Lesson #13
The Jews in History (Part 1)

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Reading: Genesis 37

The beginning of the story

The story of the Jews really begins with that faithfulman, Abraham. He had a son in his old age named Isaac; Isaac had a son namedJacob, who was afterwards called Israel. Jacob had twelve sons, who werethe fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The youngest but one of these sons was called Joseph, and the story of hislife, which we have in the Bible, is always exciting to read. But it ismore than a good story - it tell us about important events in the historyof the people of the Bible - the Jews. It give us, too, a wonderful exampleof the over-ruling care of God for His people.

We may remember the story of how Joseph's jealous brothers sold him as aslave; and how, after many trials, he became governor of Egypt. Then, intime of famine, his father and his brothers came down to Egypt because -thanks to Joseph, and thanks, of course, to God - there was corn in Egypt.

For a time, the Jews (also called Israelites, or children of Israel) werequite happy in Egypt. But after Joseph's death, as the number of Jews inEgypt grew more and more, the Egyptians began to oppress them, and treatthem as slaves.

Freedom for the slaves

Perhaps you know the story of how God brought theseJewish slaves out of Egypt, under the leadership of a man called Moses,and led them through a barren and deserted land to the borders of the landof Israel. On this long and dangerous journey, God fed them and cared forthem. As we read in Nehemiah 9:20-21:

"Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldestnot thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that theylacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not."

A law given by God

As they journeyed to the land God had promisedthem, they came to Mount Sinai. There something very special happened. Thepeople were told by God to gather at the foot of the mountain, and hereGod said to them:

"If ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shallbe a peculiar (special) treasure unto me above all people" (Exodus19:5)

The people said:

"All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Exodus 19:8).

Then God gave His laws to Moses, and Moses gave them to the people. Of course,they were the finest laws any nation has ever had, and if only the Jewshad kept them, they would have been the happiest people on earth.

As a sign that they were to be His people, God told them the last day ofevery week must be a holy day (holy means separate, or set apart). Thisday was to be called 'the Sabbath', and they were to rest and think aboutall God's goodness to them.

But they did not keep to God's commands. They simply could not obey themall. And that was what God knew would happen - that they would learn thatthey could not save themselves and needed God to save them (the same istrue for us too). They disobeyed God time and time again, and they did notmake the Sabbath a special day, as He had said they should.

At last they came to the land of Israel. God was their King. He gave thempriests to teach them His ways, and judges to rule over them.

The Jews demand a king

Nearly 400 years went by. The Jews became dissatisfiedand wanted a king like the nations around them. In asking for a king, theywere refusing to recognise that God was their king. When Samuel, their judge,told God how they had demanded a king, God said: "They have not rejectedthee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them"(1 Samuel 8:7).

God gave them what they wanted. You may like to read for yourself the interestingstory of the anointing of Saul, the first king of Israel. You will findit in 1 Samuel 8 and 9.

A divided kingdom

Saul was followed by the great King David, of whomyou will be hearing more in a later lesson. After a long reign of 40 years,David died, and his son Solomon became king.

Solomon was very rich; he taxed the people heavily. This made them discontented.When Solomon died, they came to his son Rehoboam, and asked him to easetheir burden. You will read, in 1 Kings 12, how Rehoboam listened to hisyoung friends, instead of taking the advice of the wise old men who hadbeen his father's counsellors.

When the people came to King Rehoboam to ask whether he would agree to theirrequest, he answered very unwisely. We read in 1 Kings 12 that the king"answered the people roughly", saying,

"My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my fatheralso chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions"(verse 14).

No wonder the people rebelled against such a king! Ten of the tribes ofIsrael went away, and formed a kingdom of their own, under a man named Jeroboam.Only Judah, the tribe to which Rehoboam belonged, and the little tribe ofBenjamin, remained faithful to Rehoboam.

So, from this time on, we have two histories, side by side, in the Bible.There is the history of the ten tribes, often spoken of as 'Israel' or theNorthern Kingdom (because they were in the northern part of the land) andthe history of the two tribes spoken of as 'Judah', or the Southern Kingdom.

