The governments of the
Canaanite cities were, in the opinion of their citizens, modeled after the
structure of the heavenly state. The king was the representative of Baal. The
status authenticated the king’s right to the throne and, as Baal ruled the earth,
so the king ruled with an absolute power over that part of the earth entrusted
to him. The blessings of prosperity and plenty flowed from the gods to the
people through the person of the king. As Baal had his supports and advisors
among the gods, so also the king had his council of nobles. As the resurrected
Baal resumed his kingship after his period of imprisonment in the Underworld,
so the king’s son succeeded his father on the throne. Thus, the religion of
Canaan gave divine sanction to absolute monarchy and to the dynastic principle
of succession.
Many of the Israelite kings
emulated their Canaanite counterparts, and claimed absolute authority for
themselves. Indeed, there existed in Israel a royal theology which presented
the king as the adopted son of Yahweh (Ps 2:7), who sat at God’s right hand (Ps
110:1), and was the channel through whom Yahweh’s blessings reached his people
(Ps 72). (Lawrence E. Toombs, “When Religions Collide: The Yahweh/Baal Confrontation,”
in The Yahweh/Baal Confrontation and Other Studies in Biblical Literature
and Archaeology: Essays in Honour of Emmett Willard Hamrick—When Religions Collide,
ed. Julia M. O’Brien and Fred L. Horton, Jr. [Studies in the Bible and Early
Christianity 35; Lewiston, Maine: Mellen Biblical Press, 1995], 33)
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