Week 1 > The Historical Context: A People in Exile
· The Land of Exile
· Galilee throughout Bible Times
Week 2 > The Present Reality: The Fullness of Time
· Palestine under Roman Rule
· The Ministry of John the Baptist
· Nazareth and Its Surroundings
Week 3 > The Arrival of Hope: God with Us
· Jesus Is Born in Bethlehem
· Magi Worship Jesus
· Jesus’ Birth and Escape to Egypt
Week 4 > The Spread of the Good News: Disciples of All Nations
1 Kings 11
Solomon ruled over a powerful kingdom that brought him great wealth, but he allowed his many wives to lead his heart astray to worship the gods of other nations. Many of these wives were likely given to him by foreign rulers to seal political alliances (e.g., 1 Kings 3:1). Because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness to the God of Israel, the Lord declared that he would tear away much of the kingdom from Solomon and give it to one of his servants. The Bible then recounts the origins of a few adversaries of Solomon who must have caused trouble during his reign. It was actually events during David’s reign that precipitated the rise of two of these adversaries, though apparently it wasn’t until Solomon’s reign that these men became significant agents of opposition. The first adversary mentioned is Hadad the Edomite, who belonged to the royal court of Edom. Sometime during the time when David was in Edom (see 2 Samuel 8:13-14) his commander Joab tried to kill every male in Edom, but Hadad fled with some of his father’s servants. Apparently he fled first to Midian (see 1 Kings 11:18) and then made his way to Paran, where others joined him, and then they crossed the wilderness to Egypt. There Hadad was very favorably received by Pharaoh and given land, food, and even a wife from Pharaoh’s royal household. After David died, Hadad chose to return to Edom. The second adversary mentioned is Rezon, who had fled from King Hadadezer of Zobah and became the leader of a gang of rebels. After David defeated Hadadezer (2 Samuel 8-10; 1 Chronicles 18-19), Rezon and his men fled to Damascus, where they made him king over Aram. He continued to cause trouble for Solomon throughout his reign. The last adversary mentioned is Jeroboam son of Nebat, one of Solomon’s own officials, who had been put in charge of rebuilding a portion of Jerusalem. One day as Jeroboam was leaving the city, a prophet named Ahijah met him and told him that the Lord was going to tear away ten of the tribes of Israel and give them to him. Solomon must have heard about Ahijah’s prophecy, because he tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to King Shishak of Egypt. Later Jeroboam would return to Israel, and the ten northern tribes appointed him king after rejecting the rule of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon (1 Kings 12; 2 Chronicles 10).
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2 Samuel 24:1-10; 1 Chronicles 21:1-8
After David had secured his reign over all Israel and greatly expanded his rule over neighboring nations, he commissioned Joab, the commander of his army, to “count the people of Israel and Judah.” Though Scripture does not explicitly state the reason for this order, the report that Joab provided to David nearly ten months later at the conclusion of the census makes his intentions clear: David was seeking a tally of all troops he had at his disposal throughout his kingdom. Joab initially resisted David’s order, and after the census was completed David was stricken with guilt over his actions, and ultimately the Lord punished Israel for David’s census. Yet nowhere in Scripture is the counting of troops clearly condemned. In fact, during the Israelites’ wanderings in the wilderness the Lord commanded two different censuses to be taken of Israel’s troops (Numbers 1; 26), and many of the accounts of Israel’s battles throughout the Old Testament include a careful tally of the troops involved, so it must have been normal practice to take a census such as David commissioned. Most scholars explain this discrepancy by inferring that Joab and others must have discerned that David was wrongly looking to military might instead of the Lord’s promise to fight for his people (Deuteronomy 20:1-4) or that he was disobeying the law by including those under twenty years of age (see Exodus 30:11-16; 1 Chronicles 27:23-24). While this may be true, it does not fully explain what this author has found to be a curious peculiarity about David’s census: The census takers do not appear to have traveled hardly anywhere within the core settlement areas of Israel or Judah. Instead, the census takers followed a route almost entirely along the perimeter of Israel’s core area of initial settlement, as shown on this map. They started out at Aroer and “the town in the middle of the gorge,” probably referring to modern Mudaynet as-Saliya in the Arnon Gorge (see also Deuteronomy 2:36; Joshua 13:9, 16), which were located at the far corner of Israel’s allotted land. Then they headed north to Jazer and Gilead, likely following the King’s Highway, which ran along the outer edge of Israel’s lands. Then they came to Tahtim-hodshi, which this author suspects is referring to the “lowlands of Kedesh.” The Israelite city of Kedesh was situated among the hills of upper Galilee, but just to the east of it lay a valley occupied primarily by the people of Maacah, who fought against and were defeated by David earlier in his reign. Then the census takers traveled to Dan, which is often cited along with Beersheba as marking the distant boundary of Israel (Judges 20:1; 1 Samuel 3:20; 2 Samuel 3:10; 17:11; 1 Chronicles 21:2), and on to Sidon and Tyre. The Bible never indicates that Sidon and Tyre were subdued by David, but he appears to have wielded considerable influence over Tyre (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1; see also 1 Kings 5:2-11) and perhaps over Sidon as well. After this the census takers went to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, likely indicating that they traveled through the coastal lands along the Mediterranean Sea. Lastly, they completed their route at the city of Beersheba in the Negev. This route along the perimeter of Israel’s core settlement areas suggests that, while David’s census takers were no doubt collecting troop information from the tribes of Israel (see 1 Chronicles 21:5-6), their primary focus appears to have been on David’s newly acquired lands, which would have been largely comprised of non-Israelites. This theory may also be supported by 2 Chronicles 2:17, which notes that “Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken.” Thus, this author suspects that Joab may have been urging David not to rely on troops from these non-Israelites to protect Israel and instead called upon the Lord to increase the number of “the people” (perhaps meaning the Israelite people) a hundredfold. At the same time, however, the biblical account of the census takers’ route never uses any of the names for the subdued nations (e.g., Moab, Ammon, Aram, Maacah, Philistia, etc.), though it does use vague references to “Canaanites” and “Hivites.” This may reflect a tension that existed at the time between David’s efforts to integrate these new lands into one great empire (thus explaining the aversion to identifying people by their former national affiliation) and the convictions of those like Joab, who may have been opposed to such integration.