The continual disobedienceof the Jews

In the first and second books of Kings we readthe sad story of how the people persistently forgot about God, and forsookHis ways. At last, things became so bad that God said He would punish thepeople, as He had warned them continually that He would, by causing themto be taken from their land as slaves. You will see from these words from2 Chronicles 36:15-16 how God had done everything He could to bring Hispeople back to His ways:

"And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers,rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people,and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despisedhis words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose againsthis people, till there was no remedy."

Punishment had to come

Such disobedience had to be punished. Israel, theNorthern Kingdom, was first take captive. The King of Assyria came and carriedthe people into Assyria, and, as a nation, they never came back to theirown land. Later, the Kingdom of Judah was taken captive by the King of Babylon.But God promised that, after 70 years, they should come back to their ownland. And many of them did. Encouraged by the prophets, they rebuilt theTemple of God in Jerusalem. The last three books of the Old Testament -Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi - were written during these days.

Between the Old and New Testaments

After these three prophets, there was a long periodof time - 400 years - during which the Jews had no direct message from God.The prophet Amos had spoken about this time. In Amos 8:11 we read:

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a faminein the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearingthe words of the Lord."

This period of 400 years comes between the last book of the Old Testamentand the first book of the New Testament. No wonder that when John the Baptistappeared, there was a great stir among the people. After hundreds of yearsof silence, God had spoken again to His people.

The greatest Jew

John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare theway for someone even greater. God was about to send His own Son to saveHis people. And so, in the land of Israel, nearly 2,000 years ago, the LordJesus Christ was born. We sometimes forget that Jesus was a Jew.

You know what happened. After hearing his words, and seeing the wonderfulthings he did, the Jews rejected Jesus. They persuaded Pilate to crucifyhim. When Pilate said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person",the Jews answered:

"His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:24-25).

They could not have committed a worse crime. They shed the innocent bloodof God's own Son. Yet, by the powerful preaching of the apostles, God gavethem another chance. Most of the Jews refused God s offer of mercy, andpunishment had to come. A dreadful punishment it was!

A people without a home

About forty years after the death of Jesus, theRoman army came and fought against the Jews. It was a time of dreadful suffering.The horrors of that war are some of the grimmest in history. The city wastaken by the Romans, and those Jews who survived were scattered among allthe nations of the earth.

God had warned the Jews long ago that this would happen if they forsookHis ways. You will read in Deuteronomy 28:64:

"The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end ofthe earth even unto the other."

And so, for nearly 2,000 years, the Jews had no land of their own. Worsethan this, they have suffered many terrible persecutions, and the dreadfulcurses of Deuteronomy chapter 28 have been brought upon them. Some of thesepersecutions have happened within living memory. Many of us can rememberthe concentration camps of Hitler during the 1939-45 World War. Over sixmillion Jews were killed with a cruelty that shook the world. Read againDeuteronomy 28:64-67, and you will marvel that these words, written by Mosesover 3,000 years ago, have come to pass in our time.

It is a sad story, but it is not yet ended. We are bound to feel glad whenwe read from the Word of God that the ending will be a happy one.

This table may help you (the years are approximate)

1) 3,500 years ago. God brought the Jews out of Egypt, and gave themthe land of Israel to live in. He taught them His ways. Instead of showingthe nations around how God wanted them to live, they copied those wickednations.

2) 2,500 years ago. God at last punished them by sending them intocaptivity. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was brought back to the land ofIsrael after 70 years, but they still went on disobeying God.

3) 2,000 years ago. After the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews weredriven out of the land. For nearly 2,000 years they have been homeless andpersecuted.

4). Today. God is bringing them back to the land of Israel. (Youwill hear more about this in a future lesson.)

Chapters to read: Deuteronomy 28; 2 Chronicles 36: 11-23

Learn by heart: Isaiah 43:11,12