Read Joshua
1:1-9
What
problems faced the people of Israel as they finally entered the Promised
Land?
The Promised Land
was not empty, but well inhabited by Canaanites, who were prosperous, numerous
and well-protected by strong walls around every one of their towns.
They would not be an easy enemy to take the land from.
They also had
their own gods: Ashtaroth (Earth Mother) and the Baals (male fertility
gods). The Israelites would be tempted to worship of the Canaanite gods
along with their own God, Yahweh, as a way supposedly of improving their
chances of success in the new land.
What were the
instructions of the Lord God (Yahweh) to the Israelites as they began the
takeover of the Promised Land?
Observe all of
the Law that God gave them.
Whenever the the
Israelites went into battle, the priests were to carry the Ark of the Covenant
ahead of them (the ark was the mysterious "seat of power" of the invisible
Lord God). God would then work great wonders among them, such as
parting the Jordan River so that they could cross into the Promised Land
unhindered (Joshua 3:1-17).
All the males
were to be circumcised as a sign of being in covenant with God as "His
people." (Joshua 5:1-9)
In all things,
do not look to the right or the left but straight to God for plans and
instructions.
The battles
of Jericho and Ai: why did they have such different outcomes?
At Jericho the
people followed closely the instructions of God (to destroy every living
thing in the city and to give the Canaanites' wealth over to the Lord)--and
the city was miraculously delivered into their hands. (Joshua 6:15-21)
But some of the
warriors kept forbidden goods for themselves. So when the Israelites
next attempted to take the city of Ai, they were easily chased off and
humiliated--because God gave them no strength.
The Israelites
responsible for breaking God's instructions were soon discovered--and they
and all their family were stoned and burned by the Israelites, thus lifting
God's curse from Israel. (Joshua 7:1-26)
Why do you
think God was so "tough"?
Why do you think
God wanted total obedience?
What was likely
to happen to His chosen people if they began to let down their guard?
Could they have
survived as a special nation if they had begun to take up the ways of the
Canaanites?
Read Judges
2:11-19
What was
the job of the judges?
How was it that
Israel constantly got itself into trouble--so that the nation needed God's
judges to rescue them?
Who were some
of these judges?
-
Ehud against the
Moabites
-
Deborah and her
captain Barak against the Canaanites
-
Gideon (Jerubbaal)
against the Midianites
-
Jephthah against
the Ammonites
-
Samson against
the Philistines
-
The unnamed Levite
against the Benjamites (fellow Israelites)
What trait did
they have in common (in addition to their sometimes crude behavior!)?
Read 1st Samuel
7:3-14
Samuel:
Judge or Prophet?
Samuel was born
of a woman (Hannah) who had given up all hope of having children, but who
pledged to God that if she should have a son, she would dedicate him to
the Lord (1st Samuel 1:1-18)
Samuel was born
soon thereafter, and when Samuel was still a boy, she brought him to the
High Priest Eli to be brought up in God's care. (1st Samuel 1:19-28)
The boy Samuel
soon heard a voice calling him--discovering that the voice was God's.
Under Eli's instructions Samuel was to listen and to recite (like a prophet)
exactly what he heard God say. Samuel's first prophecy: that
the worthless sons of the beloved Eli would be destroyed. A rather
grim start for the boy! (1st Samuel 3:1-18)
The Israelites
were (as usual) fighting the Philistines, when Eli's sons got the bright
idea of taking the Ark of the Covenant from its base in Shiloh and bringing
it to battle, to strengthen the spirit of the Israelite soldiers.
But, of course, God himself had not commanded such a strategy. Thus
the Ark was in fact captured by the Philistines, the Israelite army routed
and Eli's sons killed.
At this point
Samuel stepped forward to act as judge of Israel (for Eli had died upon
hearing about Israel's tragedy). His mission: to call Israel
to repentance
Read 1st Samuel
8:1-9
Saul--the
first King
But Israel's repentance
was not very lasting. As Samuel became an old man, the Israelites
began to ask for a king to replace him. No more judges. Israel
wanted to be like the other nations with kings and regular armies.
When Samuel prayed
to God about this matter, God told him that it all saddened Him very much,
for this meant that the people were rejecting God as their leader.
But God told Samuel to do as the people wished--for they would have a king.
Soon thereafter
God directed Samuel to Saul--and Samuel anointed him as king. Also Samuel
spoke some words of prophecy over Saul in order to prove that Saul was
in fact God's choice.
Read 1st Samuel
12:13-25
Saul at first
proved to be a king very faithful to God. So Samuel decided to retire
as Israel's judge. But he still warned them: whether you succeed
or fail depends not on your reliance upon kings--but on your reliance upon
God.
But when Israel
was facing difficulties with the Philistines, and Saul began getting nervous
because Samuel had not yet arrived to bless the Israelite army, Saul took
matters in his own hands by offering the priestly sacrifices himself.
Like Moses at one point, Saul found himself getting ahead of God.
The penalty was (like with Moses) that Saul lost out on the future.
Kingship would not pass to Saul's family--but to someone else.
Saul, and his
son Jonathan, fought very bravely--and with God's apparent continuing help--fairly
successfully against the Philistines. But again, Saul got in trouble
with God when he and his soldiers spared the most important enemies and
took the best of the plunder. When confronted by Samuel they reported
that they did so only to offer a better sacrifice at Gilgal.
But Samuel reminded
them that God was not interested in sacrifices--but rather obedience.
Read
1st Samuel 15:22-23 Now Saul was rejected by God as king.
Read 1st Samuel
16:1-13
 David
is annointed King
Samuel now was instructed to go to Jesse
of Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as the new king. Samuel and
Jesse were both very surprised when it turned out that the son God had
chosen was the very youngest of the 8 brothers!
David begins
to distinguish himself
Not too much later David came to the
notice of Saul as someone whose playing of the harp was so soothing that
it calmed Saul's fits of madness.
He also came to Saul's notice as a warrior
when he alone stood ready to do battle with the Philistine giant, Goliath.
(1st Samuel 17:12-54)
Soon David was given military leadership.
God was so obviously with David in delivering victory after victory--that
Saul grew insanely jealous. In his madness, Saul tried repeatedly
to kill the faithful David, even when David proved again and again his
total loyalty to Saul.
David's time
of testing
In order to escape
Saul, David was forced to live among the hated Philistines.
At two different
times David had an opportunity to kill Saul and thus get himself out from
under this very unfair situation. But each time David refused to
do so, because David knew that he had to await God's timing: Saul
had been anointed by God and until Saul was no longer king, David refused
to take the throne for himself.
David
comes
to the throne
Finally Saul and his son Jonathan were
both killed in battle. David's time of testing was over. He
was now ready to become king. (1st Samuel 31:1-13 and 2nd Samuel 2:1-7).
For a while there
was an on-going civil war between those still loyal to the house of Saul
(led by the military leader Abner) and those loyal to David. But step by
step David grew stronger--until finally the civil war ended with the deaths
of Abner and Ish-bosheth (Saul's son). David was finally king over
all Israel
Why do you think David had to
wait so long / go through so much turmoil / in order to be Israel's king |
"OUR
STORY"
