Bible Study Library

This page was primarily created as a background resource for this lesson on the relationship between the church, Israel, and the kingdom of God.

You probably realize, but it’s worth restating, that Israel has always had a special place in God’s plan to save humanity.

Before we go further, I’d like to provide a very rough sketch of Israel’s history, at least the parts of its history that are relevant to understanding today’s topic:

• God made promises to Abraham, then later to his son Isaac, and later still to Isaac’s son Jacob that all nations would be blessed through them
• God changed Jacob’s name to Israel (which means “God fights”)
• Seventy of Israel’s descendants entered Egypt under Joseph
• Later, Moses led this group out of Egypt. They had grown very large — 600,000 men plus women and children. At that time, they became known as “Israelites” or “the children of Israel.”
• God entered into a covenant with the Israelite people at Sinai on their way to Canaan
• When Moses died, Joshua took over leadership of Israel and led them into the land God had promised to Abraham (the land of Canaan)
• Israel was originally a nation led by God Himself through various judges
• Eventually they demanded to have a human king so that they would be “like the other nations”
• Saul became their first king, but eventually he became corrupt
• David succeeded Saul. David was devoted to God and pleased God. He wanted to build God a temple
• God made a covenant with David that his offspring would rule over Israel forever. He also told David that one of his offspring would build the temple
• David’s son Solomon succeeded him and built the temple
• Rehoboam took the throne after Solomon. He was corrupt and led Israel into worship of other gods
• Under Rehoboam, the nation of Israel became divided into two nations: The northern kingdom was still called Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah
• There was a great deal of civil war between Israel and Judah all the way up to 721 B.C., when the northern kingdom (Israel) was conquered by Assyria
• Assyria kicked 10 tribes out of the land and replaced them with foreigners, who were later called the Samaritans
• Assyria was later defeated by Babylonia
• Babylonia took over the southern kingdom (Judah) and took many captives (such as the prophet Ezekiel). Ezekiel said this happened because the people of Judah had been unfaithful to God
• Babylonia destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple (586 B.C.)
• Babylonia was eventually conquered by the Persian empire about 50 years later.
• Persia’s King Cyrus gave freedom back to the nation of Judah. They returned to their land and rebuilt the temple 70 years after Babylonia destroyed it
• About 200 years later, the Greeks under Alexander The Great defeated Persia as well as Judah (which was now called “Judea”)
• Another Greek ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, ruled over Judea and attempted to destroy the Jewish religion. He defiled the temple by dedicating it to another religion and also burned the Jewish Bible (the Torah)
• That led to what is known as the Maccabean revolution, which eventually resulted in the Jews gaining independence in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. When Jews celebrate Hanukkah, they are celebrating that independence day, which happened roughly 150 years before Christ
• Shortly before Jesus was born, the Roman Empire took control of part of the territory that had been controlled by the Greeks, including Jerusalem. Israel was in captivity again
• Jesus’ ministry was to this captive nation of Israel under Roman rule. Because it hadn’t been all that long since the Romans took over from the Greeks, what was left was Jews who spoke Greek and were Roman citizens
• In A.D. 70 (forty years or so after Jesus was crucifed and resurrected), the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jesus has prophesied this in Matthew 24:1-2
• Later still, in A.D. 135, the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jews there throughout the rest of the world. They renamed the area of Jerusalem Palestine as play on the name of the Jews’ historical enemies, the Philistines.
• This period (insert the world wars in between) lasted until May 14,1948 when the Jews reestablished their independence in much of modern Israel (but not Jerusalem).
• As soon as they did that they were attacked by Arabs, but Israel won.
• In 1967, after the 6-day war, Israel retook control of Jerusalem, too.

So, it flows like this:

Abraham > Isaac > Jacob > Judges > King Saul > King David > King Solomon > King Rehoboam > Divided Kingdom > Many other kings > Assyria > Babylonia > Persia > Greece > Independence > Rome > Independence

Such is roughly 3500 years of history!