Ancient Israel Research Paper

423 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Significance of God's covenant with Moses

The history of ancient Israel was influenced by the covenant between God and Moses. The covenant was established as priests that would work for the Kingdom of God, and the Israelites would show other nations how awesome and powerful the true and living God is in their personal life. God knew the task of following the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue would be hard to follow that is why he placed Moses to be the head of the nation. The Decalogue consists of Exodus 20:1-17 "You shall have no other gods before Me," "you shall not make for yourself a carved image," "you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," "Honor your father and your mother," "You shall not murder," "You shall not commit …show more content…

It would be quite a challenge but God would be with Israelites as they walk close to him daily. Just thinking about the times when the Israelites became disobedient to God by worshipping idol gods, and always complained to Moses for what they wanted but could not have it. God took notice that the Israelites were going against their agreement with God. Since the disobedience was growing rapidly in the Israelite community, they wandered the wilderness for forty years compared to the 240 miles it took to the Promised Land. Another example of ancient Israel was influenced by the Decalogue was to see the anger of God be upon them if they chose not to follow the Ten Commandments. The 2nd chapter of Lamentations speaks how the anger of God being placed upon the people who have decided to go against the will of God. God’s anger will destroy temples, walls, the strength of those who were once strong, and even enemies destroying the Israelites. This passage of scripture shows that if anyone would be bold enough to go against the will of God intently then God will bold enough in his

Show More
Related

  • The Sotah Ritual in Ancient Israel

    4281 Words  | 9 Pages

    McKeating, Henry. “Sanctions Against Adultery in Ancient Israelite Society with Some Reflection on Methodology in the Study of Old Testament Ethics.” Journal for the Study     of the OldTestament. Vol. XVII (Mar. 1979).

    Read More

  • Babylonian Talmud Research Paper

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Babylonian Talmud which was completed between the years 500-600 C.E. which deals extensively with matters of Halacha also provides a great deal of knowledge and insight into Jewish life in ancient times. Among other subjects that we see discussed are various types of medicine and healing. Perhaps, due to the influence of Babylonian culture we find many references to the use of Amulets over many years and in all periods. Archeological digs have found Amulets from ancient times and even today Amulets are used by many communities and cultures including Jews. Many claim that the idea of Amulets was adopted by the Jews influenced by the Babylonians during their exile in that country. The root of the word Amulet is the word "tie" in Aramaic as it is usually tied to or worn on the body. Another explanation attributes the root to the word of "little" in Aramaic as usually only a small amount is written in the Amulet. Special powers are attributed to the Amulet and usually a short blessing is written on a piece of paper or parchment and inserted within. Often a combination of letters or sentences are included as are the names of angels, holy people or pictures to insure protection from the "evil eye", ghosts and/or spirits.

    Read More

  • Community And Community In The Songlines By Bruce Chatwin

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    Communities have affect not only the present time, but the future as well. In Exodus, Moses receives the ten commandments from God. “And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery’” (Exodus 20:1). God then proceeds to list the ten commandments that should be followed. This creates an instant community in the most simple of ways; by tying a group of people together through similar beliefs. The commandments are also a way of God showing his promise to the Israelites. Rather than using symbols like in Genesis, God uses the commandments to attempt to communicate his commitment to the entire nation. They are values that a community of people can easily recognize and share. The commandments are not only to give guidelines on how they should behave, but also a way for people to denote their commitment to God. Even when the Israelites disobey the ten commandments to worship a golden calf, they do it together, as a community. Upon finding this out, Moses breaks the tablets with God’s

    Read More

  • Royal Ideology in Ancient Israel

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ongoing threat of invasion from the Philistines to some extent brought about the conditions for a monarchy within Israel. A line of charismatic Judges protected Israel before the adoption of the kingship. Thus it is evident that the change from a patriarchal, loosely-knit tribal rule to a centralised government with a monarch required much self understanding, a strong stance against anti-monarchical views and tolerance of royal ideology, which had in part to be appropriated from neighbouring monarchies.

