A Covenant People: Israel from Abraham to the Present

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Patriarchs: The Founding of the Nation

Chapter 2 The Birth of Israel as a Nation

Chapter 3 Israel Claims Its Covenant Land

Chapter 4 Anarchy in Israel: The Judges

Chapter 5 The Covenant-Making God and the United Kingdom

Chapter 6 The Divided Kingdom: Israel

Chapter 7 The Divided Kingdom: Judah

Chapter 8 Exile and Restoration to the Land

Chapter 9 The Hellenistic Challenge

Chapter 10 Rome, Messiah, and the New Order

Chapter 11 The Jews Revolt Against Rome: AD 66–73 and 132–135

Chapter 12 Constantine, the Byzantine Empire, and the Diaspora, AD 300–636

Chapter 13 Islam and the Crusades 570–1291

Chapter 14 The Ottoman Empire (1517–1919) and the Idea of a Jewish Homeland

Chapter 15 The Regathering of the Jews, Israel as a Nation-State, and the Struggle for Survival

Conclusion

Endnotes

This book is dedicated to my beloved wife, Peggy, whose encouragement and prayer support have been indispensable. Next to Jesus, she is God’s greatest gift.

I also extend profound thanks to my dear friends, David and Lori Scott and Gary and Marsha Marron, whose support made this vision become a reality.

Introduction

It has been said that to truly understand modern Israel, one must come to terms with Masada, the Wailing Wall, and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Masada is the plateau in the Judean wilderness where, in AD 73, a small band of Jewish zealots committed suicide rather than submit to the oppression of the conquering Romans. The Wailing Wall (actually the western retaining wall) is the only remnant of the Second Temple in Jerusalem—the holiest site of Judaism. Yad Vashem documents the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust that directly led to the creation of the modern nation-state of Israel in 1948. Each has symbolic power to the modern Jew, and each plays a role in the remarkable history of the Jewish people.

This book is the story of the Jewish people—a story filled with promise, hope, and redemption but also with despair, judgment, and oppression. It begins with the astonishing promises God made to the patriarch Abraham over 4,000 years ago. It ends with the creation of Israel by the United Nations in 1947–8 and the subsequent wars that the Jewish people have fought to preserve Israel as the Jewish homeland. There are about 18 million Jews in the world today, and over 6 million of them live in Israel. (The United States has the other largest concentration of Jews—about 5.8 million). The survival of the Jewish people over these 4,000 years is a miracle. This book seeks to tell the story of that miracle.

I begin with a review of certain basic assumptions, rooted in Scripture, which inform this history of Israel:

1. The Bible presents accurate and trustworthy history. Our God is a God of history, and Scripture documents his redemptive work in history. That redemptive story is revealed in the history of Israel, in the early church, and of course most importantly in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament historical books are authentic accounts of actual historical events, many of which have been validated by archeology. The hundreds of prophecies about the first advent of the Messiah were fulfilled in space-time history by Jesus.

2. There are three important biblical covenants that define God’s relationship with the Jewish people: the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant. God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the sand of the seashore and the stars of the sky, land, and blessing—that in him all the nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:1–7). Because of Genesis 15:9–21, we are to understand these covenant promises as eternal and unconditional. God promised King David an eternal throne, dynasty, and kingdom (succinctly summarized in 2 Samuel 7:16). The Old Testament prophets, major and minor, are filled with hundreds of promises about the coming Son of David who will rule and reign. The New Testament declares Jesus to be that King. Finally, the new covenant contains God’s promise of spiritual blessing and renewal energized by the coming of His Holy Spirit. (See Jeremiah 31:31–33 and Ezekiel 36:24–29.)

3. The Mosaic covenant was a conditional covenant, added to the Abrahamic promise (see Galatians 3:19–22), which defined how Israel was to walk with God. The God of the Bible is the Sovereign Lord who chose Israel to be a vehicle to reveal His holiness and His righteous character to the nations. As the major and minor prophets indicate, when God disciplined His people, He did so on the basis of the curses and blessings of the Mosaic covenant. (See Deuteronomy 28.) But His ongoing promise to restore them and renew them was always on the basis of His covenant commitment to Abraham.

