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The
promises given by God to Abraham must have seemed
a bit far-fetched as his descendants, the Children
of Israel, sweated in the Egyptian quarries and
building sites of Pharaoh. After all, hadn't the
Lord, in Genesis 15:18-21, promised the land '…
from the river of Egypt to the great river, the
Euphrates'? It must have seemed a sick joke to
those Hebrew slaves, for whom the 'river of Egypt'
was a place where they drew their sustenance between
shifts. Then Moses came along and, on that Passover
night, the first small step was made towards fulfilling
God's promise when around 2 million Jews made
a bee-line eastwards for the Red Sea and freedom.
But then, it wasn't going to be that easy as they
spent 40 years circling around the Sinai desert
getting nowhere. It was their own fault because
it didn't have to be that way. The first year
was spent receiving the Law at Sinai, the second
traveling to Kadesh, where it all went horribly
wrong. You can read it in Numbers 13 and 14. It
seemed that God's promises of the land were about
to be realized. The Jews were poised at the edge
of Canaan, the land was theirs for the taking.
All they needed was sufficient faith in the God
who had delivered them from Egypt and sustained
them with miracle after miracle. But it wasn't
to be, they preferred to believe in tall tales
of giants and demonic offspring and started making
plans for a backtrack to Egypt. This incredible
lack of faith doomed the entire adult generation
(except for Joshua and Caleb, the only two to
show faith) to wander around in circles for up
to 38 years and never to enter the 'Promised Land'.
So, had their lack of faith in God, their deliverer
from Egypt, nullified God's covenant with Abraham?
Not a bit of it! They'd ensured that they personally
wouldn't share in the fruits of the covenant,
but the covenant was water-tight, in no way was
it dependent on their actions - it was unconditional
and everlasting.
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It
was the children of this doomed generation
who eventually entered the land of Canaan,
led by Joshua. About 600 years since the time
of Abraham, the Promised Land started to become
a reality. Canaan was conquered in three campaigns
and the land divided up among the tribes of
Israel (Joshua 11:23). For reference, we are
looking at the land occupied by modern-day
Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. The land was settled
and we now entered the period of the Judges,
which can be summarized in one circular sentence:
when Israel listened to God all was well,
but when they fell away they were shown the
consequences of their sin (usually through
matters of war), which prompted them to cry
out to God, who sent them a Judge, who led
them back to listening to Him. |
| Repeat
this about 12 times - through such Judges
as Deborah, Gideon, Samson etc - and you get
the idea. You'd think they'd get the point
after a half dozen times or so, but human
nature says otherwise - how soon we forget
God's provisions for us and take Him for granted!
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But
they took it even further and cast jealous eyes
around the other nations. These people had kings,
who led them into battle, ruled them, made decisions
for them (and exploited them, taxed them and took
away their sons and daughters). We want a king,
too! This was the cry of Israel in 1 Samuel 8 and
they got the one they deserved, Saul. This first
king of Israel was volatile, insecure and paranoid,
which was probably God's punishment on Israel for
showing such a lack of faith in Him and demanding
a king in the first place. There were controls in
place, namely the prophet, Samuel, who was the mouthpiece
of God during this time, but Saul wasn't always
to listen (except, tragically, through a witch after
Samuels death) and this was to provide the seeds
for his downfall. He eventually committed suicide
in battle and left the kingdom of Israel in a worse
shape than when he found it, largely due to the
presence of the pesky Philistines in the west.
Saul was succeeded by King David, a man hugely flawed
but with a deep and practical faith in God. On the
one hand he was an adulterer, a murderer and quite
cruel in the manner of his retributions to those
who crossed him. But on the other hand he was brave,
a good military commander and administrator, a poet
of genius (as the Psalms prove) and, above all,
a man aware of his sins and willing to deal with
them before God. Yet it was his shortcomings that
defined history, with regard to the land of Israel.
He was to roundly defeat the Philistines, the Moabites,
the Edomites and the Ammonites and captured a whole
swathe of Canaanite cities, as well as Jerusalem,
which was to become his capital. Yet, because of
his adultery with Bathsheba, God was to tell him,
in 2 Samuel 12:10, 'the sword shall never depart
from your house', which set the scene for a lot
of deep bother for the future 'House of David'.
This started with his very own son, the handsome
Absalom, who tried to usurp his father 's position
as King. He was so big-headed that he had a monument
made in his own honour erected near Jerusalem. Unfortunately
his big head contributed to his demise, literally.
He got it stuck in an oak tree and ended up with
three javelins in his heart, courtesy of the commander
of David's army. |
