The Judges and the First King

Moses never entered Canaan, but Joshua did. According to the Bible, God instructed Joshua to take Jericho with his army. God told Joshua that he would help drive out the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites. That's a lot of 'ites! No mention was made of Palestinians.

As the 12 tribes of Israel settled throughout the Middle East a new tribe called the Philistines settled near what is now called the Gaza Strip. According to history, the Philistines, also called the Sea People came from Cyprus or Crete. It is from the Philistines that the name "Palestinian" is derived.

The conquest of Canaan began about 1235 B.C. under the leadership of Joshua, who had served under Moses.  Military victories helped Israel gain possession of part of the land, but the westward movement of the Israelites was halted by the Philistines, who held sizable portions of the country. 

For generations the twelve tribes of Israel led a difficult existence in Canaan, often ruled by neighboring peoples until a leader arose to liberate them.  One of these leaders or "judges" was Deborah, a prophetess who led the people to victory over the Canaanites. Another judge was the strong man Samson, who fraternized with Philistine women and then avenged himself against Philistine villages when the relationships turned sour. The stories of Samson are often favorites of young Jewish children. Here he brings down a Philistine temple by himself.

The continued threat of being dominated by other nations finally led the people of Israel to ask for a king.  Samuel, the last of the judges, designated a man named Saul as Israel's first king.  Saul was a tall and handsome man who impressed many Israelites.  Soon after becoming king, Saul demonstrated his ability by leading the Israelite army to victory.  But later Saul was plagued by mood swings In particular, he became jealous of David, a youth from Bethlehem who was a member of his court.

Music Time	Hava Nagila. Perhaps the most famous Jewish song of all time.
Question 7	How are the Palestinians and Israelis doing today in terms of how they are getting along? Why did the Israelites come to the conclusion they wanted a king? Harder question: why would the religious people among the Israelites be suspicious of having a human king?

 

King David: The Most Important King of Israel

David fled for his life and lived as the leader of an outlaw band at the periphery of the country until Saul was wounded in battle and committed suicide.

David became king about 1000 B.C. and ushered in the most important time for Israel, a time later generations would consider to be the golden age of Israel. He made Jerusalem his capital, and some of the ruins appear at right. 

Under King David's leadership, a series of successful military campaigns secured Israel's borders against the neighboring nations. Under him, Israel reached its greatest territory.

Question 8

Look at your Teen Bible, p. 370 and find out how long David ruled over (a) Judah; (b) all of Israel.

By the time David was anointed king, the twelve tribes had ceased to function as a real country. David believed that Saul a difficult time during his rule because he had no centralized government. So David searched for a central location that was easliy defended, and which was in neutral territory, in order to prevent any one tribe from becoming more powerful that the others. David conquered a city called Jerusalem and made it his capitol. The choice of Jerusalem was very important and it has been an important city right up to the present day.

King Solomon and Prophetic Challenges

While David had several sons, his son named Solomon was chosen to be David's successor.

Solomon's primary achievement was the construction of a temple in Jerusalem, which was denied to David because he had been a king of war.  International commerce was expanded and a fabulous palace was built.  Much less happily, Solomon enslaved some of the non-Israelite peoples within his realm, and to secure his political position, he entered into alliances with foreign countries.  He sealed these pacts by marrying women from the various allied peoples, and he permitted shrines to foreign deities to be built in Jerusalem. These later acts were viewed with great unhappiness by those who wanted to maintain traditional Israelite religion. Solomon is showed at right in all his glory and perhaps a little of his arrogance!

After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam ruled harshly and the kingdom split in two in 922 B.C.  The northern part was still called Israel, the southern part was called Judah, and relations between the two kingdoms were often not good.  The northern kingdom entered into close relations with the nations to the north, and the worship of the god Baal and goddess Astarte became common. 

The prophet Elijah protested the worship of these deities and challenged the priests of Baal, one of the foreign deities, to demonstrate the power of their gods by calling down fire from heaven.  In a very dramatic scene, Elijah prayed to the God of Israel, fire fell from heaven, and Elijah's followers slaughtered the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18:17-40).  In the eighth century B.C., the prophets Amos and Hosea joined the protest against the idolatrous and unjust practices of the northern kingdom.  Finally, in 721 B.C., the army of Assyria, a powerful nation to the northeast, conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and exiled its leaders. Perhaps surprisingly, the northern nation largely disappeared from history and only Judah remained to carry on the traditions of David and earlier Israelite religion.

Question 10

Israel's revolt against Rehoboam is recorded on p. 420 of your Bible. What scourge did Rehoboam promise the Israelites if they did not submit (p. 421 middle)? Ouch!

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