ISRAEL'S WALK IN HISTORY

According to scholars, around 2000 BC God the Creator appeared to Abram and commanded him to leave Mesopotamia and go to the land of Canaan, where He would make him a great nation (Acts 7: 2; Genesis 11: 31-12: 5). ). Only by a miracle would this happen, for Sarah, his wife, was barren (Genesis 11:30) and both advanced in age. But Isaac was born when Abraham was one hundred years old (Genesis 17:17). This fact is meaningful, because from this couple began a new human lineage at God's own initiative.

By that time mankind had already attained a high degree of civilization and culture, but no nation, because of sin and idolatry, was able to receive divine Revelation. The Creator then initiated with Abraham and Sarah a new offspring that had no part with that which came from Adam, since the Fall [1]. Through this new human lineage, He would enter into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, fulfilling what He said to Abraham: "... all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12: 2-3).

God was creating a holy people, that is, a separate nation to relate to and through that relationship to reveal Himself to the world. In Canaan, when they were seventy-six (Genesis 46.26), they migrated to Egypt and multiplied there, but were later made slaves of Pharaoh. About 400 years later God decided to free them from that slavery. Thus, while being gracious and merciful to the Israelites, he showed the weight of his hand on the idolatrous and enslaving society of Egypt with its plagued judgments.

During the exodus, back to Canaan, God appeared to Moses and said, "... you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites" (Exodus 19: 6). Israel was beginning to consolidate itself as a nation among others, bringing in its culture marks of divine Revelation. Initially it adopted a theocratic regime in the period of the Judges. But then came the monarchy and, with that, a process of secularization and adoption of religious practices of neighboring peoples. This process of apostasy went so deep that, to prevent Israel's destruction with the loss of its identity, God allowed the nation to be taken into new captivity.

Thus the ten northern tribes were taken captive to Assyria in the year 722 BC (2 Kings 17: 6) and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin to Babylon in 586 BC. Becoming aware of his mistakes, Israel survived and consolidated Itself in the faith of his ancestors. In the year 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia authorized the return of the Israelites to their land. Israel restored national life and worship to Yahweh, but remained under the rule of the Gentiles, empire after empire, until the arrival of the Messiah. From Malachi (c. 440 a.C.) to John the Baptist God sent no prophet to Israel.

In the reign of Emperor Caesar Augustus (Luke 2: 1), God entered history through the birth of a boy in the city of Bethlehem in the Roman province of Judea. At thirty, Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, developed his public ministry, marked by miracles and a new and original vision of the Holy Scriptures. After three years, he was arrested by the religious authorities and sentenced to death for crucifixion. During his judgment the people said, "his blood is on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27:25). In the year 70, year of the Lord, Israel was destroyed by the Roman armies and the survivors were scattered throughout the provinces of the empire.

Again Israel was homeless and scattered throughout the world. After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire, the weight of guilt for the death of Jesus was taken from the Romans and passed on to the Jews, so they were harshly discriminated against and harassed around the world. In 1948, after two thousand years of exile, it was reorganized as a state. Today, the “people of God” remain waiting for the Messiah, but in the future, according to Revelation prophecy, they will be with the Church in the Great Tribulation, when they will then be converted to Christ (Revelation 7).

Antônio Maia – M.Div.

Copyright

[1] NVI Comentada, p.25