    Read More

  • The Ten Commandments Of Hammurabi

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Ten Commandments were conceived when Moses hit a stone and the words miraculously appeared on the stone engraved, the Ten Commandments are straight from Yahweh, and are very specific about not worshipping any other gods or saying His name in vain, ("Bible Gateway Passage: Exodus 20:3, 7”) two of the ten commandments specify the great importance of respect and honoring only one God, whereas no where in any of the codes is that found as a form to maintain order in Babylon. Hammurabi does admit that the sun god Shamash told him to write the codes but he takes full responsibility for the order that he brought to his people, (Jarus) religion has always played an important role in history and has helped shape up the morals and values to many of our civilizations

    Read More

  • Judaism

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    Judaism was formed around 2000 B.C.E. when Abraham, a shepherd from Canaan, received the word and blessings of God (“Judaism Origins” 1). God told Abraham that he would bless him and his followers, and would ordain him as the leader of a great Jewish nation (Morris and Brown, 9). Jews believe that Abraham and other prophets, such as Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, were selected by God to deliver his message and teaching to others (Morrison and Brown, 10). Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, fathers 12 sons who become the head of the twelve tribes of Israel (“Judaism Origins,” 2). Later, Moses, a prophet of the Lord, received Gods law in the form of the Thirteen Principles of Faith and ...

    Read More

  • The Relevance of Ancient Texts in Today’s Society

    1815 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Tanakh provides the groundwork for the Jewish/Hebrew religion from the third century BCE (Trulove, Woelfel, Aauerbach, & Buller, 2007). One centralized theme discussed in the Tanakh is going against a higher power. In Genesis, God told Adam and Eve “‘you shall not eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] or touch it, lest you die’” (Trulove et al., 2007, p. 40). Adam and Eve chose to consume a piece of fruit from the tree; as a consequence, God banished them from the Garden of Eden (Trulove et al., 2007). As a result of their sin, the world became corrupt and “filled with lawlessness” (Trulove et al., 2007, p. 43). In these instances, the higher power was the people’s God. When they disobeyed him, they suffered the consequences. These consequences were more severe since a divine power was in charge. Similarly, in Exodus, the Pharaoh “set taskmasters over [the Israelites] to oppress them into forced labor” (Trulove et al., 2007, p. 58). The Pharaoh established rules and punishments for the taskmasters to bestow on the Israelites. In this situation, the higher power was the ruler of the land. The Israelites not only had to follow the laws set forth by the Pha...

    Read More

  • Exodus And Genesis Analysis

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    While Exodus gives rules that govern certain aspect of society, Genesis gives a reason for these beliefs and value. Exodus places many rules protecting live stock but not crops, Genesis show God favored the meat offering rather than the fruit offering; thus revealing a society that value meat over vegetation. The Hebrew society also saw men superior over women. Genesis explain this gender inequality by saying that Eve was created from Adam and she is the reason for the fall of humanity, thus, deserving of her punishment to be under the control of her husband. Also, with a society that have rules protecting slaves, Genesis provides these citizens with reasoning why slavery came into existence. This society values animals, male dominance, slavery, but most importantly religion; therefore, literature like The Book of Genesis was created to state why these values came into existence using religious

    Read More

  • Old Testament Kingship

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    These monuments include the pyramids of Egypt and fortified cities seen across the world. These kings dealt with war, organized strong armies, and even led their troops into battle for their nation. They treated their people with the same loving heart that God treats His people with. The people are willing to follow their king because they know of the love he has for his nation and his people. Similarly, this shows the Hebrew culture as being a nation willing to follow. They had structure and a set guideline of who would rule and keep their people in order. This kept the nation from being chaotic and having no design, thus

