Dio, Giustizia Bibbia e politici: Capitolo 14
Parte terza: Lezioni politiche di Storia Ebraica
Capitolo 14
Abramo a Mosè
The vast majority of the Old Testament focuses on political leadership. From Genesis to the prophet Isaiah, 15 della 22 books are primarily telling the story of what was happening in Israel in the political realm. In the prescriptive Laws God tells us what He wants from political leaders and the people. Negli eventi storici Dio ci dice che cosa hanno fatto i profeti aggiungere le conseguenze di tali scelte.
As we fly over this vast two thousand year landscape of political leadership we are looking for God’s emphasis. What is He telling us? Why does He include these details? What are we to take from this selected history of Israel into our lives and work today? We are looking for the meaning of the history God gives us in the form of eternal values and principles of the Kingdom.
Gli inizi Tribal
Abraham 2166-1991 AC *
Abramo è nato a Ur, moderna Iraq, near the Euphrates river and near the location considered the likely sight of the Garden of Eden. Abraham’s family is Chaldean. Suo padre aveva cominciato a muoversi verso ovest a Canaan, ma fermato in Haran, Sud Est Turchia oggi, dove morì a 205 anni di età.
Abraham is called of God to leave his extended family and tribe in Haran and set off again for Canaan. God promises him that he will father a new nation and that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through him. At 75 anni si stabilisce con la moglie Sarai,, i loro servi, lavoratori e il nipote Lot, arrivo a Sichem, quello che oggi chiamiamo la Cisgiordania, vicino al monte. Ebal e il monte. Gerizim.
Abram 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 any blunder from the war. He believes God will give him an heir late in life and is willing to offer this same child as a sacrifice if that is what God is saying. At 99, prima di aver avuto il figlio miracolo, Abraham believes God and performs the first rite 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 understands God’s heart to bless nations and pleads for all the mercy God is able to extend to its villainous people.
And yet, in his 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 the Philistines. He laughs at the promise of God for a child in old age. It is Abraham that gives us the concubine solution, which produces his heir Ishmael who will also be promised by God of the blessing of a great nation through his sons. And these tribes will be at war with their cousins, the tribes of Isaac, all through human history.
The geography of God promised lands to Abraham that extend 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, Giordania, Libano, Siria, 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 as the Garden of Eden, will never all belong to the heirs of Isaac but most of it will be inhabited by the ancestors of Abraham through Isaac and Ishmaels sons and later the heirs of Jacob and Esau. In the late 1940’s the King of Jordan will be quoted as saying, "Lasciate che gli ebrei tornano, sono i nostri cugini e ci benedice ".
Abramo muore a 175 anni di età.
Isaac 2066-1886 AC *
Isaac è un bambino prodigio nato da genitori più 100 anni. He inherits Abraham’s 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 settles in what would now be the southern most boarder of Israel. God miraculously provides the wife 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 younger, Jacob will serve the older, Esau.
In spite of all this great blessing Isaac lies, 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 their son Jacob with the need to lie, manipulate and deceive their father in order to get the blessing God had already promised to him. D'altronde, Isacco stava per dare Esaù la benedizione che Dio aveva promesso a Giacobbe a dispetto di ciò che Dio aveva già parlato loro leadership di Jacob. Gli antenati di questi due grandi tribù volontà feudo attraverso tutta la storia.
Isaac muore a 180 anni di età.
Jacob 2005-1859 AC *
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 with and bless Him. He is crippled in the 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 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, apparentemente seguendo la linea di famiglia, bugie di suo padre e ruba i suoi idoli, hiding them and taking them to Canaan. His first two wives fight their entire life and his sons are a mess. They are jealous, egoistico, treacherous and violent. They think 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 flees to Bethel the place where God first spoke to him.
Jacob dies at 146 anni di età.
Joseph 1914-1805 AC *
God singles out Joseph 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 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, Joseph is successful in saving the lives of all the other pagan magicians. 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, la sua gente sono protetti e benedetti in Egitto per più di 100 anni. His two sons are given equal status with his brothers and founded two of Israel’s 12 nazioni tribali, Manasse ed Efraim.
Joseph non mente, imbrogliare, 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 lies and manipulates to get his brothers and father back to Egypt even when he has all the power of Egypt to make that happen. Egli conduce Israele nella situazione che si trasformerà in più di 400 anni di schiavitù. Giuseppe è un condannato per crimini sessuali che ha speso 13 anni di carcere. E come suo padre ha quasi rifiuta capo scelto da Dio in Efraim suo figlio minore, preferendo il più vecchio figlio Manasse.
Giuseppe morì a 180 anni di età.
Mosè 1526-1406 AC *
Toward the end of Israel’s slavery in Egypt God miraculously spares Moses from the genocide of his generation and raises him up as political liberator and leader. Pharaoh’s daughter rescues him from a basket in the Nile and raises him in Pharaoh’s Palace. He is a natural leader. He brings all of Israel and other slaves out of Egypt to freedom with no army or formal government to back him. He receives the Laws from God and builds the foundations for discipling nations. He forms Israel’s first government and priesthood. He builds the Tabernacle. He sees God face to face and performs dramatic miracles that provide food and water for more than 3,000,000 refugees in the wilderness. Beginning at 80 years of age he leads his people for 40 years in the wilderness with no outside support system. And in Matthew five Jesus says that He lays the foundation for His message.
Before he accomplishes all of this he commits murder, flees to political asylum, and marries a Midianite whose father is a pagan priest. He nearly dies because he has failed to circumcise his sons. His stepbrother Pharaoh and the elders of Israel reject him as the leader for years. 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 under his brother Aaron’s leadership. He responds in such anger and frustration, taking credit for a miracle God performed that God forbids him to enter the promise land.
Moses dies at 120 anni di età.
As we finish this chapter in Israel’s political history what stands out?
*They are all chosen and called.
*They all have great feats of faith and personal commitment.
*They all have formidable faults and make grave errors.
*The all have major family issues.
*They all bring very difficult times to their nations history.
*They all have skeletons in the closet.
Is it possible they would all have a hard time being elected to office today? And yet God uses them.
E 'anche interessante notare che la strategia di terra nel paese di Canaan fino a questo punto della storia è stato l'acquisto.
Ora guardiamo alla storia di Giosuè e dei Giudici.
