Summary: Hezekiah And Josiah

How does one read the story of Sarah and Hagar, or Jezebel and Rahab today, if one is a woman reader situated in a postcolonial society? This question animates Judith E. McKinlay’s Reframing Her: Biblical Women in Postcolonial Focus. In this text, McKinlay takes different biblical women’s narrative and gives them agency. McKinaly opens this text from both with a feminist hermeneutic and a postcolonial criticism that helps to shape the context and location for the women she will explore and also her own personal context. One of the things I most appreciated about the opening us this book is the location in which she situates herself. She is a New Zealander, a Pakeha, which is described by the people of Maori, for people who are not Maori. Her narrative becomes critical in how she shapes these biblical women who are considered outsiders from those within. Location and identity politics becomes a critical theme within this text. I can remember Historian Vincent Harding who would open his class asking everyone to identify who they were and where they were from. At the time, I never understood why that was necessarily, but as a historian, I understand to know who we are and where we are from shapes our context.

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.

The Book of Nehemiah is narrative that continues the history of the Israelites after they return from exile. Nehemiah prays to God about Jerusalem and God’s promises. Nehemiah is sent from Babylon to Jerusalem where he inspects Jerusalem’s walls. Different sections were rebuilt by different groups of people. Through prayer, they were able to complete the rebuilding even when there was opposition. Nehemiah helped the poor by summoning the priests to make the nobles and officials take an oath to follow God’s law. A genealogical record is listed of the exiles who returned. Ezra read The Book of the Law to the Israelites. The Israelites prayed to God and confessed their sins and signed the Law of God. The Levites were brought to

The surrounding nations had an influence on the people of Israel and this was not pleasing to God. They wanted a king. They wanted to be like other nations and have a leaded. A king they could see.

The prophets Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah believed that Yahweh had used the Babylonian Empire to punish the Israelites for their sins, and he therefore had the power to redeem them from captivity if they repented. The Babylonian exiles' messianic hope for a restored Judean kingdom under the leadership of a scion of the royal house of David seemed to have been justified when Cyrus the Great, after conquering Babylon in 539 BC, permitted a repatriation of subject populations and a restoration of local temples. The restored Judean commonwealth did not fully realize this hope, however, because the Persians did not allow the reestablishment of a Judean monarchy, but only a temple-state with the high priest as its chief administrator. A truly monotheistic religion developed as the God of Israel came to be seen as the God ruling universal history and the destiny of all nations (Rich 2).

King David wrestled with sin, such as adultery, family disorder, and rebellion on a national level, however he also experienced great accomplishments as well. One great achievement was the unification of Israel. "Then all the tribes of Israel went to David at Hebron and told him, "We are all members of your family. For a long time, even while Saul was our King, you were the one who really led Israel. And the Lord has told you, "You will be the shepherd of my people Israel. You will be their leader" (2 Samuel 5:3). It is here that David makes a covenant with the leaders and becomes anointed as the

The book of Isaiah has a lot of unique historical, social, and political factors to it. The prophet Isaiah prophesied during the reign of King Ahaz and Hezekiah (740-681 BC). Isaiah mainly worked during the reign of Hezekiah, However; his first narrative was under King Ahaz in 734-733 BC. In which, King Ahaz was dealing with crisis regarding foreign powers and was struggling on how to protect his people. One of main themes in the book of Isaiah is that not to trust in human power but instead one should trust in God. Isaiah prophesied under a very complicated social setting, Isaiah lived during a time of rapid corruption in the government of Israel. He preached that the government was not following God's covenant. He also preached to the people of Israel who rebelled against God’s covenant. The prophet Isaiah also guided the leaders of Israel during very tough political times.

The Syro-Ephraimite War that occurred in 736 BCE -732 BCE included kings, Philistines, Edomite’s and people taken away as slaves. One of the major prophets Isaiah began to challenge the policies that were instituted by the Judahite King Ahaz. Yahweh chose Isaiah to give advice to the King Ahaz of Judah and instruct him to put all his trust in Yahweh. The king was young and fearful of Yahweh. He was also afraid to ask for a sign from Yahweh, as instructed by Isaiah. Ahaz stated that he will not ask for a sign nor will he test Yahweh (Isaiah 7:11-13).

