Religions of the middle east
monday, October 14th
From Judges-Scattering

the curve from the test will be available Mon the 28th or online thurs.

Israel in the land of Canaan

Reasons for the genocide of the Canaanites:
1). To avoid religious contamination
The Canaanites worship many
fertility gods. They ended up
being some sort of cosmic sex
gods. They would project human
fertility (sex) onto good crops and
healthy livestock. So by having sex
in a sacred place they would be
blessed by these fertility gods and
have abundance in everything.
The 2 main fertility gods were
Baal and Ashteroth. They believed
that Baal would impregnate Ashteroth
(Mother Earth) through rain and then
Ashteroth would give birth to their
crops.
The Israelites were tempted by
these fertility god. Yahweh was a
good god for wandering in the desert
but now that they were living in one
spot and farming they felt like they
needed to worship the farming gods.
The Israelites started to inter-
marry with others and Yahweh started
to be more of a god of the past.
2). To avoid future political rebellion

PERIOD OF THE JUDGES
The Israelites established a cycle of righteousness:
1).Israel worships other gods
2).Yahweh sends foreign oppressors
(Duet.28)
3).Israel repents
4).Judge sent as deliverer
5).Judge dies (Israel is a confederation
of 12 tribes, with no line of
authority. After a judge dies no one
really takes over)
6).Israel forgets
7).Israel worships foreign gods
Ex. Ehud (Judges chp.3:12-30)
Ehud is sent as a deliverer for the Israelites. He goes to Eglon, king of the moabites and secretly kills him. Then he leads the Israelites in battle against the moabites and they are freed.

Samson (judges 13)
Samson is a Nazerite(num.6), which means he is dedicated to the service of Yahweh. Given incredible strength.
He decides he wants to marry out side of the faith to a woman from Timnah. God decides he is going to have Samson stood up at the alter so that Samson will wage war against the Philestines. At the wedding Samson tells a riddle that he is sure no one will know the answer to but his wife to be tells the people what the answer is. Which is honey in the carcass of a lion.
Then Samson decides to hook up with Delilah. He eventually tells her the secret of his strength and he is caught and his eyes poked out. Then he kills a bunch of them at a celebration they are having because they caught Samson.

KINGS

Saul:
First king appointed by Samuel who is Saul.
Saul is the best king that Yahweh could give the Israelites. He is strong, handsome and charismatic. the only problem is he is disobedient. He loses his kingship by trying to use the priesthood to make an animal sacrifice. Then he is told to kill all the Amalekites, but he keeps the king alive and some of his soldiers bring back some of the livestock. Loses all sanity and kills himself.

David:
Despite his faults David made a wonderful king. He united Israel. He was promised an everlasting kingdom.
He has an affair with a married woman and then she gets pregnant. So he has her husband killed and he then marries her. Because of this affair David loses his first son with Bathsheba, his son Absolom rebels against him and his wives were eventually taken away.David repents and comes back to Yahweh

Solomon:
he is known for his wisdom. he wrote the books of Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon and Proverbs. Built a temple to Yahweh that stood until 70 A.D. He had a lot of wives.

Reheboam:
The kingdom of Israel is split under him for two reasons.
1). He threatens them with large public works projects
2). Religious reasons found in 1 kings 11:11-end
Israel then splits. Ten tribes go with Jereboam and Judah and part of Benjamin go with Reheboam. In 722 B.C. the Northern kingdom (the ten tribes) falls to Assyria. In 586 B.C. the Southern kingdom falls to Babylon. In 1948 Isreal is restored as a nation
LINK TO KABALLAH WEBSITE ON HIS WEB PAGE


CHANGE UNDER THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY

There was a decreasing emphasis on the temple and animal sacrifices because a large part of the jews could not make it to the one temple in jerusalem to sacrifice
There was then an increased emphasis on personal worship, scriptures, rabbi's, and synagogues.

JOB

the book poses the question why do bad things happen to good people?

the answer:
Don't question Yahweh
We cannot understand Yahweh's perspective
Duet 28 vs. Job