Jews are one of the most ancient peoples in the world. The Bible, ancient historians outside the Bible, as well as archeology, all record their history. We have more facts about their history than that of any other nation. We will use this information to summarize their history. To make the history of the Israelites (an Old Testament word for the Jewish people) easier to follow, we will use timelines.

Abraham: The Jewish Family Tree Begins

The timeline starts with Abraham. God promised that through him God would bless all nations. Then God tested him in the symbolic sacrifice of his son Isaac. This was a sign pointing to Jesus by marking the future location of his sacrifice. God then named Isaac’s son Israel. The timeline continues in green when Israel’s descendants were slaves in Egypt. This period began with Joseph, son of Israel (the genealogy was: Abraham -> Isaac -> Israel (also known as Jacob) -> Joseph). He led the Israelites to Egypt, where later on the Egyptians enslaved them.

bible timeline with abraham and moses in history — Living in Egypt as slaves of Pharoah

Moses: The Israelites become a Nation under God

Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt by the Passover Plague, which destroyed Egypt and allowed the Israelite Exodus from Egypt to the land of Israel. Before he died, Moses announced Blessings and Curses on the Israelites (when the timeline goes from green to yellow). God would bless their obedience but curse them if they did not obey. These Blessings & Curses would follow the Jewish people ever after.

bible historical timeline from Abraham to david — Self-Rule as a confederation of Tribes with no king and no capital

For several hundred years the Israelites lived in their land but they did not have a King, nor did they have the capital city of Jerusalem. However, with King David at 1000 BCE this changed.

historical timeline Living with Davidic Kings ruling from Jerusalem — Kings of David ruling from Jerusalem

David establishes a Royal Dynasty at Jerusalem

David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital city. He received the promise of a coming ‘Christ’. From that time on the Jewish people waited for the ‘Christ’ to come. His son Solomon, rich and famous, succeeded him and built the First Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The descendants of King David continued to rule for about 400 years. This was the period of Israelite glory – they had the promised Blessings. They were a powerful nation; had an advanced society, rich culture, and a magnificent Temple. The timeline shows this period in aqua-blue (1000 – 600 BCE).

But the Old Testament also describes their growing corruption during this time. Many prophets in this period warned the Israelites that the Curses of Moses would come if they did not repent. But the Isralite nation ignored their warnings. During this time the Israelites divided into two separate kingdoms. There was the northern Kingdom of Israel or Ephraim, and the southern Kingdom of Judah. This is like Koreans today, one people split in two countries – North and South Korea.

The First Jewish Exile to Babylon

Finally around 600 BCE the Curses happened. Nebuchadnezzar, a powerful Babylonian King came just like Moses had predicted 900 years before when he wrote in his Curse:

The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. ⁵¹They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. ⁵²They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 28: 49-52)

Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, burned it, and destroyed the Temple that Solomon had built. He then exiled the Israelites to Babylon. This fulfilled the predictions of Moses that:

Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

⁶⁴Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.
Deuteronomy 28:63-64

jewish historical timeline Conquered and exiled to Babylon — Conquered and exiled to Babylon

So for 70 years, the period shown in red, the Israelites lived as exiles outside the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. The term Jews began in this period in reference to their foremost tribe Judah.

Return from Exile under the Persians

After their exile, the Persian Emperor Cyrus conquered Babylon and Cyrus became the most powerful person in the world. He permitted the Jews to return to their land.

jewish historial timeline Living in the Land as a part of Persian Empire — Living in the Land as a part of Persian Empire

However they were no longer an independent country, they were now a province in the Persian Empire. This continued for 200 years, shown in pink in the timeline. During this time the Jews rebuilt the Jewish Temple (known as the 2nd Temple) and the city of Jerusalem. Though the Persians permitted the Jews to return to the land of Israel, many remained abroad in exile.

