In many ways it was like a marriage. There were promises—covenants they called them. And a sheer determination to make the marriage work—to make it last forever. Yet, this particular marriage was like no other; it was the marriage of a God and His people—of the Hebrew God Yahweh with the children of Israel. You might say that the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament, provides the recorded history of this ancient marriage. It traces the love story between Israel and her God, a story that continues today in the lives of all those who look to the Holy Scriptures for inspiration, peace, and guidance.
THE FIRST COVENANT
The Old Testament could be described as the written story of the making, breaking, and renewal of God's love covenant with His people. The first holy man to make a covenant with Him was Abram, the father of the Hebrew nation. In the land of Mesopotamia, almost nineteen centuries before the birth of Christ, God promised Abram a beautiful land to the southward, where he and his children could establish a great nation that would someday extend to the far corners of the earth. Literally transformed by his encounter with God, who renamed him Abraham (or the "Father of Many Peoples"), he obediently journeyed to the land of Canaan and settled there, teaching his family to love and follow the God who had appeared to him.
For generations to come, Abraham's tribe passed down by word of mouth the story of their family's mutual promise and commitment to God. But over the centuries, the covenant with God was all but forgotten by Abraham's descendants when they migrated to Egypt to save themselves from starvation. In Egypt, as in Canaan, they were tempted to be unfaithful to the God of Abraham—and to worship instead local fertility gods and the Pharaoh King god. Eventually enslaved and oppressed by the Egyptians, the Israelites longed to be reunited with their God and to return home as a free people.
THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT AND THE SINAI COVENANT
As would happen time and again in Israelite history when covenant promises were broken and situations became desperate, a new leader arose to remind the Jewish people of their promises to God through the establishment of a new covenant. The leader, who appeared in the thirteenth century B.C., was Moses.
With the Pharaoh's troops thundering behind him, Moses boldly led thousands of his people out of Egyptian captivity toward the Red Sea. There, in a wondrous rescue that would become part of the Scriptural tradition of the Hebrew people forever, Yahweh divided the waters of the Red Sea and led His people to safety, before the waters closed over the heads of the Egyptian troops.
In the wake of this unforgettable release from bondage, the children of Israel moved forward with new confidence that Yahweh truly loved them and that they were His special people. Yet as they slowly trekked through the arid Sinai Desert, short on both food and water, they began to doubt whether God would continue to care for them. As their doubts grew stronger and their complaints more intense, they challenged, almost daily, Moses' ability to lead them.
Just as it seemed the people had lost faith altogether, Yahweh gave them clear signs of His continuing presence. Sweet and delicious manna appeared every morning. And flocks of quail periodically descended in the desert and provided food for the hungry Israelites. And then, when they finally arrived at the oasis of Sinai, came the most momentous sign of all—the appearance of Yahweh Himself in their midst. And with Yahweh's appearance came His Ten Commandments, the divine laws by which the Hebrew people were to rule their lives. Moses also presented a full body of more specific rules for living—known to later generations as simply "the Law." Of all these rules and laws, only the Commandments were written down—inscribed by Yahweh Himself on tablets of stone.
The rest of the Law was remembered only in the hearts of the people, who sometimes obeyed the requirements of the Law, sometimes rebelled against them, but in any case repeated them faithfully to their children generation after generation—until the Law was finally written down, along with the rest of the Exodus story, over three centuries later.
In a solemn ceremony celebrated by a quiet meal on or near Mount Sinai, Yahweh sealed a new covenant with His people—speaking directly to Moses as their representative. It was, in a sense, a marriage covenant between God and His people, showing Yahweh's unending devotion to them and His promise of all good things to come.
THE PROMISED LAND AND THE COVENANT AT SHECHEM
After their desert wanderings in the Sinai and the death of Moses, about 1250 B.C., and in sight of the Promised Land, Joshua became the military and spiritual leader of the Hebrew people. Convinced that Yahweh was fighting with them right on the battlefield, they employed guerrilla tactics to conquer the land west of the Jordan River, the southern hills, and finally the northern hill country of Canaan.
