As God’s chosen people, Israel is placed squarely in the center of history and prophecy.
How is it that such a small nation with about a quarter of one percent
of the world’s population play such an important role in world events with
global coverage of its daily activities? We must turn to the Scriptures to
understand what is happening in the world today and what will take place in the
future. The best place to start is by looking at the past—when God first called
Israel to be His chosen People.
A Brief History of Israel
In the
Old Testament
Israel’s history began more than 3,500 years ago when Abraham received a
divine call to leave Ur and go to a land which God would show him. After some delay, Abraham finally entered the
land, and there Isaac, the son God had promised him, was born.
Even after God had fulfilled His promise to Abraham regarding Isaac,
Abraham himself never possessed the Promised Land but lived as a foreigner in
the Promised Land. The author of Hebrews writes,
By faith Abraham, when he was called,
obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance.
He went out, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he
stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and
Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city
that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:8-10).
Neither Abraham nor Isaac fulfill their hope of a homeland. At the
invitation of Joseph, Jacob and the people of Israel relocated to Egypt, where
they lived for hundreds of years. After much suffering and persecution, their
very existence being threatened by Pharaoh, the Jews left Egypt and began their
journey to the Promised Land with Moses as their divinely appointed leader.
After forty years in the wilderness, their pilgrimage from Egypt to the land
God had promised Abraham was completed.
The conquering of Palestine and partial occupation were recorded by
Joshua. For generations after their arrival to the Promised Land, Israel
experienced much oppression and moral deterioration. They experienced periodic
oppression by Gentile nations with occasional periods of spiritual and
political recovery led by judges God had raised up. As we read through Judges, we learn that
Israel was characterized by political anarchy during that period of their
history. The period of the judges was followed by the reign of kings, with Saul
as Israel’s first king. Under the reign of David and his son Solomon, Israel
experienced political power, with Israel reaching its highest point in terms of
wealth, glory, and prestige. It was during Solomon’s reign that much of the
Promised Land came under his sway, though not possessed.
Moral decay was again at the heart of Israel’s decline. In his disregard to God’s law regarding
marriage to pagans, Solomon ended up marrying women who did not share his
faith, which resulted in idol worship by the children who were raised by his
pagan wives. That led to God’s judgment, which led to the divided kingdoms of
Israel and Judah. The northern Kingdom of Israel was composed of ten of the
twelve tribes of Israel who persisted in apostacy with the worship of idols as
its national religion. The Assyrians took the ten tribes captive in 721 B.C.
The southern Kingdom of Judah was composed of the other two tribes of Israel.
Judah was taken captive by Babylonia about a hundred years later.
Jeremiah 29:10 says,
For this is what
the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I
will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to
this place.”
At the conclusion of the seventy years, Israel started making their way
back to their homeland with Zerubbabel as the leader of the first
expedition. Ezra records the start of
the restoration of the land and construction of the temple. We see the complete picture with Nehemiah’s
rebuilding of the walls and the restoration of Jerusalem. Israel, as a nation,
was once again in the land that God had promised Abraham.
Between the time of restoration and the time of Christ, the nation of
Israel faced several serious challenges. Alexander the Great swept over
Palestine, then they were subjected to the Seleucian rulers, and later came
under the control of the Syrians. The Maccabean revolt in 167 B.C. led to
severe persecution for the people of Israel. Then they came under the control
of the Romans when Pompey established control in 63 B.C.; they remained under
Roman control for centuries. It was during this time that Christ was born in
Bethlehem and based on Roman authority, was later crucified.
Since
Christ
In A.D. 70, the Roman general Titus ordered Jerusalem and its temple
destroyed, which led to the death of over 250,000 Jews. The Jews who remained continued to revolt
which led to the order of the desolation of Judea in A.D. 135. Fortresses were demolished and nearly a
thousand towns and villages were left in ashes.
Except for only very few who remained, the Jews were scattered to the
four winds.
From A.D. 135 through current times, the Jewish people made their homes
all over the world. The land was taken
over by the Abbasid Arabs in the 8th century. For a short period,
the Frankish crusaders were established in Palestine only to be defeated by
Saladin in 1187. The Ottoman Turks
assumed power of the land of Palestine in 1517 with the land remaining as part
of the Ottoman Empire until Turkey was defeated in World War I. Palestine was then conquered by General Allenby
in 1917. The occupation of Palestine by the British proved to be a dramatic
turning point Israel’s history.
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