4. I believe that God will keep His covenant promises to Israel; indeed, when His Son returns, a national regeneration of Israel will occur. With clarity, Paul declared in Romans 11:26 that there is coming a day when all of Israel will be saved. This remarkable event will be preceded by the regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland. God promised this regathering throughout the Old Testament but most clearly in Ezekiel 36–37. In these vital chapters, God declares that He will bring His people back to their land, renew them spiritually, and fulfill completely the promises He made to Abraham and David. He will then implement all the dimensions of the new covenant. (See especially Ezekiel 37:15–28.)

Israel’s Strategic Location

The land God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12 was actually a land bridge between two great river valleys—the Tigris and Euphrates valley, the center of the great Mesopotamian civilizations (e.g., Assyria and Babylonia) and the Nile valley, the center of the famous Egyptian civilization. With the Arabian Desert to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel provided the natural location for two international highways that connected Mesopotamia and Egypt—the way of the sea (Via Maris) along the Mediterranean coast, and the King’s Highway along the mountains of Jordan. Hence, throughout its history, Israel was often a battleground between the warring civilizations of these two great river valleys, a reality that is central to understanding the background of the Old Testament.

Israel was a part of what many have called the Fertile Crescent, a band of often rich, arable land that stretches from the Persian Gulf, north through the Mesopotamian valley, west through southern Turkey, and then south to Israel’s Dead Sea. There is generally adequate rainfall, and thus significant agricultural development occurred in this strip of land. For that reason, several of the oldest human settlements on planet Earth are located in this crescent. Israel is thus in the center of one of the most important sections of land in the world.

Israel’s Geography

For a relatively small section of territory, Israel has more geographical diversity than any other comparable place on earth. Bounded on the east by the Syro-Arabian Desert, on the west by the Mediterranean, and on the south by the Negev Desert, Israel is about 150 miles north to south and about 60 miles east to west. There are several distinctive features of Israel’s geography:

1. The Jordan Rift. Stretching from Central Asia deep into Africa is a fissure in the earth’s surface, much of which in Israel is below sea level. Large, rugged mountains on both the east and the west sides of the rift accentuate the significance of this topographical distinction in Israel. As you move from the north to the south along this rift, the Hulah Lake (now drained by modern Israel) is about 210 feet above sea level, followed by the Sea of Galilee (13 miles long and 7 miles wide), which is about 690 feet below sea level. The sea empties, via the Jordan River, into the Dead Sea (50 miles long and 10 miles wide), which is about 1,300 feet below sea level. The rift continues south of the Dead Sea in what is called the Arabah (a dry, desolate area) to the Gulf of Aqaba and the important port city called Elath.

2. Transjordan. To the east of the rift rises a series of high plateaus that drain into the rift. To the east of the plateau is the Syro-Arabian Desert. Important biblical locations are associated with Transjordan. Beginning from the north is Bashan (the Golan Heights), a rich, fertile area due to past volcanic activity. Next is Gilead, a heavily wooded area in the ancient world. The Ammonites lived in this area, much of which the Israelite tribes of Gad and half of Manasseh claimed. Next is Moab, east of the Dead Sea and the home of the Moabites. Finally, south of the Dead Sea is Edom, home of Esau’s descendants, the Edomites.

3. The Central Mountains. West of the rift are the central mountains of Israel, which are divided into three regions. In the north is Galilee, separated from Samaria by the Jezreel Valley, which is a rugged, elevated plateau in the north but a smaller series of east-west hills that contain productive, rich soil. The hills of Samaria south of the Jezreel Valley contain important cities and villages associated with the northern kingdom of Israel (e.g., Shechem and Samaria) and Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Finally, the southern hills are those of Judah, which contain the important city of Jerusalem.

4. Shephelah. West of the hills of Judah are the Shephelah, foothills that run to the coastal plain, which are rich in both moisture and good farmland. In ancient Israel, the Shephelah formed an important natural boundary protecting Judah from the coastal plain inhabited by the Philistines.

