A Woman, A Nail, And A Hammer

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.

Desperate to escape the despotic government, many people from Judah turned to false gods and idolatry.6 Pleading to God for rescue from such an immoral, faithless place, Habakkuk learned that the situation of Judah would be rectified in time.7 God said that He had prepared a chastising rod and that Babylon would be the avenging instrument of the just Judeans.8 After the Babylonians expelled Jehoiakim from the throne, God emancipated the Judeans and relieved the heinous social situation. In the end, Habakkuk knew that the just Israelite would not perish from the calamities of the Babylonian attacks;9 he knew that righteousness and faith would prevail. Instead of rectifying the situation at once, the Chaldean empire took control and continued to treat the Judeans harshly. Furthermore, Habakkuk became angry and questioned God again. Nevertheless, he heeded to the previous words of God and kept his faith. Before humanity lost faithfulness, Habakkuk needed to spread this message throughout the empire to save the Judeans. Habakkuk had to extend the word of God to all oppressed people, so he wrote in a style the Israelites could grasp.

About 500 years after the death of Abraham, his descendants through Isaac were living in Egypt as slaves. Genesis 37 to 50 tells the story of how this came about. The 10 oldest sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob disliked their younger brother Joseph so much that they found a way to sell him to traders who in turn sold him to an Egyptian officer as a slave. In his new land, Joseph went through a series of ups and downs and eventually became the prime minister of Egypt, the highest official under the king. God enabled Joseph to foresee an approaching time of famine, and used him to store up food and then distribute it during the famine. His political position made it possible for him to settle his father's family in Egypt's most fertile territory. Here they prospered for many years. However, the time came when the leaders of Egypt began to view the rapidly growing Israelite community as a threat. As a result, they made slaves of the Israelites, treating them with ever-increasing harshness. Finally, desperate because the descendants of Jacob continued to multiply, they issued an order that all their male babies be destroyed at birth. The first 12 chapters of Exodus tell the story of how the Lord responded to the cries of His people. He miraculously provided Moses to be their leader, sent 10 plagues on the Egyptians, helped the Israelites celebrate their first Passover, and led them out of the land of bondage. It appears that as they left for Canaan, they had no

The Jewish were led to Israel by one of their patriarchs, Abraham, around 1950 B.C.E. Throughout time, the Israelites were captured numerous times by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Phoenicians. The

people and created the state of Israel. This was not accepted well by either group of people. The

Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did Hashem let us get defeat ? Let us bring the ark of Hasham covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us  of our enemies.”

In opening a defense of the conquest of Canaan we must look into the Israelites history, and see how God had formed them, and why they felt called to conquer the inhabitants of Canaan. According to the Old Testament scripture the land of Canaan had been promised by the Creator of the Universe to the Israelites in Genesis 17:8, in which God tells Abraham the father of the nation Israel, “And I will give

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” God makes an extensive covenant to Abram, declaring that he will become a great nation. Little does Abram know, this is the dawn of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen

Indeed, He had called them out as His Chosen People. All of this was part of the Israelites cherished history. But you can’t live in the past. History has its place, but it must be kept in its place. The Israelites were challenged not to think that their greatest victories with the Lord were behind them. Isaiah’s prophecy charged them to forget the past…its comfortable familiarities, and even its shortcomings and disappointments. It was true that the Lord had brought them through the Red Sea, but He was also prepared to take them through the wilderness. Isaiah commanded the Israelites to look ahead, and he prophesied that God was going to do a new thing!

God wanted to Hebrews to be let free from Egypt. To accomplish this God sent ten plagues to Egypt. At this time Moses was the leader of the Hebrews. Moses led his people out of Egypt and into the desert. They wondered the desert for 40 years until they found the land that God had promised them. Joshua led the Hebrews to take over the land from the people who lived there before the Hebrews were

When the Hebrew peoples lost everything and entered into captivity to Babylon, they were a lost and floundering nation. “After the days of Solomon, the history of Israel was a story of increasing apostasy and judgement” (Clowney, 2013, p. 185). Despite their breaking of the covenants, and sinning against God in the worst ways, God did not abandoned them. He was very unhappy, and sent many prophets to speak His words to try to bring them back into relationship with Him, then God sent judgements down upon them. However, through these judgements, He kept to His promise to Abraham to ultimately bless the nations of Israel. (Clowney, 2013, p. 193) When they were allowed by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem (Arnold & Beyer, 2008, p. 58), with permission

The God of Israel was no longer linked exclusively to Israel or the land of Palestine.

Turning to 2 Chronicles 7:14, Short read, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

After the division of the kingdom, many Israelites experienced displacement, loss and trauma when they were exiled to Assyria and Babylon, and even when some of them returned to the land, life was never the same (e.g. 2 Kings 24:14-16; but see also Jeremiah 29:4-7).

Deborah, a Hebrew prophetess and the fourth judge of Israel birth place and background genealogy is unknown; however, Deborah and her husband, Lapidoth home was located between Bethel and Ramah in the hill county of Ephraim. Deborah’s role was a justice to the peace, a judge. She was the only female judge of her time. Her court session was held under a Palm Tree were people would come and settle disputes. Deborah constuted with God before making any dicision she had to make.