Basking in the glow of their brilliant victories over the sophisticated Canaanite people, whom the Hebrews had all but exterminated, Joshua summoned the twelve tribes of Israel to a momentous meeting at Shechem. There the fiery leader laid down an ultimatum to his people. It was time, he said, to make an all-out commitment to Yahweh. He reminded them of all that Yahweh had done for them—delivering them from bondage in Egypt and giving them a decisive victory in Canaan. Yet after all these blessings, the people had prostituted themselves by adopting the fertility gods of the Canaanite people. This practice could continue no longer. So Joshua demanded they make an immediate choice: worship the one true God or be led into doom and destruction by false gods. The people did not hesitate—they chose to wed themselves to Yahweh forever. The covenant that the Hebrew people made with Yahweh at Sinai was renewed at Shechem, but with a whole new dimension—a fresh commitment literally to live the Law in their new land within a theocratic community of faith, a Tribal Confederacy that would fulfill Abraham's vision for his descendants.
From the time of Moses through the Tribal Confederacy, the elements of this faith were transmitted orally, in the forms of stories, hymns, prophetic oracles, poetry, and wise sayings known as proverbs. Although the art of writing had been practiced in the Fertile Crescent as early as 2000 B.C., these oral traditions weren't written down until later.
The poetic psalms clearly sprang from deep feelings toward Yahweh. There were hymns of exultant praise, laments that reached out to Yahweh from the depths of despair, and songs expressing the pure joy of life in Yahweh's courts. There were caustic aphorisms chiding the Israelites for their rebellion against God, and long adventure stories—or sagas—celebrating the heroic deeds of the Hebrew patriarchs. And there were thousands of narratives—stories about creation, primeval history, and ritual and cultic practices of the Hebrews. Where did these stories come from? From both Hebrew and non-Hebrew sources, from as far away as ancient Mesopotamia and as close by as the rich mythical tradition of the local Canaanites.
THE COVENANT OF KING DAVID
We learn from the Old Testament that Israel struggled long against marauding attacks from without and the allurements of Baal worship from within. Recognizing the need for stability and acting on his authority as spiritual leader of his people, Samuel appointed and consecrated the first king of Israel, a passionately devoted servant of Yahweh named Saul. Endowed by Yahweh with the charismatic spirit of leadership, Saul led his countrymen in an all-out resistance to the greatest military threat facing them at that time —the Philistines. These seafaring people from southern Europe had terrorized the area around the Aegean Sea for years and were determined to capture it as part of their ever-growing empire. Although Saul was at first successful in thwarting the Philistine invasion, he later developed emotional problems that discredited him in the eyes of his people. It was clear to all and especially to Samuel, Saul's spiritual adviser, that the special charisma had departed from Saul.
As it became clearer that Saul was no longer competent to lead his people as king, a briliant young military leader came forward to fill the power vacuum. His name was David. He was a man of myriad talents, whom the people loved: he wrote poetry and was a musician, a skillful politician, and a military strategist. Above all, he was committed to making Israel a great nation under Yahweh. Shortly after becoming king of Israel, David drove the Philistines from the land, earning the undying devotion of the Hebrew people. Then he moved swiftly to consolidate the tribes into a strong nation. Jerusalem became the center of worship under David, who saw to it that Baal worship was wiped out.
David's son Solomon succeeded him on the throne, leading the nation to glorious new accomplishments. Solomon extended the national boundaries through the use of force, built an enormous and exquisite temple dedicated to Yahweh, and built himself a glamorous and imposing palace. Although he was known for his wisdom, Solomon lacked the spiritual character of his father. And he was all too willing to be broad-minded about combining Baal worship and Yahweh worship. Solomon pampered himself like an oriental despot, forcing thousands of citizens into hard labor on his building projects. According to the Biblical account, written much later, Yahweh ended up denouncing Solomon and removing him from the throne.
