Judah and Israel

With the passing of King Solomon the singular nation of Israel divided into two separate nations… Judah and Israel. Over the course of time both nations rejected God and his laws. In spite of repeated warnings, Judah and Israel sank deeper and deeper into sin until finally God empowered foreign nations to decimate them and take them into captivity as a punishment.

First, Israel was conquered with great brutality and taken into captivity by the Assyrians. Assyria took the survivors as slaves and spread them over the Assyrian empire. They would never come back from this captivity. Instead Assyria would re-people the land of Israel with Assyrians. During New Testament times this area included “Galilee of the Gentiles” and Samaria and would be looked down on by the Jews from Judea. Jesus’ home town of Nazareth was in Galilee.

Secondly, several years later Judah would be conquered by the Babylonians, also with great brutality. The Babylonians however kept a remnant of Judeans in the area. In addition, the Jewish slaves they took would not be scattered but kept together in groups. God promised them that their captivity would only last 70 years and encouraged them with prophets to correct the behavior that led to their punishment. Unlike the captivity of Israel, the scriptures identified these great prophets who worked with Judah during their captivity.

Next week I want to begin a more detailed look at the behaviors that led to the punishment of Judah and Israel and how to keep God happy with us.