5. The Coastal Plain. Stretching from ancient Lebanon down into Egypt, the coastal plain was important for the international highway (Via Maris) and contained rich soil and adequate rainfall. Throughout much of ancient Israel, the Philistines controlled the southern part of the plain, in what is today called Gaza.¹

Israel’s Climate

Essentially, there are only two seasons in the subtropical climate of Israel: summer and winter. The winter season (November to April) is the wet period when Israel receives virtually all of its rain. The northern sections receive much more moisture than the extremely arid south. Those rainfall amounts range from fifty inches per year in the north to virtually none in the south. The summer season (May to October) receives little if any rain.

Chapter 1

The Patriarchs: The Founding of the Nation

The history of Israel begins with Abraham. Since the Bible singularly focuses on the redemptive purposes of God in history (see Genesis 3:15), choosing one man—Abraham—as the channel for that purpose is extraordinary. Indeed, the apostle Paul, in his commentary on Abraham’s life in Galatians 3, argues that God’s promise—In you all the nations will be blessed (Genesis 12:3)—is in effect the promise of salvation. Before Abraham, God dealt with all of humanity, making no covenant distinctions. His judgment for sin in the flood extended to all of humanity, and He chose to repopulate the earth with Noah and his descendants (Genesis 6–11). But in choosing Abraham, God determined to focus His redemptive plan on one man and his descendants. God’s redemptive program, then, is inextricably linked to Israel, the descendants of Abraham.

Abraham

According to Genesis 12, Abram lived in Ur of the Chaldees, an important, cosmopolitan Sumerian city. Ur was the central hub of Sumerian city-states in southern Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. A professor of Semitic studies, Eugene H. Merrill, argues that Abram was born in 2166 BC.² According to the biblical genealogy of Abram (Genesis 11:10–32), Abram and his family were Semitic peoples, but the Bible does not detail when or why they settled in Ur. Joshua 24:2 indicates that Abram, his father, Terah, and the family worshipped the gods associated with Ur. More than likely, this included the moon god, Sin, and his many associates in the Sumerian pantheon. Evidence of this worship could be reflected in the names Sarah (Abram’s wife) and Milcah (his brother’s daughter), both of which derived from Babylonian titles. Milcah means princess, the daughter of the moon god, and Sarah means queen, the wife of the moon god. Indeed, Terah is a Hebrew form of the term moon, which is another indication of the family’s pagan worship.³ Yet Genesis 31:53 explains that Abram worshiped the true God. What caused the change?

Abram responded in faith to God’s call to leave Ur and found a new nation that would bless the entire world. What makes Abram’s response more remarkable is that Abram’s conversion and response of faith was the response of a pagan. Also, he was old, more than likely prosperous, and well established in Ur. The nation of Israel was founded by Abram, the man of faith, and it was rooted in God’s will—He chose Abram!

God’s promise to Abram (Genesis 12:1–7) was threefold: his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and the sand, He would give him land, and He would bless the world through Abram. This promise is called the Abrahamic covenant, and it provides the key framework for explaining how God has dealt with Israel throughout its long history.

Connecting Genesis 15:17–21 to 12:1–7 is critical, for these verses describe how God cut a covenant with Abram. In the ancient world, especially the ancient Akkadian world from which Abram came, animals were killed and cut in two, and their respective parts were laid opposite one another. The parties making the covenant walked between the parts together, signifying that if either party broke the covenant, that party would become as dead. However, in this narrative, God (in the symbolic form of the oven and the torch) walked between the severed animals alone. God, who is holy and perfect, was binding Himself to this covenant. He would fulfill His unconditional and eternal covenant promises, for His promises to Abram and his descendants are forever.⁴ In the narrative, it says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). As the New Testament affirms (Romans 4 and Galatians 3:6–9), here is where Abram was justified by his faith.

Returning to the narrative of Abram’s life, Genesis explains that Abram, Sarah, Terah, and Lot (Abram’s brother Haran’s son) left Ur and traveled to Haran, undoubtedly following the Euphrates River north about six hundred miles. Haran was apparently the ancestral home of Abram, and Genesis 11:32 explains that Terah died there.