This is the most crucial time for South Kingdom. Previous important events and kings must be highlighted in leading up to 2 Kings 19:15-19. 2 Kings 18:1 begins that Hezekiah becomes King over Judah when Hoshea, the King of Israel over Israel for three years. Hezekiah is the son of Ahaz, the previous King of Judah who was the eleventh King of Judah. (2 Kgs 16:1) He reigns from 735 to 715 B.C. Hezekiah reigns Judah for twenty nine years in Jerusalem. (2 Kgs 18:2) He reigns from 715-681 B.C. Hoshea, the King of Israel is the last king of Israel. He reigns from 732-722 B.C. And in the seventh year of his Hoshea’s reign, King of Assyria comes and lays a siege on Samaria and three years later, which is in the ninth year of Hoshea, Israel is

Unlike the other two major religions Judaism evolved form the Israelites who didn't deny the existence of other gods for other nations, though they only worshipped one deity. Its deity was Yahweh, the god of the patriarchs, who was worshipped in a sacrificial cult centered in Jerusalem and later at sanctuaries in the north, where a rival Jewish kingdom was formed. Prophets who warned against the people's reliance on these temple cults saw themselves vindicated when both the northern and southern kingdoms were destroyed by foreign conquerors. The exile of the Judeans to Babylonia in 586 BC was a major turning point in Israelite religion. The prior history of Israel now was reinterpreted

After Solomon died, the kingdom was divided into two: the Northern Kingdom, called Israel and the Southern Kingdom, called Judah. Common elements of two nations are that both the kings of Israel and Judah practiced idolatry. One of the most terrible king of Israel is king Ahab who ignores the God and spread idol worship of Baal. Although many of the kings served idols, a few kings of Judah served the God faithfully. One of the good kings of Judah is king Jehoshaphat who worshiped the God and educate his people do so too.

At this crucial point in history, the Hebrews adopted Yahweh as their national and primary God and officially became a monotheistic religion. Organization of this religion inspired new intellectual leadership of prophets and prophetic writers. These new ideas were a culture shock for a society that still practiced polytheism and resulted in turmoil between Hebrews that believed in Yahweh as their one and only God and Hebrews that believed in Yahweh as their most important of many gods. It is at this point in Hebrew history when the Jewish people created a new form of religion where new ideas of Yahweh were taught, and the Torah became the most important and pure law for the Hebrews. (http://www.us-israel.org).

The nation of Israel was set apart as holy to the LORD. But they When the children of Israel demanded a king, they did so to be like the other nations. The first three kings were Saul, (outwardly tall, handsome and strong—a seemingly good choice for a king, but inwardly arrogant, proud and unrepentant—not God’s choice), David (a man after God’s own heart who repented of his sins and as such was God’s choice), and Solomon (the wisest man who ever lived, but because of covenant disobedience became the catalyst for the division and ultimate exile of Israel.

Nehemiah the Israelite leader displays numerous traits of a Servant Leader in the biblical book, Nehemiah. Nehemiah sets out on a quest to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the wall that surrounds his beloved home. During this time, he encounters many obstacles and will overcome all roadblocks put in front of him. This paper will provide an analysis of two significant events, building the wall around Jerusalem and organizing Jerusalem’s people to rebuild the city.

Before, King David gathered a surplus of wealth when in power to bring the Jewish culture into the Golden Age. “With Solomon...the surplus accumulated...rapidly dissipated in ambitious building.” (Asali p.53) through large fortifications and military armaments. At his old age, he placed a heavy tax burden on his people, and in turn they became largely bitter towards him. After his death, massive conflicts came before the people to eventually split Israel and Judah into separate kingdoms. In 800 B.C.E., “two centuries later, the Assyrians conquered the north, and many of the Jews of Israel were deported” (Ardito, Gambaro and Torrefranca p.42). Later, in 600 B.C.E., the kingdom of Judah was overthrown by the Babylons. In turn, this lead to their captivity as slaves; entering a new era of a nomadic culture spread across the western world. On the other hand, it was this captivity which strengthened their religious identity, and evidently propagated the largest monolithic deity known throughout the 21st century: Jesus Christ.