeds, colors, and religions is just a test. A test we are failing. Sppose that “God” does not care about the color of our skin, our ethnic origin, or how we worship. Perhaps the Catch-22 that we miss is that “God” wants us all to co-exist in peace, with tolerance, patience, kindness, respect, and even love for our brother man. There aren’t multiple races on this planet — just one: the human race. We all have the same color of blood. Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations – IDIC, to borrow a Star Srek term. As a human race, “God” is testing us, and we are failing as a race due to bigotry, hatred, greed, envy, etc. There will be no peace, justice or equality on this planet so long as Mankind exists. Rather grim, but it may be so. Just my opinion.
I definitely appreciate your perspective, Joe. Some stories in the bible are very likely cautionary tales, imo. Jonah and the Big Fish, for eg, is a slap at Israelite nationalism. So yes, we have often failed the test in seeing that we are truly one tribe created by one God.
I just pray to “God” that there IS some kind of loving Supreme Being.
Lyn: Interesting piece – quite often Christianity tends to portray only the “God is Love” sort of opinion, and forget some of these bits of the Bible
Paul: Setting aside any debates of fact -vs- fiction in the Bible, it is interesting that this is a very hands on thing. You’re right that in most stories He made use of human proxies instead, or even messengers (Angels) at times. Though, there was 40 years in the desert where he appeared on a daily basis as the pillar of smoke – but that was guidance rather than direct physical intervention (well, and opening a pit and a few other ugly fates for some of the whiners in the desert.)
Great post Lyn, the only other intervention that comes to my mind is when the Assyrians’s lost 185,000 men outside of Jerusalem’s walls in a single night-is there any other time?
Thanks for your comments, Davis and David. I actually see the hand of Yahweh throughout the bible. Sure, God directly intervenes as a warrior in maybe only a few places, but God is active involved defending his people throughout their history (eg, 2 Kings 6.8-23), and is even seen taunting other gods.
One of my favorite stories, for example, is when the Philistines capture the “God-box” (the ark of the covenant, story in 1 Samuel 5.1-5). They place the ark next to Dagon in Dagon’s temple (“Woohoo, we control Yahweh and thus the Israelites!”). The next morning Dagon is on his face before Yahweh (ie, the ark)! Ha! The Philistines stand Dagon back up next to the God-box but the next morning Dagon’s body is flat before Yahweh again and this time his hands and head are broken off! Love it! They soon got rid of the God-box. Haha. What a warrior hero!
You’re right Lyn, I wasn’t trying to say he wasn’t active, I was just thinking more along the lines of his direct involvement over using a human proxy.
I just remembered another one. When Elijah calls down fire, it comes and he has the priests of Baal slain afterward. That was direct intervention.
Very good point, Lyn. After all, when we pray and ask God for help with our problems and daily needs, we are in a sense asking Him to be our “hero”…maybe not in such a dramatic fashion as was necessary in Egypt, but still we are asking for deliverance, rescue, etc.
On that note, there’s also the most heroic thing God ever did for us: The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Giving His life to save those who could not save themselves, then coming back from the dead three days later… A “hero” story if there ever was one!
Good piece here, Lyn. I think that it fills a void that merits discussion. After all, most of us here are interested in literature – and no book in history is more influential to Western literature than the Bible. It shaped our way of looking at heroism and at struggle, as well as (through several different cycles of interpretation) creating the moral codes we live by today – we can’t really have the heroic discussion without looking at the Bible every now and then.
It would be really cool if someone would take the even earlier text, such as the Gilgamesh epic, and write about how it relates to the narrative of the Bible itself.
Appreciate the comment, Gustavo. The influence of the bible as literature on literature, as you point out, is expansive. And other ancient epics, like Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish, are worth exploring, if for the discovery of how different they are from the general storyline of the bible. All three epics arise about the same era – 2500 BC or so. And, while not cited specifically in scripture, Mesopotamian stories are alluded to in the bible, I believe.
In fact, the creation myth of Genesis 1 is sort of a contra-Enuma Elish explanation of how completely different Yahweh is from the gods of the Babylonians, imo. Whereas the Mesopotamian gods are capricious, fickle, and petty (as Gligamesh discovers in his journeys and revealed in the incestuous/murderous explanation of creation in the Enuma Elish), Yahweh is orderly, benevolent, protective, and ultimately satisfied (“It was very good”) with creation. Each day of creation demonstrates Yahweh’s power over each of the Babylonian gods, and it’s done with such poetic grace…oh, I could just go on. I love this topic. lol (Email me for a complete breakdown of Genesis 1 if interested!)
Direct intervention — Divine Intervention is something we have been discussing as a one of the “pet peeves” in fantasy, on The Swords and Sorcery League’s Facebook Page. My first novel ended when the gods appeared to solve everything. They came out of nowhere. I was young. I didn’t know much about writing. My Catholic school education got in the way. That’s when I learned about deus ex machina, and how editors and publishers frowned upon that stuff at the time, especially when the gods haven’t been involved in any part of the earlier story. David Eddings, for example, used the gods to fairly good purpose in The Belgariad. I always cite the climax of Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes, when the chimp pilots the ship and “saves the day,” and how laughable I found that, even though it was set up earlier in the script. I called it deus ex monkeyna — or as I translate here for the first time: “The monkey did it.” If the gods or any spiritual beings are to be part of a story’s finish, if they are to help the hero in any way (think “Jason and The Argonauts”) they should be brought into play earlier, I believe, made as real beings, and used as you would use any other character.
The deus ex machina is a problem in lit, that’s for sure. It doesn’t satisfy, really. As you point out, gods can be integrated into the story fairly well (Eddings’ novels, Odysseus’ and Jason’s journey); but even then they are support characters. The bible, imo, is the story of Yahweh (the main character) and his journey to save humanity – and how he eventually saves the day without any “chimp pilots” coming to the rescue, lol.
Obviously, this is my take on the matter as I echo Stoney’s comment above; the biblical climax is Yahweh’s final rescue and recovery mission through Jesus. Thanks again for allowing me to share my thoughts here. I appreciate everyone’s various and insightful perspectives.
Absolutely, Lyn! Yawhweh and Jesus are definite heroes of the Bible–as are Samson, Moses, Joshua, David, and so many others through which God acted. Ain’t it cool when an article you write stires up so many good and thoughtful comments? I enjoyed this. Look forward to more from you. Take care! q:~)