The period of the Greeks

Then Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and made the Israelites a province in the Greek Empires for another 200 years. The timeline shows this period in dark blue.

jewish historical timeline Living in the Land as part of Greek Empires — Living in the Land as part of Greek Empires

The Period of the Romans

Then the Romans defeated the Greek Empires and they became the dominant world power. The Jews again became a province in this Empire. The timeline shows this period in light yellow. This is the time when Jesus lived. This explains why there are Roman soldiers in the gospels. The Romans ruled the Jews in Israel during the life of Jesus.

jewish historical timeline Living in the Land as part of Roman Empire — Living in the Land as part of Roman Empire

The Second Jewish exile under the Romans

From the time of the Babylonians (586 BCE) the Jews had not been independent. A succession of other empires ruled them. The Jews resented this and they revolted against Roman rule. The Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem (70 CE), and burned down the 2nd Temple. Then they deported the Jews as slaves across the Roman Empire. This was the second Jewish exile. With the vastness of the Roman Empire the Jews eventually scattered around the whole world.

Jerusalem and Temple destroyed by Romans in 70 AD. Jews sent into world-wide exile

This is how the Jewish people lived for almost 2000 years, dispersed in foreign lands and never totally accepted there. In these different nations they regularly suffered great persecutions. This persecution of the Jews was particularly true in Europe. From Spain, in Western Europe, to Russia the Jews lived often in a dangerous situations in these kingdoms. Jews emigrated to India and Kaifeng, China to escape these persecutions. The Curses of Moses back in 1500 BCE were accurate descriptions of how they lived.

… Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.
Deuteronomy 28:65

God gave the Curses against the Israelites to make peoples ask:

All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
Deuteronomy 29:24

And the answer:

And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. ²⁸In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
Deuteronomy 29: 25-28

The timeline below shows this 1900 year period as a long red bar.

Historical Timeline of the Jews - featuring their two periods of exile — Historical Timeline of the Jews – featuring their two periods of exile

Note that the Jewish people went through two periods of exile. But the second exile was much longer than the first exile. an the first exile.

The 20th Century Holocaust

The persecutions against the Jews peaked when Hitler, through Nazi Germany, tried to exterminate all the Jews living in Europe. Six million Jews lost their lives in what today we know as the Holocaust. Hitler almost succeeded but he was defeated and a remnant of Jews survived.

Modern Re-birth of Israel

The fact that there were people who self-identified as ‘Jews’ after thousands of years without a homeland was remarkable. During this period the Jews even lost their native language, Hebrew. But this allowed the final words of Moses, written down 3500 years ago, to come true. In 1948 the world, through the United Nations, saw the incredible re-birth of the modern state of Israel. This fulfilled what Moses had written centuries before regarding how their exile would end.

then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes^[a] and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. ⁴Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. ⁵He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.
Deuteronomy 30:3-5

The Jews established their modern state of Israel in spite of great opposition. Most of the surrounding nations waged war against Israel in 1948 … in 1956 … in 1967 and again in 1973. Israel, a very small nation, was sometimes at war with five nations at the same time. Yet not only did Israel survive, but her territory increased. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel regained Jerusalem, her historic capital city David had founded 3000 years ago. The creation of the state of Israel, and the consequences of these wars, has created one of the most difficult geo-political tensions of our world today.

As Moses predicted (explored further here), the re-birth of Israel created an impetus for Jews to return to Israel. Per Moses’ blessing they are being ‘gathered’ from the most ‘distant lands’ and being brought ‘back’. Moses wrote that both Jews and non-Jews should note the implications.

Aj keď je Izrael malá krajina, je vždy v správach. Správy pokračujú v správach o Židoch, ktorí sa sťahujú do Izraela, o technológii tam vynájdenej, ale aj o konfliktoch, vojnách a napätí s okolitými ľuďmi.

prečo?

Pohľad do histórie Izraela v knihe Genezis of Bible odhaľuje, že pred 4000 rokmi sa muž, dnes veľmi známy, vybral na táborenie do tejto časti sveta. Biblia hovorí, že jeho príbeh ovplyvňuje našu budúcnosť.

