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The Hebrew Monarchy
Kings, Priests, Prophets and
Sages
Having conquered and
subdued the people who were there, the Hebrew people and their kings
ruled the "Land of Canaan" for the some six to seven hundred years
-
First king: Saul
- died in battle along with his son and heir (seen as a punishment for their
going astray)
-
Second king: David,
appointed and anointed by God through the Judge/Prophet Samuel [see 1
Samuel 16:1-13]; envisioned a great Temple to house the Ark of the
Covenant and serve as a permanent place for making sacrificial offerings of
atonement to God [see 2 Samuel
7:1-17]
-
Third king: David’s
son Solomon actually built the Temple in Jerusalem [see 1 Kings
ch.
5, 6 & 9:1-9]
-
The Temple structure
had three chambers, only the High Priest could enter the innermost
"Holy of Holies" to make the offerings (such blood offerings -
animal sacrifices - had been made by the Hebrews since the time of
Abraham, it was a common practice in most ancient religions before then).
-
Animal sacrifice
continued as a Jewish practice until the final destruction of the Temple
by the Romans in 70 CE
Priests
(Kohanim) were a hereditary role, originating with Aaron, the brother of
Moses. They were:
-
the keepers of
sanctuaries
-
the deliverers of
sacred oracles (the casting of lots - divination)
-
safeguards of sacred
tradition through the teaching of moral precepts to the people
-
leaders of worship and
sacrifice
During this period, neither
the kings, the priests, nor the people were without sin. The Bible reads like a
soap opera. The people, in their settled complacency, mixed with and
incorporated too much from the people of the land who worshipped other Gods.
During the 8th - 6th cent.
BCE, prophets came into the picture more and more to bring warnings of
impending punishment from God for this lack of dedication. But prophets are not
fortune tellers. [see the Book of
Jonah]
-
They are spokesmen for
God, reformers of society
-
They speak to present
needs, sometimes to the near future (they warn of what will happen if the
people do not heed their message)
-
They call people to
moral responsibility and they call Kings and Priests back to leadership
under God
Another group of religious
leaders of the time were sages.
-
Sages were wisdom
seekers and teachers
-
they did not deal with
ritual activity as the priests did, nor did they concern themselves with
ethical and theological issues as did the prophets
-
their concern was for
successful living in accordance with the will of God.
Most kings had advisors of
sages and/or prophets. But apparently they failed to follow the advice given.
Indeed, the punishment
warned of came in the form of another historic event: first the kingdom was
divided with ten tribes in the north ("Israel") and two remaining in
the south, near Jerusalem ("Judah" [from which "Jew" is
derived])
The infidelity continued
and, over the course of time and history a variety of powerful foreign peoples
came to rule the land
Exile:
another transitional period (key event #2)
-
First the Assyrians
drove the ten northern tribes out of the land (the 10 "lost
tribes" of Israel)
-
Then the Babylonians
came into power, exiled the remaining southern tribes (the "Jews")
into Babylonia, and destroyed the Temple [see Psalm
137:1-6].
-
In Exile, one of the
greatest Prophets spoke (2nd
Isaiah), foretelling the restoration of
the Jewish people and homeland and the return of self-rule through the
restoration of the kingly line of David (origin of Messianic beliefs)
-
The Jews remained
exiled for almost 50 years (586-538 BCE) until the Persians came into rule
and the Persian King Cyrus allowed them to return to the "Promised
Land" (thus he was heralded as the expected Messiah - the prophecy was
originally intended to refer to near future events, not events hundreds or
thousands of years later)
-
However, many Jews did
not return - after 50 years, Babylon had become "home" to them.
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