In 2091 BC, Abram proceeded to Canaan, the land that God had promised him. He no doubt entered Canaan from the east, along the Jabbok River, and camped in Shechem, where he built an altar. He then traveled south along the hills, settling for a time near Bethel, and then traveled down to the Negev. (See Genesis 12:6–9.) Why did Abram meet no Canaanite resistance in his sojourn? The Canaanites had settled in the valleys and the coastal plain, while the hills and mountains west of the Jordan Rift were virtually unsettled. In the hill country, Abram was thus able to move about and settle down at will.

A severe drought and famine in the Negev caused Abram and his family to seek relief in Egypt, where, because of the Nile Valley, there was normally an abundance of food. While in Egypt, he would no doubt have the viewed the great pyramids near Memphis. He was welcomed by the pharaoh (perhaps Wahkare Achtthoes III), to whom he lied about his wife, Sarah. Despite Abram’s duplicity, God blessed him with abundant sheep, cattle, and camels. Abram returned to the Negev a wealthy man.⁵

Genesis 13 mentions that Abram traveled throughout the land of Canaan, following an alternation between the hill country and the southern desert lands. During the winter months, Abram and his clan grazed their animals in the Negev, where winter rains provided grass for the herds. During the hot summer months, they traveled to the hill country (Shechem, Bethel, and Ai), where the grazing lands were cooler.⁶ So wealthy had Abram become that he and Lot decided to separate. Lot chose the area in the southern Jordan Valley in Transjordan, while Abram chose the hill country south to Hebron. The Genesis text makes no significant reference to any resistance from the Canaanites, who inhabited the valleys and coastal plan. Abram was now living in the land God had promised him, and he was referred to as Abram, the Hebrew (14:13).

The remaining narrative of Abram’s life (Genesis 14–23) takes on an entirely different tone in the text. The results of Abram’s settling in Canaan are detailed. Each part of this narrative expands upon Abram, the founder of the nation, as a man of extraordinary faith. First is the story of Lot’s kidnapping in Genesis 14 by powerful kings of the east. The difficult names of the eastern kings cannot yet be identified with known rulers from this period in history. However, the place names can be: Shinar, Elam, Arioch, Tidal, and Zoar are all identifiable locations in the ancient Near East. The five kings of the Jordan Valley had apparently been vassal states paying tribute to these eastern kings. When they rebelled, Chedorlaomer of Elam led the other eastern kings in an effort to crush the revolt. The result was the battle of Siddim, in which Lot was captured. Abram then assembled an army of 318 men who chased the enemy as far as Dan (then known as Laish). During a nighttime raid, Abram rescued Lot, his possessions, and his family.

The text makes clear that Abram’s victory was by the power of God. The land God promised him had been plundered, so Abram, trusting in God, vanquished his enemies, proving the outworking of the covenant promises of God. Abram refused to accept anything from the pagan king of Sodom (14:22–24), for he relied on God to keep His promises and depended on His blessing, not those of a pagan king. For that reason, Abram received the blessing from and paid tithes to the mysterious Melchizedek, a priest-king linked to Jerusalem. The contrast between Abram’s response to the king of Sodom and to Melchizedek heightens the message that Abram is a man of faith in God: he waits for God’s blessing.

Second, the debacle with Hagar in Genesis 16 illustrates how the founders of Israel often exhibited impatience as they waited for God to fulfill His promises. When barrenness occurred in the ancient Near East, it was a common practice for a maidservant to bear a child in place of the wife. Hence, Sarah suggests that Abram take her servant Hagar. The result is Ishmael and an unbelievably complicated legacy. As Allen P. Ross suggests, the lesson of this passage is to trust God’s Word and patiently wait for His promises. Foolishly to adopt worldly customs and expedients will only complicate matters and bring greater tensions. Any people who owe their existence to divine creation and election must live by faith.⁷