Tento staroveký muž je Abrahám (tiež známy ako Abram). Biblia zaznamenáva prvé Božie kroky pri napĺňaní svojho prvotného zasľúbenia , ktoré urobil s Abrahámom.

Zasľúbenie Abrahámovi

Boh dal Abrahámovi sľub:

2Urobím z teba veľký národ,

požehnám ťa,

zvelebím tvoje meno.

Buď požehnaním!

3Požehnám tých, čo teba žehnajú

a tých, čo tebe zlorečia, prekľajem.

V tebe budú požehnané

všetky pokolenia zeme.“

Genezis 12:2-3

Abrahámovo meno sa stalo Veľkým

Niektorí sa dnes pýtajú, či existuje osobný Boh, ktorý sa dostatočne stará o to, aby pomohol našim nepokojným životom a dal nám nádej. V tomto účte môžeme otestovať túto otázku. Boh tu dal prísľub konkrétnej osobe, ktorého časti si dnes môžeme overiť. Správa zaznamenáva, že PÁN Abrahámovi priamo sľúbil, že ‚urobím tvoje meno veľkým‘. Žijeme v 21. storočí – o 4000 rokov neskôr. Dnes je meno Abrahám jedným z celosvetovo najuznávanejších mien starovekej histórie. Židia a Arabi dnes od neho odvodzujú svoj pôvod. Nedávny mierový plán podporovaný USA, ktorý mení geopolitiku Blízkeho východu, Abraham Accords , bol pomenovaný po ňom. Tento sľub sa doslova , historicky a overiteľne splnil.

Zvitky od Mŕtveho mora obsahujú najstaršie rukopisy Biblie . Datujú sa do obdobia 200-100 pred Kristom. To znamená, že tento sľub bol napísaný najneskôr dávno predtým, ako sa meno „Abraham“ stalo známym mimo židovského národa. Splnenie nenastalo tak, že by sa to jednoducho zapísalo potom, čo sa meno Abraháma stalo známym.

… prostredníctvom svojho veľkého národa

Rovnako úžasné je, že Abrahám vo svojom živote skutočne neurobil nič pozoruhodné. Nedosiahol nič, čo by za normálnych okolností urobilo meno človeka „veľkým“. Nenapísal nič mimoriadne. Abrahám nepostavil nič pozoruhodné. Neviedol armádu s pôsobivými vojenskými schopnosťami. Nebol ani štátnik, ani učiteľ. Abrahám ani nevládol v kráľovstve. V skutočnosti nerobil nič okrem tábora na svojej ceste, modlil sa na púšti a potom mal syna.

^{_{Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing, CC BY-SA 3.0, prostredníctvom Wikimedia Commons}}

Ak by ste žili v Abrahámových časoch a predpovedali, koho si budú najviac pamätať o tisícky rokov neskôr, stavili by ste na to, že na vtedajších kráľov, generálov, bojovníkov alebo dvorných básnikov, ktorí žili vtedy, si budeme pamätať aj dnes. Ale ich mená sú všetky zabudnuté. Ale muž, ktorému sa len tak tak podarilo mať rodinu v divočine, je známy po celom svete. Jeho meno je skvelé len preto, že národ (národy), ktoré splodil, viedol záznamy o jeho účte. Potom sa jednotlivci a národy, ktoré z neho pochádzajú, stali veľkými. Presne tak to Boh zasľúbil už dávno („urobím z teba veľký národ… urobím veľké tvoje meno“). Nikto iný v celej histórii nie je taký známy len vďaka potomkom, ktorí pochádzajú od neho, a nie vďaka veľkým úspechom v jeho vlastnom živote.

**…Skrze Vôľu Sľubovateľa**

A ľudia, ktorí dnes pochádzajú z Abraháma – Židia – nikdy neboli v skutočnosti národom, ktorý si zvyčajne spájame s veľkosťou. Nepostavili veľké architektonické stavby ako pyramídy Egypťanov. Nepísali filozofiu ako Gréci, ani spravovali vzdialené kolónie ako Briti. Všetky tieto národy dosiahli svoje úspechy ako svetové impériá rozširujúce svoje rozsiahle hranice prostredníctvom mimoriadnej vojenskej sily.