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2 Samuel 8:1-8; 10:1-19; 12:21-31; 1 Chronicles 18:2-11; 19:1-19; 20:1-3
The accounts of David’s greatest military victories stand like bookends around the record of David’s most grievous sins. Sometime after David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and the Lord promised to establish his dynasty over Israel, David achieved a series of victories over virtually all of Israel’s neighboring nations. These began with David’s capture of Metheg-ammah (likely Gath) and all of Philistia and was followed by his victory over Moab. Then Nahash king of Ammon died, and David sent envoys to express his condolences to Nahash’s son Hanun, who had now become king. Hanun, however, intentionally humiliated David’s envoys, shaving off half their beards and cutting off the bottom half of their garments before sending them back to Israel. When David heard of it, he sent word to his envoys to remain at Jericho until their beards grew back. In the meantime, the Ammonites called upon several Aramean nations to help them fight against Israel, which was likely their original intent for humiliating David’s envoys. Warriors came from Beth-rehob and Zobah, which lay between Israel and Hamath farther north, as well as from Maacah (see “Geshur and Maacah” map) and Tob. The writer of 1 Chronicles also notes that soldiers came from Mesopotamia as well. David sent his commander Joab to fight this coalition at Rabbah. The writer of 1 Chronicles consistently speaks of the battle occurring at Medeba, rather than Rabbah, but the town of Medeba south of Heshbon seems an unlikely location for the battle. Perhaps Rabbah was also referred to at times as Medeba. In any case, Joab and his brother Abishai divided their forces into two groups, with Joab leading the fight against the Arameans to the north and Abishai leading the fight against the Ammonites just outside the gates of Rabbah. As Joab advanced, the Arameans fled, which in turn led the Ammonites to retreat behind the walls of Rabbah. After this Joab (and probably his forces) returned home to Israel. But the Arameans regrouped and added more troops from Aramean nations beyond the Euphrates River. David met them in battle at Helam (likely modern Alma) and won a great victory over them, even killing their commander Shobah (or Shophach). After this the Arameans made peace with Israel. Sometime later David also subjugated the Edomites, who lived to the south of Moab. It was likely sometime after this that David engaged in adultery with the wife of Uriah, one of his own valiant warriors (see “David’s Mighty Men” map), and then he tried to cover up his sin by arranging for Uriah’s death in battle. His sin was later exposed by Nathan the prophet, and David repented. After this Joab returned to Rabbah to finish capturing the city, and when victory was close at hand he called for David to come and finish taking the city. Thus the Ammonites became subject to Israel as well. From all these conquered nations David took many spoils and dedicated them to the Lord’s service, including great amounts of bronze from the towns of Tebah (also called Betah and Tibhath), Berothai, and Cun.
The Battle with the Ammonites and the Arameans
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The Battle with the Arameans
If you are reading this post, chances are you already understand the importance of understanding context–particularly Bible geography–when reading the Bible. But the value of knowing Bible geography is often difficult to convey to others, because they are not yet aware of all that they are missing when they read the Bible without a sense of where it took place. So to help make this gap in understanding more evident to others and demonstrate the value of knowing context, I have written a short story below. The story is recounted twice, with the first rendition containing no real meaningful geographical references. The second rendition is exactly the same as the first, except that meaningful place names (at least for those familiar with the United States today) have been substituted for the names that lacked real meaning in the first rendition.
Story without Meaningful Context:
One day a passenger train was traveling from Alpha City to Bravo City. Soon after the train passed beyond Charlie City, however, it slowed to a stop, and the conductor announced that the train had broken down and would not be able to take the passengers to their final destination. He assured them that alternate transportation would be arranged for them but that it would not arrive for several hours. The passengers soon began to react to the news. A well dressed man from Alpha City immediately pulled out his phone to make other arrangements but quickly realized there was no mobile phone service this far outside the city. Then he snapped, “There’s no way I’m staying on this train any longer,” so he stepped off the train to begin walking back to Charlie City. But it didn’t take long for him to realize that this was not a good plan for him. A woman from Delta City frantically exclaimed, “But casting starts tomorrow morning! This could mean millions of dollars lost!” A man from Echo City sanctimoniously assured everyone, “You can be sure I will be taking action in Echo City about these deplorable traveling conditions!” A man from Pretendia, however, simply picked up his luggage, jumped down from the train, and non-chalantly began the long trek back to Charlie City.
So what did you think about the story?
Why did each of the people react the way they did?
Is there a discernable “punchline” at the end of the story?
Would you consider this a very interesting or meaningful story?
