Three significant events in the life of the People of God
A description of three significant events and turning points in the life of a people. These events help shape Israel's identity and faith in God.
The three important events in the life of Israel as a people:
- The Exodus
- David
- The Exile
1st Turning point - The Exodus: around 1250 BC
The Exodus was a liberating event for the life of Israel as a people. After being enslaved for many years, Yahweh raised a prophet in the name of Moses, to lead the people out of oppression in Egypt into the promised land. As the people left Egypt and went through the desert in the direction of Palestine, the Egyptian army went in close pursuit. The people reached the Red Sea, but was caught at an impasse. It was then that Moses implored Yahweh to help the Israelites cross the Red Sea into freedom. For "the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." [Exodus 14:21-22]
The people of Israel were able to cross the Red Sea but the Egyptians were destroyed by the receding of the waters. As the people slowly settled after the escape from the Egyptians, the band of tribes were made as one People, through a covenant made with Yahweh, and with Moses as their prophet. The covenant was: that Yahweh would give a new way of life, and a promise, to lead them into Canaan if they would obey His commandments [the 10 commandments or decalogue] and be their God.
2nd Turning point - David: around 1000 BC
As the people arrived in Canaan, the Israelite tribes settled and struggled to keep their new God-given identity and to achieve unity as a nation. This they were able to do through a king, David. David succeeded, through Yahweh's anointing, in making one great nation out of the northern tribes of Judah and the southern tribes.
David was a king loved by his people. As time went on, the kings of the Israelite people became of lesser quality than David. This is why the people look back to the reign of David as a reference point for the hope of another king like him, a "new David". Bethlehem, David's birthplace, and Jerusalem, his city, also became signs of hope in the minds of prophets and the People.
As the reign of David and his son, Solomon, were over, the nation soon split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. After 200 years of independent existence, the northern kingdom was conquered and devastated by the Assyrians.
3rd Turning point - Exile: 587-538 BC
The independent existence of the southern kingdom lasted for about 400 years. It too was conquered, but this time by the Babylonians. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and deported tens of thousands of people to Babylonia. This was the beginning of the Exile.
The people Israel lived in exile for about 50 years. Although they were in danger of losing their cultural identity to the Babylonians, they did not. The Exile was turned into a kind of "retreat", a time of profound reflection and purification of their faith.
Then God worked a miracle through the person of, Cyrus, the Persian, who led his powerful armies against the Babylonians. He permitted the Israelite people to return to their land and rebuild their temple. This amazing turn of events came to be thought of as a "new exodus" - another journey of the people through the desert and back into the land God had given to His people.
Related resources:
- "Understanding the Old Testament", by Bernhard W. Anderson "Journey: Volume I - Torah", by Msgr. Marcel Gervais
- The Promised Land: Introductory Article
- The Promised Land: Three Theories of the Canaan Conquest
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