Ale Židia nikdy nedosiahli takú veľkú cisársku moc. Veľkosť židovského národa je väčšinou spôsobená Zákonom a Knihou (Bibliou), ktoré zrodili; od niektorých pozoruhodných jednotlivcov, ktorí pochádzali z ich národa; a že prežili tieto tisíce rokov ako odlišná a trochu odlišná skupina ľudí. Ich veľkosť nie je v skutočnosti spôsobená tým, čo urobili, ale skôr tým, čo bolo urobené im a prostredníctvom nich.

„Chcem“ vtlačené do histórie

Teraz sa pozrite na Osobu, ktorá sa chystala uskutočniť tento sľub. Tam je čiernobielo opakovane napísané, že „budem…“. Jedinečný spôsob, akým sa ich veľkosť v dejinách prejavila, opäť pozoruhodne zapadá do tohto vyhlásenia, že to bude Stvoriteľ, kto to urobí, a nie nejaká vrodená schopnosť, dobytie alebo sila tohto „národa“. Pozornosť médií, ktorá sa dnes vo svete venuje udalostiam v Izraeli, modernom židovskom národe, je toho príkladom. Neustále počúvate o novinkách v Singapure, Nórsku, Papui Novej Guinei, Bolívii alebo Stredoafrickej republike? Ale Izrael, podobne veľký ako tieto s 9 miliónmi, je neustále a pravidelne v titulkoch svetových správ.

Ľudské udalosti nemajú pre Židov vopred stanovené predsudky. História sa mohla odvíjať toľkými rôznymi cestami. Zamyslite sa nad pravdepodobnosťou, že tento sľub nejakým spôsobom zlyhal. Ale namiesto toho sa to rozvinulo a pokračuje, ako to bolo vyhlásené pred tisíckami rokov. Možno, že sila a autorita tohto prastarého Sľubovateľa dokáže preniknúť do zmätku, ktorý riadi naše životy.

Cesta, ktorá stále otriasa svetom

Biblia potom hovorí, že „Abram odišiel, ako mu povedal Pán“ (v. 4). Začal cestu zobrazenú na mape, ktorá stále tvorí históriu.

Abrahámova dlhá cesta by bola vykonaná pešo popri karaváne ľudí, majetku a dobytka_{^{Clevelandské múzeum umenia,Platnosť PD-US vypršala, prostredníctvom Wikimedia Commons}}

Požehnanie pre nás

Táto cesta siaha ďaleko za Abraháma a jeho fyzických potomkov. Požehnanie nebolo len pre Abraháma, pretože to tiež hovorí

skrze teba budú požehnané všetky národy na zemiv. 4

Toto by sme vás a ja mali vziať na vedomie. Bez ohľadu na vašu národnosť; bez ohľadu na vaše náboženstvo; Či ste bohatý alebo chudobný, zdravý alebo chorý, vzdelaný alebo nie – „ všetky národy na zemi “ musia zahŕňať aj vás. Tento prísľub požehnania zahŕňa všetkých žijúcich od tých čias až dodnes – čo znamená vás. Ako? kedy? Aké požehnanie? Keď budeme nasledovať správu o Abrahámovi, lepšie pochopíme.

Práve sme si historicky a doslova overili, že prvá časť Zasľúbenia Abrahámovi sa naplnila. Nemáme potom dôvod veriť, že prísľub tebe a mne sa tiež neaktivuje? Keďže ho môžeme vidieť v prevádzke aj o 4000 rokov neskôr, vieme, že tento prísľub siaha do celej histórie. Ale musíme to odomknúť – aby sme porozumeli Prísľubu, vedeli, ako sa nás môže „dotknúť“. Zistíme to, keď budeme pokračovať v nasledovaní správy o Abrahámovi. Ukazuje vzor, ktorý môžeme nasledovať. Toto vidíme ďalej .

Tag: Abraham

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