David and Solomon inspired an exuberant nationalism that prompted one devoted author to write the great epic account of Israel's history that forms the backbone of the Hebrew Bible. This anonymous writer is known simply as the Yahwist. His magnificent prose epic celebrates Israel's covenant faith by telling, from Abraham's day forward, the story of Israel's commitment to Yahweh. As a prologue to this history of Israel and the covenant community, the Yahwist provides a vivid account of primeval history ranging from the story of Adam and Eve to the story of the tower of Babel. He reaches way beyond the Jewish tradition to ancient Mesopotamian myths in compiling these stories.
The guiding theme of the Yahwist's account of Hebrew history, found in the first five books of the Old Testament (known as the Pentateuch), is God's promise to make Israel a great and powerful nation—a nation that would be a light to all nations, the special agent for blessing humanity in Yahweh's universal plan.
None of the Yahwist's stories were new to the Israelites, but his talent for assembling them in a compelling epic framework was brilliant and revolutionary. And it was around this framework that the Hebrews would continue to build their
Scriptures for centuries to come.
KEEPING THE FAITH AS THE NORTHERN KINGDOM CRUMBLES
With the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel quickly split into Northern and Southern sectors—with the North ruled by an old enemy of Solomon's named Jeroboam, and the South ruled by Solomon's son Rehoboam. In the North, Jeroboam did his best to consolidate his kingdom by setting up new shrines for worship and inspired his people with new nationalistic pride. He didn't mind making compromises with the Baal worshipers, though, and even set up some golden bulls in Yahweh's new shrines.
To his credit, Jeroboam inspired an anonymous author—known simply as the "Elohist," since he refers to God as Elohim—to write an epic history of the Israelite nation, written from the Northern Kingdom's point of view. Drawing on ancient oral traditions as did the Yahwist, the Elohist rehearses the sacred history of the chosen people from the call of Abraham and Israel, through the Exodus, and on to the conquest of Canaan. But, unlike the Yahwist's history, this epic exalts Moses (not David) as the supreme prophet of Israel's history, arguing for the strictest obedience to the Law and covenant that he established. In time, the two accounts became so intertwined that it's now hard to separate them as they appear in the first five books of the Bible.
The next two hundred years saw rough times for the children of Israel. There was almost constant civil war between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.
Against these difficult odds, a line of great prophets poured their spiritual energies into helping the Hebrew people keep the faith—and remain true to their covenants with Yahweh.
The first of these men of God—a prophet who came to the Northern Kingdom from the desert in the early ninth century—was Elijah the Tishbite. Clad in a bizarre haircloth garment and looking out of place in the sophisticated Israelite culture, this legendary prophet denounced King Ahab for tolerating the Baal worship of his foreign wife Jezebel and building her a grandiose temple dedicated to Baal.
Elijah's was a rough-and-tumble brand of prophecy that minced no words and demanded wholesale punishments for violating Israel's covenant with God. But he showed the Hebrew people, in an unforgettable way, that Yahweh was not a nature god—not a god in the wind or the fire or the earthquake—but a wholly spiritual God who spoke gently to him in "a still small voice."
Following in Elijah's footsteps in the Northern Kingdom was another legendary prophet—Elisha. The account of Elisha's ministry in II Kings speaks of the prophet's remarkable spiritual feats—raising a child from the dead, and healing Naaman, a Syrian general, of leprosy.
With the buildup of Assyrian power in the middle of the eighth century, two more prophets emerged to chastise and comfort Israel. One was Amos, the first prophet actually to write down his insights.
The other was Hosea. Hosea perceived himself as successor to Moses and modern mediator of Israel's covenant with Yahweh. Anguished that Israel had so flagrantly broken this covenant, he forecast that God's revenge would be swift and terrible unless Israel renewed and deepened her covenant with Yahweh immediately. The doom Hosea envisioned was not long in coming. In 721 B.C., after a brutal siege of the city of Samaria, Assyria conquered Israel decisively and deported over twenty-seven thousand Hebrew people to Persia. And, the Northern Kingdom was repopulated with foreigners—colonists from Syria, Babylonia, and Elam. The dream of the great Israelite nation seemed lost forever.
