The Lord Of The King

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.

In Danielle Evans’s collection of short stories Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, the story “The King of a Vast Empire” talks about how traumatic events affect a family’s bond. The main trauma in this story is a car accident that haunts this family. Liddie, Terrance, and their parents got in a car accident one night. The dad was driving the car when he was going around a dark curve in the road and hit another car. The other car was stopped in the middle on the road because there was a fallen lumber in the middle of the road that their dad was trying to remove. The other car did not have their emergency lights on. When the dad hit the car, all of the kids in the backseat was killed

Deborah was a judge, meaning tribal leader in those times, who when outnumbered led the Israelite troops to a great victory, like the David and Goliath story. Like Deborah,

After conquering northern Israel in 722 B.C.E., the Assyrians engendered centuries of political intrigue and laid the foundation for future unscrupulous kingdoms and idolatrous people.1 Once the Babylonian empire overthrew Josiah, the King of Judah, Habakkuk began to compose a prophetic book, questioning the ways of God. Above all, Habakkuk could not comprehend why “the evil circumvented the just”2; he thought that the impiety of the world did not correlate with a supposedly just God.3 Throughout his narrative, this biblical prophet came to understand that “the just man, because of his faith, shall live” (Hb 2,4). Eventually discovering that righteousness and faith in God lead to justice, Habakkuk cried out to the people of Judah through

In addition to the Pentateuch, the Old Testament books of the Deuteronomistic history reveal the theme of God’s faithfulness to his followers. Initial examples are found in the conquest of the Promised Land depicted in the book of Joshua. Throughout the Israelite campaign to oust natives and settle the land, God’s actions demonstrate his faithfulness. In one instance God uses Rahab to hide Israelite spies, while in several other situations he allows the Israelites to defeat its foes. From these actions, it is clear that God remained faithful to his promise with Abraham (to provide his descendents with land). In addition to Joshua, the book of Judges provides an example of God’s faithfulness. Throughout the book, Israel repeatedly is unfaithful to God and is conquered by foreign powers. In response to Israelite cries for help, God repeatedly raises up

The Book of Judges is the hardest title to analyze as far as relation to the text goes. However the quote from the Bible at the beginning of this book in The Poisonwood Bible gives a hint as to why Kingsolver might have chosen this name. It says, “And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars…” (187). This quote, in the biblical sense, shows that God does not want the Israelites to associate themselves with the Canaanites or practice their beliefs, the main theme of the Book of Judges. However, the Israelites continue to practice pagan beliefs and intermarry with the people of Canaan while the Judges come back time and time again to save them. This situation is akin to Nathan’s relationship with the Price woman, especially Leah who stops believing in Nathan and God and builds her new religion from Anatole. This period in the book is when the girls no longer believe in Nathan, and therefore God, just like the Israelites after they conquered Canaan.

Just like any other civilization, the Israelites had multiple social classes. At the foundation of the civilization was the working class. This was made up of the farmers and artisans who labored all day and produced the items that were often traded throughout the kingdom. The next tier was the military and royal court. Anyone that served in the military was well respected by people of all classes. The royal court consisted of any government officials, scribes, and the king’s royal cupbearer. Scribes were the secretaries and typically involved in judicial and financial affairs. The royal cupbearer was tasked with filling the king’s goblet with wine and serving it to him. Second to the top of the social classes were the priests. Similar to Ancient Egypt with the gods, priests were believed to have direct contact with the god the Israelites worshiped: Yahweh. Because of this connection, priests were considered to be very sacred to the Israelites. At the top of the social pyramid was the king. The king of the Israelites ruled over the kingdom, defended it, but also “rules on behalf of Yahweh, the Israelite god” .

Ehud * Rescued the Israelites from Moabites. Shamgar – next judge of Israel. * Delivered them from Philistines. Deborah – 21 Century B.C. * First female judge.

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.

According to the tradition, God entered into a covenant or contract with the tribes of Israel, who believed that Yahweh had spoken to them through Moses. The Israelites promised to obey Yahweh and follow his law. In return, Yahweh promised to take care of his people,” (Spielvogal 38). The covenant between the Israelites and Yahweh could only be fulfilled by obedience to the law of God” (Spielvogal 38). “The Israelites believed that certain religious leaders or holy men, called prophets, were sent by God to serve as his voice to the people. These “men of God” went through the land warning the Israelites that they had failed to keep God’s commandments and would be punished for breaking the covenant: “I will punish you for all of your iniquities.” (Spielvogal 38,39). Family was the center of the social structure for Hebrew life. Family was made up of blood related individuals living in a common place. Marriage was also important to the Hebrew family. Similar to Hammurabi’s Code, some Hebrew people accepted polygamy, while the majority rejected it, and believed monogamy was preferred form of marriage. What makes Moses so different from Hammurabi is that Hammurabi’s codes are still used today, but mainly in the Middle East, while The Ten Commandments that Moses was given by Yahweh still have a

Aside from conflicting religions, Jewish people also encountered other problems with the monarchy. Hebrews believed that Yahweh was their king and his laws were their laws. In the monarchy, the tribes of Israel appointed a human king and obeyed his laws instead of divine law. This created conflict between the Hebrews that followed the laws of the king, and the Jewish that followed Yahweh and the law of the Torah. The Children of Israel that settled in Palestine between 1250 and 1050 BC found themselves amidst a corrupt monarchy. The monarchy thrived on arbitrary power, large divisions in the economical gap, vast poverty, heavy taxation, slavery, bribery and

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.

‘Judge,’ however, can also mean a military leader, presumably someone who makes tactical military decisions during wartime and also a general-type leader who fights alongside his or her soldiers. It seems possible that this role could also be designated to Deborah, since she travelled with Barak to gather soldiers for the Battle of Mount Tabor and subsequently convinced Sisera to engage in battle. Also, as Tikva Frymer-Kensky explains in Readings in the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories, “the ‘judges’…usually acquired their political authority after they saved Israel through battle” (46). This directly connects to the possibility that Deborah engaged in war as a leader.

The Book of Judges talks about ancient Israel, and how they extended their territory by acquiring lands from the non-Israelites. The book narrates how Israelites conquered and reclaimed their lost land from non-Israelites and how they used to turn from God whenever they are satisfied. But it is written in the Bible that, the guilty are by no means cleared, as Exodus (34:7) says this is the reason why the Lord used several Kings and Judges like Deborah to help the people of Israel find their way back to Him. As the book reveals, it is evident that most of the judges were men (as they were most of the times referred to as Judges). The book talks about a great woman Deborah, also referred to as the “bee”, as a key judge in the entire book. This book unveils the importance of women (through acts and strengths of Deborah (mainly) and other heroic female characters) and their power to the readers.

This chapter starts by briefly mentioning the judge Tola. Tola arose after Abimelech’s death (v. 1). Tola judged Israel for twenty-three years prior to his death (v. 2). Jair was the succeeding judge, and he judged Israel for twenty-two years (v. 3). He apparently had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they owned thirty cities named Havoth-Jair in the land of Gilead (v. 4). Jair died, and Israel again relapsed back into idolatry (v. 5-6). God sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites for eighteen years for their apostasy (v. 7-9).