Third, in chapter 17, thirteen years after Ishmael was born, Abram was ninety-nine years old and God appeared to him again. God declared Himself to be God Almighty (El Shaddai in 17:1) and affirmed the unconditional nature of the covenant. God declared that Abram would be the father of many nations, and He changed his name from Abram, an old West Semitic name (a father of distinguished birth), to Abraham (a father of a multitude). By renaming him Abraham, God was giving him a pledge of His promise. God then instituted the sign of the covenant: circumcision. As Ross argues, With this symbol God instructed his people regarding the joining of faith with the act of reproduction. The sign was sexual—the promise was for a seed.⁸

Fourth, God’s covenant with Abraham is recorded five times in Genesis: 12:1–3, 13:14–17, 15:1–21, 17:1–22, and 22:15–18. Each one of these iterations of the promise was conditioned on Abraham having a son, but Abraham had no son. When Abraham entered Canaan, he was seventy-five, and he was eighty-five when Ishmael was born. Finally, in 2066 BC,⁹ Sarah, at age ninety, gave birth to Isaac, the covenant son, when Abraham was one hundred years old (Genesis 21:1–7).

Why did Abraham and Sarah need to wait twenty-five years for Isaac? The Bible is silent on this, but it seems reasonable that the delay was a significant test of Abraham’s faith. Could he trust God and His promises? Despite Ishmael, Abraham did trust God. But another reason is certain. Because Abraham was one hundred and Sarah was ninety, Isaac’s birth was a miracle, and it was imperative for Abraham to understand that. Further, the ongoing fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham would also be miraculous. The people of Israel, Abraham’s descendants, could only be explained as supernatural—the very conclusion God wanted them to draw.

Finally, due to his treaty with Abimelech, Abraham settled in Beersheba in the northern Negev (Genesis 21:22–34). In Beersheba, the greatest test of Abraham the man of faith, is recorded. He had waited twenty-five years for Isaac, and then God tested his faith. Would Abraham be willing to give his son back to God?

The command was to offer Isaac on Mount Moriah, about forty-five miles north of Beersheba. The narrative presents Abraham as a man of unwavering faith, arising early in the morning to obey God’s command (v. 3), even declaring to his servant who accompanied him that both he and his son would return, implying God would restore his son’s life (vv. 5-8; Hebrews 11:17–19). Because of Abraham’s faith, God provided a substitute, a ram, which was sacrificed in Isaac’s place (v. 13).

For Abraham, God was Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. God, in the language of a vow, then reiterated His covenant promises to Abraham (vv. 15–18). Since 2 Chronicles 3:1 explains that Solomon built the Temple on Mount Moriah, the connection between Isaac and Jesus cannot be missed. Two thousand years later, another Father and Son would walk up that same Mount Moriah, but there would be no substitute for that Son, for He was the substitute (see Isaiah 52:13–53:12). The New Testament constructs the intertextual link between Abraham’s offspring and Jesus Christ quite clearly. Jesus is the Seed of Abraham who would die for sin and provide the offer of justification by faith (Galatians 3:16).

Throughout the Bible, Abraham, as the founder of the Jewish nation, is presented as a paradigm of faith, the father of all those who believe. Despite his moments of doubt, he was called a friend of God (James 2:23). For the people of Israel, Abraham was not only their father, but also their model of how to walk with God.

Isaac

Compared to Abraham and Jacob, the Bible has comparatively little to say about Isaac. In fact, in terms of the fulfillment of the covenant promise, there are only two aspects of Isaac’s life that are important. The first relates to the celebration surrounding the weaning of Isaac, when his brother Ishmael mocked him. The term mock and the story with Ishmael in Genesis 21:9 illustrate the truth that faith and unbelief are incompatible. As Ross comments, That which trifles with God’s work must be removed so that faith can prosper under God’s blessing.¹⁰ Hence, Hagar and Ishmael were banished from the family and from the land, but God promised Abraham that He would still protect and provide for them.

Regarding the covenant promise, the second dimension of importance was Isaac’s marriage. Through Isaac the line of promise was to be maintained, so it was quite important whom he married. Abraham feared he would marry a Canaanite, so Abraham sent Eliezer his servant to his homeland, Haran, to find a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24:2–6). The text emphasizes that Eliezer was the instrument God used to secure a bride for Isaac, and God superintended everything about his journey. So God’s sovereignty and providence are the main themes of the narrative. Even Rebekah’s father, Laban, recognized God’s providence (Genesis 24:50). Isaac and Rebekah were married in 2026 BC.¹¹ Hence the covenant line was preserved, and God was the reason for the preservation.