    Read More

  • The role of god in the ancient world

    1747 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...f the divine world but the kings were in charge of vocalizing god’s wishes on earth. The most famous of these law codes was Hammurabi’s law code. The Hebrews tried to establish order by using Yahweh’s Ten Commandments and the Torah. Mesopotamian deities were hard to please and easily angered. The Mesopotamians constantly felt they were letting their gods down and usually didn’t even know the reason behind it. Hebrews had a much more forgiving god. Through texts like “The Book of Job”, it is apparent that Yahweh was a tough god but always forgiving and fair in the end. He had few demands of his people and all of them were ethical and easy to adhere to. As long as his devotees followed Yahweh’s laws, they were all capable of receiving his blessings. Through it all, it seemed that God and religion was at the center of every aspect of life in the ancient civilization.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Code Of Hammurabi And The Ten Commandments

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ten commandments originated from God to Moses it was  given around 1513 BC; where god stated a set of duties and responsibilities for the people in order them to go to heaven. Moses was to deliver these commandments to the people of Egypt which would lead them to the path of righteousness. Some of these rules stated that the people of God should only praised to him and only him and not other Gods and to not kill or commit any other fouls that would disgrace them as individuals. On the other hand, the ten codes of Hammurabi originated from the Hammurabi King which was inscribed on stone. It was inscribed around 1750 BC. for the purpose of describing the time Hammurabi first became king, and to state the laws in which corresponded to human problems. It described almost everything including: marriage to family relations; protection for women and kids; poverty; protection of property and many more in which the people were influenced to follow in order to do good in society. Both the Code of Hammurabi and the Ten Commandments were set of rules given to the people of their land to foll...

    Read More

  • Promised Land Bible

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first command that God gave to Israel was that they “shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex.20:3). The reason God wanted to make is clear before the rest of commands was because he wanted to be sure that people will stay pure and faithful to only one God. The location of the promised land was very intriguing—Israel settled in the middle of the most important military and trade highways of ancient world (Sayce, 2004). Many nations were surrounded Israel and many people were traveling though Israel. The nations that were around them worshiped the multiple gods and did the terrible things to please their gods. The way how people can prosper though this command was because their God was the source of blessings—the rain to make their livestock and crops abundant, and the blessing of a multiple children (Deut.28:11-14). Today, this blessing does not seem like a lot, but in that time for Israelites those were their main concerns—to feed their numerous families with the fruits of the land and with a

    Read More

  • Example Of Torah Obedience

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    After Joshua’s death and the death of “that whole generation”, the next generation “knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). Because this new generation was consistently unfaithful to the covenant that God made with them in Deuteronomy, God was furious. He says in Judges 2:20-22, “Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did.” This is a perfect example of the Deuteronomic History emphasis of Torah obedience, which this module defines as “for ancient Israel to enjoy God’s good gift of the land, the ancient Israelites were expected to be faithful to the covenant that God established with them….” Since the Israelites were not faithful to the covenant, God made their lives extremely difficult by repeatedly subjecting them to serve unjust kings in the land that was mean...

    Read More

  • God's Journey with the Israelites

    1758 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Old Testament, an incredible story can be seen of an all-powerful God who works in the lives of humans that He specifically calls His own. These people, named the Israelites, after one of their ancestors, Israel, are enslaved to the Egyptian people, forced to do immense amounts of manual labor. God uses the harsh environment and obstacles to teach the Israelites many different things before rescuing them from the Egyptians. God ultimately attempts to teach the Israelites three major ideas: faithfulness, sin before God, and holiness.

    Read More

  • The First Three Kings of Israel

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    Israel’s beginning as an established nation and Israel’s recuperation from seventy years of Babylonian captivity is covered in the Books of History. After the conquest of Joshua, God sent deliverers also known as judges to judge the hearts of the people of Israel and rule over them after Joshua’s death. The Philistines’ brutally attacked the nation; subsequently, these assaults were a result of the people’s covenant disobedience. The Ark of the Covenant had been lost to the Philistines, consequently meaning they had a total disconnection from God’s presence and the mosaic covenant . God showed the people grace and punished the Philistines thus the Ark was returned. At this time the people of Israel desired a worldly king, chose a king, their chosen king was rejected by God, they were delivered a new king, and his successor’s sin ultimately led to division of the nation.

    Read More

More about Ancient Israel Research Paper

Open Document