ABSTRACT
The God of Israel is a being who has powers and responsibilities and authority over all the lands of Israel's neighbors. A God such as envisaged by Israel must be exalted in divine quality far above puny man, above this earth, and above all that is of the earth and earthy. Israel's characteristic thought of God was that He was awful in holiness, terrible in righteousness. Israel was fully aware of the most critical question of all man's thought-the problem that man is to himself. For Israel, God was the ultimate reality, He was all power and He was good- not a being concerned with selfish interests, but His character was grace and love. The revolutionary nature of Israel's discovery becomes evident by study of the great religions of Egypt and Babylonia, dominant through Israel's world, as well as of those of the lesser peoples of the time.