THE FALL OF THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM
With the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the only hope for carrying forward the covenant faith lay with the Southern Kingdom of Judah. There, in Jerusalem, the prophet Isaiah stepped forward to advise King Ahaz and console the people as they strove to ward off the Assyrian threat that had crushed Israel. Over his forty-year ministry, which began in 742 B.C., Isaiah wrote the hymns, oracles, and narratives that make up the first thirty-nine chapters of the book of Isaiah.
All that Isaiah could envision for Judah was the doom and misery that would descend upon the land in the Judgment Day of Yahweh, when God would sue His people for their breach of faith. At that time, he prophesied that the destruction of Judah would be complete except for a small remnant of righteous people who would help revive David's line of kingship, which God had covenanted to preserve forever. Isaiah promised also that a special child would be born to the people, a Messiah, who would bring salvation to the Hebrews and assure them of God's presence with them always. This would be the sign of Immanuel. When Isaiah realized that the Hebrew people didn't want to hear his message, he withdrew from society and wrote his words down in the Book of Testimony that's found between Isaiah 6:1 and 9:7.
Later, a commanding message also came from the prophet Jeremiah, whom Yahweh commissioned to sue Judah for divorce because of her infidelity to the covenant. Acting as Yahweh's attorney in the case, Jeremiah explained to the people that outward obedience to Yahweh wasn't enough. A change of heart—a "circumcision of the heart"—was needed.
Judah's new king, Josiah, was so impressed with Jeremiah's message that he threw all the Assyrian images out of the Temple in 621 B.C. As he did this, a remarkable discovery was made in the Temple—The Book of the Torah. This book turned out to be Moses' law code, which had apparently been lost for centuries. Thrilled by this find, Josiah immediately summoned his subjects to the Temple to hear the book read aloud for the very first time and to renew their commitment to the ancient covenant.
As part of the reform brought about by Josiah's discovery of the Torah, an anonymous writer, known simply as the Deuteronomic writer, composed a history of Israel and Judah from the death of Solomon in 922 B.C. to the revolution of Jehu in 842 B.C. From his point of view, all of Israel's problems came from her disobedience to the Law. This material can be found in Joshua and First and Second Kings. In addition, this same writer—or team of writers—summarized and celebrated the Law and teaching of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, which was to become the foundation of Hebrew doctrine.
Not everyone was pleased, however, with Josiah's reforms or with the work of the Deuteronomic writer. The prophet Nahum, for example, said that Israel didn't deserve her punishments. It simply wasn't fair that she should be swallowed up by the Assyrians. And the prophet Habakkuk asked Yahweh how long Israel's troubles would last. He just couldn't accept the Deuteronomic writer's view of Jewish history as a matter of being rewarded or punished by God for good or bad behavior.
Initially, Jeremiah was pleased with the Deuteronomic reforms, but toward the end of his forty years as a prophet he rejected them. He felt they offered a shortsighted and nationalistic view of Israel's place in history—that they encouraged obedience to the letter of the Law while overlooking the need for deep-down regeneration.
Again, warning the Hebrew people of the need for absolute obedience to the one God, prophets like Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah predicted doom and destruction if their warnings weren't heeded. The destruction finally came upon Jerusalem when in 587 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem, devastated its Temple, and forced the Hebrew people to return to Babylon with him as prisoners.
Israel's only salvation, Jeremiah knew, lay in the New Covenant he had promised—a covenant of the heart. That covenant would someday be the foundation for the restoration of Jerusalem.
The sketches in this article are from the Church History Division of The Mother Church. They are the work of two American women—Ella F. Pell and Evie A. Todd—who traveled in the Holy Land in 1875.
(Part two of "The Old Testament: a love story between God and His people" will appear next month.)
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