A Stormy Relationship

The history of the Jews presents them struggling with and against their God.  At times they experienced great highs and amazing national success.  More often, they were involved in corruption and rebellion.  About 800 B.C., individuals began to regularly appear  in Hebrew society who were called prophets.  Though he was not labeled as such, Moses was actually the first prophet.  He had warned those who were in the desert with him of what the future history of Abraham’s people would be. 

Moses’ warnings were periodically ignored or forgotten by subsequent generations and their descendants also discounted the messages spoken by later prophets who were sent to them.  These prophets claimed to be uttering the very words of God to this stubborn people and predicted their future fate if they continued to ignore the commands of their God.  The warnings were quite specific and the news was not good.  The prophets told them what would happen and who would cause it to happen.  Every bit of what was prophesied happened.

Because Abraham’s descendants persisted in ignoring God, time and time again they were conquered by other nations and carried away into foreign lands.  But God always preserved a remnant and continued to nurture and develop them as a people.

Abraham’s descendants were restored as a recognized nation in their ancestral homeland of Israel in 1948, and to this day, their national existence is continually threatened by the hostile nations that surround them.  Yet, they continue to survive.

The revelation in the Old Testament is of a transcendent, personal God, who literally created this people from nothing and owned them body and soul.  Creating something from nothing is a characteristic of this God.  He relentlessly pursued this people as they fell away time after time.  They were truly a people He had called to be His possession, and He expected them to respond accordingly.  They rarely did.