God, the Bible and Political Justice: Chapter 13
Political Leaders: Abraham to Moses
We begin our look at the Historical Law by focusing on the political leaders of Israel. We do this because this is what the vast majority of the Old Testament focuses on. From Genesis to the prophet Isaiah, 15 of the 22 books are primarily telling the story of what was happening and what God was doing in the political realm. In the Books of Moses God tells us what He wants from the political leaders and the people. In the books that follow God’s writers tell us what happened. In order to understand the remaining 17 books of the Prophets, we have to understand the political environment and circumstances they are writing in as all of them are addressing political injustice as part of Israel’s demise.
Paragraph here about getting lost in the details….
The Patriarchs
Abraham 2166-1991 B.C.*
Abraham is born in Ur, modern day Iraq, near the Euphrates river and not far from one of the locations considered a possible sight for Eden. They are Chaldeans. Abrahams father had already felt to move to the Land of Canaan but they stopped in Haran, South East Turkey today, where he died at 205 years of age.
Abraham is called of God to leave his family and tribe in Haran and set of for Canaan. He is given a promise by God that he will father a new great nation and that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through him. At seventy-five years of age he sets out with his wife Sarai, their servants and workers and nephew Lot, arriving at Shechem, in what we now call the West Bank, near Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim.
While Abraham is wonderfully faithful to God and His call throughout most of his life, Abram the Hebrew is a good man. He builds alters and worships the Most High God, he gives the better land to his selfish nephew Lot when they part. He fights to free Lot from his political enemies and refuses the blunder from the war. He believes God will give him an heir late in life and he is willing to offer this same child as a sacrifice, if that is what God is saying. At 99, before he has had his miracle son, Abraham believes God and performs the first right of circumcision on all the males of his clan including himself. This patient man rescues his nephew a second time from the violence of Sodom and Gomorrah. He so understands God’s heart to bless nations that he pleads for all the mercy God is able to extend to its villainous people.
Yet in his nearly 170 years on earth this same man lies to two national leaders in order to protect himself and his wealth, the Pharaoh of Egypt and King Abimilech of Gerar. It is he who laughs first at the promise of God for a child in old age and his wife follows suit. It is Abraham that gives us plan B in the concubine solution that produces his heir Ishmael who will also be promised by God of the blessing of a great nation through his sons. It is these twelve tribes that will be at war with their cousins in the tribes of Isaac all through human history.
To Abraham God promises the land from the river of Egypt, probably the Nile, to the great river Euphrates an area that stretches possibly from the Red Sea east through Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and possibly parts of northern Saudi Arabia and much of north and south west Iraq today. This land which comprises most of what Genesis chapter two describes the Garden of Eden will never all belong to the heirs of Isaac but most of it will be inhabited by the ancestors of Isaac and Ishmaels sons put together and later the heirs of Jacob and Esau. In the late 1940’s the King of Jordan will be quoted as saying, “let the Jews come back, they are our cousins and they will bless us.” And they will all still be fighting well into the 21st century.
Isaac 2066-1886 B.C.*
Isaac is a miracle child born to parents over 100 years old. He is given Abrahams promise from God that his ancestors will become a great nation and that nation will bless all the nations of the world. He grows up among the Hittite people from whom his father has bought land. He finally settles in what we now call the southern most boarder of Israel. God miraculously provides the wife of His choice from his fathers’ people near Haran, now southeast Turkey, in the land of the Amorites. Rebekah is Aramean and she is promised that she will give birth to two nations and the older will serve the younger. Isaac lives for 180 years.
In spite of all this great blessing, Isaac lies again as his father did to Abimilech King of the Philistines. He breaks the treaty his father has made with Abimilech and then makes a new one, fearing God is unable to protect him. His beautiful wife proceeds to poison (convince?) their son Jacob with the need to lie, manipulate and deceive their father in order to get the blessing God had already promised him. On the other hand Isaac was going to give Esau the blessing God had promised to Jacob in spite of what God had already told them about Jacob’s leadership. And the ancestors of these two great nation builders will feud through all of history.
