understanding was something other than incomprehensible, does God recant his original actions, redouble his possessions, gives him more children, and lets him live to be one hundred forty.
It may be that since God’s will is impenetrable and it is impossible to judge his actions, that all good or evil acts are wrought with religious meanings and the mystery of iniquity will never be known to mankind. What is, is. And what will be, will be. Who can decipher God’s will? The innocent die young and the evil live long, maybe to only atone for their sins? No one really knows.
It was during the period of around 1000 B.C. to 900 B.C. that the time of the prophets had arrived. These seers with their ecstatic experiences announced the classic prophecies.
Elijah made his announcements about 850 B.C. that Yahweh was the sole sovereign in Israel and that all other gods were powerless against him. His successor was Elisha who told of God’s great and marvelous acts and assembled a group of prophets around him.
Religious wars now sprang up regularly between the wandering diviners and royal visionaries and the court prophets who were connected with the king’s sanctuaries and the ruler’s favorites were against the false prophets. These messengers of God didn’t represent any clans or kingdoms, but declared their vocation was a call from God Almighty to communicate His messages to the masses.
These seers’ divine possession was obtained by the ecstasy of exaltation and magical trances brought about by the presence of God. These prophets were endowed and displayed magical powers of divination such as restoring the dead to life, making others fall ill, foreseeing people’s future fates or feeding the masses with but a loaf of bread. The one thing in common with all, is that they announced that God was angry with Israel and would send conquerors to destroy the sinners and only the chosen people would survive the catastrophe and form the new covenant with the creator.
During this two hundred years of waiting for His people to wise up God was growing bitter over his people’s betrayal. Then about 750 B.C. He sent a shepherd named Amos to prophesize to the people of Israel. Amos wasn’t an educated rabbi who made his living prophesying. He was tending his flock when God commanded he go forth and announce that now not only Israel, but all nations were under the jurisdiction of Yahweh.
Israel had become unfaithful. The social injustices, religious infidelities and ingratitude made their worship cheap and debased. Although Israel had forgotten its history, Yahweh still treated His chosen children with more love than anger.
As the great prophets of Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel continued to attack the kings of the world, the kingdoms now started to attack each other. It is said that the Lord’s left hand directed these enemies’ destruction and catastrophes while His right hand promised the forthcoming regeneration of his people.
Although the kings and their courts never believed the prophets’ announcement that the gates of Jerusalem would fall to their enemies, in 587 B.C. the temple was burned and a large portion of the population deported. Many who witnessed the fall of the city now doubted the might of Yawheh and converted to the gods of the conquerors.
As Jerusalem was torched and burned the Babylonians captured the king, killed his sons before his eyes, plucked his eyes out from his head so he would never see another sight except the deaths of his beloved sons, and then placed him in chains and taken to Babylon for display.
Again, as God’s words had prophecies warned His promised people to remain true to His words, now the tribes of Moses had lost their land and were exiled due to their own sins of not providing justice to each other and the worshipping of false idols.
But for the faithful, the catastrophic capture of the chosen people’s land was the ultimate proof of God’s wrath and the validation of the words of the prophets who foretold of the loss of their lands and liberty.
The Diaspora of the exiled Israelites was cast into all other nations. The fallen faith now had to meet together in buildings called synagogues to discuss their plight and problems. For seventy years the Israelites, who were now called Jews, were kept in exile from Jerusalem until a kindly Persian king whose armies had defended the Babylonians granted permission for the tribes to return from exile.
Ezra was the priest who led the first contingency of Jews back to the Promised Land. The tribe had been reduced from hundreds of thousands to now but a fraction of their original force, but the small groups who did return spoke with the volume of millions about how God would deal with faithless people and false idols.
Nehemiah was next allowed to return from exile, and the king put him in charge of rebuilding the city-state walls and organizing the people who were still regularly being overrun by neighboring tribes or marauders and looted. So while Ezra was re-instituting the religious practices, Nehemiah was rebuilding the city, and as the judges and kings dealt with the foreign powers the chastised nation again started to grow.
The scriptural prophets were now held in admiration for their earlier messages about the destruction of Jerusalem. With their newly held advantage they next attacked with a vengeance any and all forms of cosmic religion. The natural world and its forces of seasons, winds, and sun and moon rhythms were denounced as idolatry. All stones, streams, foods and flowers were considered unclean and only the desert was considered clean and holy, for it was only among the sand dunes that the Israelites remained faithful to God. No longer would the sacred dimension of the fertility of foods and flowers, or the mystery of floods or droughts, or the joy of birth, or dance of song, be allowed to be celebrated or revered amongst the faithful. Only the will of God could account for the wrath or the wealth of their world.
While the Biblical books of poetry and prophecy were being written, the new nation would learn to be subservient to the invading Persians, Greeks and Romans and was now but a shadow of its former self. The great power that had been born of its pre-kingdom days and prospered during its kingdom days, now found penance during its post-kingdom days and thus was forged its character to become the nation it is today.
They had well learned the lesson … God’s will will be done.
Many prophets would be chosen to speak for God in words of picturesque poetry, proverbs or prophecy. The words of wisdom communicated from the Creator were now preserved for future generations. These books carried the history forward and would provide the answers for profound or confusing questions. The expressions of prophecy would provide only an element of foretelling the fluid future by encouraging good behavior which would be rewarded, and words of warning to those who would forget the revelations, rites and rituals of their religion. The echoes of Abraham’s and Moses’ words would forever reverberate in the prophets’ messages.
The days of reckoning for bad behavior remained in the minds of all exiled Israelites as the promised people now lived in lands that practiced polytheism or kings that crowned themselves as gods. But they retained their religious roots for the prophets’ words were read and revealed that Israel’s greatest days were still ahead.
The Old Testament draws to an end by continuously reminding the chastised citizens that only their behavior will always chart their future glory or gloom.
The New Testament time starts three or four centuries after the Israelites’ return from exile and now it was the time of Jesus of Nazareth. He was said to be the long promised Messiah foretold by Jeremiah and all the prophets.
Many people did not believe that Jesus was the “Messiah” or “The Son of David” or “The Coming One” or “The Righteous One” or even “The Son of God”. He himself used only the title “The Son of Man”. Jesus was not proclaimed to be the Messiah until His resurrection and ascension into heaven, after which his disciples could then fully understand his ministry’s messages.
The gospels recorded His life as the ultimate fulfillment of the Old Testament’s prophesies. These eye witnessed accounts begin when He reached the age of thirty except for the story of His birth and some early childhood stories about his education. Where He was or what He did during those missing years is still a mystery. Jesus was said to be descended of David who was born in Bethlehem and in His formative years raised in Galilee. He was baptized by John the Baptist who was preaching the all too familiar message that the nation