Jacob

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, was the actual father of the nation of Israel, via his twelve sons, and from him came the actual name of the people, Israel. Even while Jacob and Esau were in Rebekah’s womb, God declared by divine election that the elder, Esau, would serve the younger, Jacob. Jacob would thus be the heir to the covenant promise.

But Jacob, with the help of his duplicitous mother, secured those blessings his way. Because he was holding on to his brother’s heel as he came out of the womb, Jacob was called the heel-catcher, the supplanter.¹² Because Esau was dismissive and indifferent to his position as the firstborn, he sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red stew (25:29–34). Jacob leveraged that indifference. Further, he secured the special blessing of Isaac by deceptive means. Driven by Rebekah, Jacob tricked Isaac into thinking Jacob was Esau. So Isaac blessed Jacob, and that blessing, along with the birthright, were irrevocable (27:1–45). For fear of Esau, Jacob fled Canaan to Paddan Aram, where he lived for twenty years. Although by nefarious means, Jacob became the bearer of the covenant blessing and the heir to Canaan. Esau inherited what became known as Edom.

Because about one-fourth of Genesis is devoted to Jacob, there are four elements of Jacob’s life important to the history of Israel. First is the dream/vision he received at Bethel (28:10–22). Because of his duplicity and sin, Jacob was a fugitive from his brother Esau. At Bethel, God intervened in his life. As he slept, he saw a ladder connecting heaven and earth. At the top of the ladder, the Lord stood. God confirmed there that the covenant promises he had made to Abraham and Isaac would be applied to Jacob’s life as well. God would not abandon him but would fulfill all of the covenant promises He had made to Abraham.

Second, from Jacob came his twelve sons, each of whom would found one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Within the context of a virtual contest of childbearing between Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob, Genesis 29–30 records the birth of Jacob’s sons. The first four sons were born to Leah—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Meanwhile, Rachel, envious of Leah, contrived to have Jacob sleep with her servant girl, Bilhah, who bore Jacob two sons, Dan and Naphtali. Leah then had her servant, Zilpah, sleep with Jacob, and Zilpah bore him two sons, Gad and Asher. God granted Leah two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun. Then God remembered Rachel, and she bore Joseph (Genesis 30:22). Finally, Rachel died giving birth to Jacob’s youngest son, Benjamin (Genesis 35:18).

Jacob’s Twelve Sons: Birth Order and Names’ Meanings

1. Reuben—the Lord sees affliction

2. Simeon—the Lord hears

3. Levi—hope for attachment

4. Judah—praise for the Lord

5. Dan—vindication

6. Naphtali—that which struggles

7. Gad—prosperity

8. Asher—happiness

9. Issachar—reward or man of hire

10. Zebulun—endowed me

11. Joseph—fruitful or addition

12. Benjamin—son of the right hand

Third, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, which became the name of the nation itself (Genesis 32:28). The context for this significant event was Jacob’s return to Canaan. In Paddan Aram, Jacob had worked for Laban, his uncle, for twenty years. Laban’s treachery was worse than Jacob’s, for he tricked Jacob into serving him to attain the right to marry Rachel. First, however, Jacob was forced to settle for Leah. In addition, during his time with Laban, most of Jacob’s sons were born.

Jacob fled Laban and prepared to enter Canaan, where he knew he would meet his brother Esau, whose murderous threats still echoed in his mind. All of his life, Jacob had manipulated people and events to get what he wanted. He tricked his foolish brother twice, his father, and, in the end, even his uncle Laban, for he left Paddan Aram a wealthy man. But as Jacob wrestled with God at Jabbok (there is wordplay in Hebrew between these key words), he was broken by God. The Assailant crippled Jacob (Genesis 32:25) and changed his name from Jacob, the heel catcher, to Israel, he strives, fights with God.¹³ He entered the Promised Land limping, a powerful symbol of his dependence on God (32:31).

Jacob’s struggle with God