Jacob 2005-1859 B.C.*
Jacob has an impressive beginning. While still in his mother’s womb God chooses him to lead his tribe. He gets a double blessing from his father, Isaac. On his way to his mother’s family in Haran God sends angels in a dream to promise that his ancestors will multiply greatly and through them God will bless all the peoples of the earth. Jacob works very hard for 14 years to obtain his Uncle Laban’s daughters in marriage and God blesses them both with children. Jacob’s business prospers as well as the uncle he serves. When Jacob returns to Canaan with his family God sends an angel for a second time to wrestle and bless Him. He is crippled in this encounter but he is also changed and God gives him the name Israel. He reconciles with Esau on his return and buys land from the Philistines in Shechem and settles there.
As blessed and as called of God as Jacob is there are areas of his life that are a disaster. He lies to his father and steals his brother’s birthright and blessing. He tries magic to multiply his flock when God has already told him that He will bless him. His wife, seemingly running in the family line, lies to her father and steals his idols, hiding them and taking them to Canaan. His first two wives fight their entire life and his sons are a mess. They are jealous, selfish, treacherous and violent. They plan to murder their little brother Joseph but decide selling him would be more profitable. They lie to the Shecimites and then commit genocide of the male population in order to build their own wealth. Jacob astutely understands this will turn all the tribes in Canaan against them and returns to Bethel and the place where God first spoke to him. He lives for 146 years.
Joseph 1914-1805 B.C.*
Joseph is singled out by God from very early on to lead his tribe. He is adored by his father as the son of his first love, Rachel. He is a diligent and honest worker. Although sold by his brothers into slavery, he keeps His trust in God and God exalts him in his work. He is honorable when solicited by his boss’s wife but is thrown in prison anyway. He keeps serving God and is blessed again in his work in prison. Because of his relationship with God and the blessing of fellow prisoners he is singled out by the Pharaoh to interpret a dream. Not only does God tell him the dream and the meaning, but Joseph is also successful in saving the lives of all the other magicians. The Pharaoh makes him second in State and puts him over all of His affairs including disaster relief.
Joseph is used by God to save the nations of Egypt and Israel from financial ruin and starvation. Because of Joseph, his people are blessed in Egypt for more than 100 years. And his two sons are given equal status with his brothers and found two of Israel’s tribal nations, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Joseph does not, like his forefathers, lie, cheat, steal or dishonor for personal gain. Until his brothers come to Egypt for financial help. Joseph becomes unrecognizable with displays of emotion that alert the whole Palace. He manipulates to get his brothers and father back to Egypt even when he has all the power of Egypt to make that happen. He is married to an Egyptian and leads Israel into the situation that will turn into more than 400 years of slavery.
Joseph lived 180 years.
The Liberator
Moses 1526-1406 B.C.*
Toward the end of Israel’s slavery in Egypt God miraculously spars and raises up a political liberator and leader in Moses. Pharaoh’s daughter raises him in the Palace. He is a natural leader. He will bring all of Israel and other slaves out of Egypt and to freedom with no army or government to back him. He will receive the laws of God from God and help build the foundations for discipling nations including Israel. He will form Israel’s first government and priesthood. He will build the first Tabernacle. He sees God face to face and performs dramatic miracles that provide for more than 3,000,000 refugees in the wilderness. Beginning at 80 years of age he will lead his people for 40 years in the wilderness with no outside support system. He will build the foundations that Jesus says he builds on in Matthew chapter five.
But before he accomplishes all of this he will commit murder, flee to political asylum, marry a Midianite who’s father is a pagan priest. He nearly dies because he has failed to circumcise his boys. His stepbrother Pharaoh and the elders of Israel reject him for years before they begin to listen. Millions of lives are lost and billions in property value will be devestated in Egypt under his leadership. He fears failure, fears public speaking and sees Israel build a Golden Calf with his brother Aaron. He responds in such anger and frustration, taking credit for a miracle God performed that God forbids him to enter the promise land. Moses lived 120 years.
