Expert: LEBoyd - 9/12/2008

Question
Would you please give me a brief overview of Israel's history down through the various period of their history since they began as a nation up to the restoration period. Their faithfullness/unfaithfulness and God's response right through.

Thanks.
Jackson Kiuk

Answer
Jackson,

First, I'd like to apologize for being late on the response.  I am in the Houston area and Ike took us out for awhile.

The history of the Israelites is very extensive and several ups/downs with God in respect to faithfulness.

I don't know how detailed you want for an answer.  I'll begin with a short overview, but compare it to the Old Testament and you see it's not very detailed.

Abram/Abraham - first faithful to God, Grandfather of Jacob/Israel.
Isaac - The son of the promise to Abram, faithful.
Jacob - the twin of Esau (although not identical).  He was renamed Israel.  He had 12 sons, generally the 12 tribes of Israel.  However, Joseph (his 11th son) has two sons, Mannasa and Ephraim.  These two become "tribes" and Levi becomes the tribe of priests, which is how you actually have 13 tribes.  Levi is special and generally is not counted as a tribe.
Joseph - saves the family by interpreting Pharaoh's dream and becoming the second-in-command during the 7-year famine.  He is responsible for getting the Israelites to Egypt.  This is about 1850 BC.

1850BC - 1450BC (all these dates are rough/rounded) Israel goes to Egypt and then becomes enslaved by the Egyptians.  Moses is born around 1530BC.  He is raised as an Egyptian prince, kills an Egyptian soldier, flees the country, returns 40 years later and delivers the Israelites from slavery.  This is the parting of the Red Sea and the Ten Commandments.  They travel to the edge of the promise land, send in spies but they return to say the people cannot be overthrown - except for Caleb and Joshua.

1450BC - 1410BC This is the 40 year wanderings in the desert for the punishment of not trusting God.

1410BC - 1200BC This is the period of the Judges.  Samson, Gidean and Deborah are some of the better known judges.  The people are off and on faithful/unfaithful.  Generally, the problem of unfaithfulness is idolatry - worshipping the gods of the people around them.

@1100BC begins the period of the Kings.  You have Saul, David and Solomon.  The kingdom expands and becomes its largest under Solomon.

@1000BC begins the divided kingdom.  When Solomon dies, two sons split the kingdom.  The kings are more often not faithful, with idolatry the primary sin.

@700BC is the end of the Northern Kingdom.  It is conquered by the Assyrians.  God says this is because of their unfaithfulness.

@585BC is the end of the Southern Kingdom.  Again, this is because of their unfaithfulness (idolatry) and they are taken to Babylon.   Daniel is probably the best known taken by the Babylonians, although he was taken in the first assault in around 615BC.

@815BC Cyrus the Persian/Mede sends the first Israelites back to Israel.  After the slavery by the Babylonians, the Israelites do not have any recorded problem with idolatry.

For the next 350 years, the Israelites are generally faithful.  There are many prophets during this period.

During the next 450 years they appear to be somewhat faithful.  They stay in Canaan, but are under the rule of the Medes/Persians until 333BC when Alexander the Great captures them.

Around 165BC, the Romans take them.  (This is one date I'm very rough on remembering.)

Of course, we come to Jesus (probably born around 4BC on our calendar) and dies in around 30 BC.

By AD67, the Romans have had enough of the Jews and have wiped out most of them and now lays siege on Jerusalem and Masada.  By AD70, the Jews are wiped out.  At this time, all of the Jewish official documents of nearly 2,000 years of history are destroyed by the Romans.  Most importantly, all of the heritage documents are destroyed.  They Jews can never know whether they are really Jewish, or from which tribe they come.

For the next 1200 years or so, there are groups of people who are Jewish and are spread around the globe.  They get together, and when they do, the governments disperse them.

Around AD1250 (if I remember correctly), there is a large group enslaved by the Spanish.

I think you know the rest of their important dates.

Hope this helps.