Heather I don't care greatly for your hypothesis that the Devil was leading the children of Israel into Canaan (it's plain wrong ;) ), nor do I particularly agree that the earlier Jews had the wrong idea about God, and their views changed with time, though, I concede, you might hope they would have learnt something from the continuing messages of countless prophets. But I do think this is quite a decent thought here, that what we have in the Scriptures is men relating as best they can their experience of meeting the Living God. That seems to make sense. Still doesn't help us understand at which points their understanding of what God was communicating may or may not have been faulty, though (Rom 1, anyone?) Love, Fod |