I) Why the Hebrews seem unimportant
A) Never had an empire that was dominant of Mesopotamia
B) Made no contributions to art, science, math or medicine
C) on the surface they look very unimportant
1) In the big scheme they have a great impact
II) Main Periods of the Hebrews
A) Patriarchs (2000-1600)
1) Abraham is the father of the Hebrews
i) was originally a polytheist
ii) was told by god to leave the land of his
ancestors
iii) he was told to worship only one god
iv) god told him that he would give him present
day Israel if he worship him
v) was Abraham significant?
a) successful financially
b) clan leader
c) equivalent to Ron Rivett ( local
fame, but not outside his community)
d) he and his wife have a son Isaac
1) long line of descendants
that became important people
2) Isaac had 12 sons who
started the 12 tribes of the Hebrew people
3) this had a great effect
upon subsequent civilizations
B) Egypt
1) one Hebrew was able to become successful in Egypt,
shows that the Hebrews at first were just normal people
2) Hebrews go from normal status to slavery due to the
change in Egyptian attitudes towards foreigners
3) Egyptians oppress the Hebrews
i) Egyptians tried to wipe out all Hebrew
males
ii) story lives on in oppressed peoples minds
even today
C) Exodus / Conquest of Cannan
1) Moses
i) raised by the pharroah's family
ii) Moses has a royal name
iii) goes into exile for 40 years
iv) Then lead the people out of slavery and
Egypt, provided physical security
a) has to create a working society
from scratch
1) creates some of
the finest laws ever seen by ancient civilizations, ethical guidance
2) provides worship
for people, (tabernacle) emotional fulfillment
i) people
who worship together / stay together
2) Joshua
i) begins to conquer some land
ii) conquer the Cannanites
a) cannanites were a civilization
that was very unmoral and provided weak ethical guidance
b) they were wealthy though
c) some Hebrews adopt their
ways
d) society begins to fail
due to the worship of Cannanite gods, lack of emotional fulfillment
D) Judges
1) worship of Cannanite gods kills the society
2) weakness allows them to become oppressed
3) complete moral breakdown, no ethical guidance
i) everyone did what they wanted - no strong
laws
ii) story of Benjamin tribe vs 11 other tribes
a) shows a breakdown of ethical guidance
4) on the brink of extinction
5) Samuel
i) returns the worship of one god
ii) wins military victories
iii) Appoints kings to rule
E) United Monarchy
1) Saul
i) was a bad king
2) David
i) begins to conquer a lot of land (making Hebrews
wealthy and powerful)
ii) came close to dominating all of Mesopotamia
3) Solomon ( time of peace, good economy, made Hebrews very
wealthy)
i) good things about Solomon
a) built a huge temple for worship, provided
emotional fulfillment
ii) mistakes of Solomon
a) wives
1) in order to get support from
the people, he married important mens daughters
2) marries women for diplomatic
reasons
i) even marries the
daughter of the pharaoh
3) ends up with 700 wives and
300 concubines = 1000 women to make happy
4) never found a woman that he
loved
5) had to keep wives happy for
diplomatic reasons
i) he buys his wives
expensive things
ii) pharraohs daughter
misses her religion, so he builds her a temple
iii) must build many
other temples for his other wives also (foreign gods)
iv) Solomon begins
to worship the gods of his wives
v) angers many people
in Hebrew land, creates confusion, and destroys unity of Hebrews
6) temples were very expensive
to build
i) had
to resort to forced labor to make temples, bad for ethical guidance
F) Divided Monarchy
1) Israel is beaten up by the Syrians
2) Judah is beat by another civilization
3) Hebrews become dominated by the Persians, then the
Romans
4) Romans beat up on the Hebrews
i) Hebrews scatter throughout the world
ii) 2000 years later they still exist, and
regroup to try a civilization again
*main point - Hebrews don't go away and make contributions to many
civilizations and give hope to many more