Ancient Israelites in Canaan | The Jewish Story | Unpacked

the year was approximately 1300 bce 200 years earlier jacob's family had arrived in egypt as migrants now their descendants 2 million strong were fleeing from egypt as refugees from persecution they'd become a distinct people the hebrews the one true god who had appeared to their ancestor abraham had delivered them from slavery with an important mission to become a holy nation the nation of israel at mount sinai they received the bible god's instruction for building a just society but a nation also needs a home so god instructed the hebrews to return to the holy land of their ancestors kanan aka the modern state of israel and take possession of it two big questions confronted them first one what kind of government should they form strong monarchy an oligarchy something else and two how should they take possession of a land already populated by seven nations military conflicts seemed inevitable but how could they achieve victory well over the next 200 years the israelites would indeed conquer the land and settle it initially their political system was organized along more tribal lines joshua moses's successor wouldn't be a king and nor would the leaders who followed him unlike other nations the israelites were led by judges unelected non-hereditary bible scholars who would guide this confederation of tribes and there were crises some external some self-inflicted if the people were united it was due to their allegiance to the judges and their loyalty to the one god [Music] let's call the year 1250 bce after wandering for 40 years the hebrews stood ready for the difficult tasks ahead they really had their work cut out for them they were ordered to conquer the holy land and build a holy society there no small feed what's more they were now without the guidance of their great leader moses who had died without being able to fulfill his own dream of entering the promised land under ordinary circumstances taking over from moses would be an impossible task who could fill his shoes well joshua the son of nun was up to it he had the resume chosen by god mentored by moses he had led the people into battle in the wilderness and bravely stood up to his fellow tribal leaders in the incident of the spies joshua's message was with god's help we can do it the land of canaan was bordered by two great empires egypt and mesopotamia but neither ruled it in fact one might say that no one ruled kanan according to the bible there were 31 fortified city-states such as jerusalem and jericho controlled by various kings and divided among the seven indigenous canaanite tribes as we'll see this situation favored the invading israelites meanwhile god instructed joshua that if he and the people faithfully kept the laws of the bible victory would be assured before sending the troops joshua dispatched two spies to the jericho region to do some reconnaissance the spies were discovered but their beautiful innkeeper tipped them off and saved the mission the israelite's first battle was jericho if you could call it a battle the soldiers didn't do much fighting at god's instruction they encircled the fortified city every day for seven days with the ark of the covenant and the priests blowing ram's horns at the front of the procession on the last day the people shouted and the city walls collapsed jericho was easily conquered and the city was burned the canaanite kings heard of israel's victory at jericho and vowed to fight them however one group the gevoknights secretly made peace with the israelites that didn't sit well with the other canaanite kings however and they united to attack yvonne which called the joshua for hell joshua's men routed the canaanite armies because of a famous miracle that helped them at joshua's request god kept the sun fixed in the sky for an entire day that is 24 hours so that israel could crush its enemies after a series of additional raids israel returned to its base camp at gilgal when the fighting had ended they surveyed and apportioned the land among the 12 tribes the actual settlement of kanan would have to wait until the post-joshua era under joshua israel was faithful to god although there would be turbulent times ahead there was no doubt that israel's wanderings and its exile from its ancestral home had finally come to an end sounds like a happily ever after right pack up go home we're good not so fast trouble still lingered ahead according to the book of judges the israelites repeatedly misstepped in the generations following joshua's death too frequently they rejected god and worshipped idols god punished them by allowing their enemies to defeat and subjugate them the people then cried out to god for help and god appointed a judge to save them from their enemies so here was the original political religious system for the people in the land the leaders called judges were to be appointed by virtue of their bible wisdom their righteousness and general respected leadership abilities divora was one of the greatest judges she was the only woman to have that role and she was also a prophetess in fact when you consider how rare it was to find any women in leadership roles in this early stage of history you see how exceptional devorah was in her day israel was oppressed by yavin the king of hazor devara instructed her general barack to muster troops to engage cicera yavin's commander barack agreed to go but only if dvorah would join him she agreed but reminded him that now a woman would take credit for the victory the forces of israel roundly defeated cicero's forces killing every soldier okay here's where the story gets a little gruesome and needs a pg-13 rating you may want to pause here to allow young children and puppies to leave the room so siser managed to escape from the battle and arrive at the tent of heaver the kenite hever had peaceful relations with yavin unfortunately for cicera hever's wife yael was at home and she was sympathetic to the israelites yael pretended to welcome cicero to attend for some r r she even gave him milk and covered him with a rug cicero fell asleep an opinion in the talmud says that yale found another way to tire him out but we're keeping this pg yael took advantage of cicero's unconscious state and drove a tent peg right through his temple devorah wrote a song of praise for y'all remember a prophecy to barack about a woman getting the credit and recounted all of the gory details of caesar's downfall devorah was known as a mother in israel her military victories helped to unify the tribes and thanks to her the israelites enjoyed peace for 40 years the tradition of powerful women didn't begin with devorah even during the slavery in egypt we saw echoes of this but her outstanding leadership at this pivotal moment was really something special the last of the named judges was the mighty samson with superhuman strength samson could kill a lion with his bare hands he wiped out an entire army of philistines using nothing more than the jawbone of a donkey but samson had an achilles heel well hair anyway if his long locks were trimmed he would instantly lose his strength what's less known however is that samson was a nazir a person who took a special vow that included not cutting your hair being a nazir didn't give you unusual strength samson received that ability from god but if his vow were to be violated the gift would disappear samson was a tragic figure he was obviously blessed by god and his commitment to his people was admirable but he was also prone to anger into making foolish decisions samson's downfall came as a result of his relationship with a woman named delilah the philistines had bribed her to learn the secret of samson's great strength and she finally got him to reveal that it was all about the hair let's cut to the chase samson fell asleep and the philistine barbers gouged out his eyes and put him in shackles they brought him to gaza where he was put to hard labor however samson's instinct for revenge had its advantages during a religious festival the philistines put him on display in their temple three thousand people attended to mock him samson asked to rest by leaning against a pillar he prayed to god to have his strength back one last time and god granted him his request in a dramatic scene samson grabbed hold of the two pillars supporting the temple and cried out let me die with the philistines he pulled with all of his might and brought the building crashing down killing everyone inside samson's family came to collect his corpse and bury him in his father's tomb he had ruled israel for 20 years if the l story was graphic there is a terrible story at the end of the book of judges that is truly horrible in every conceivable way it offers a graphic illustration of what can happen when a society lacks a strong central authority the event is known as the concubine and geva it began when the concubine of a man from the tribe of levy left him and returned to her father's house the levite set out to retrieve her and eventually persuaded her to come back with him on the way back they stopped in a city in the region of benjamin known as geva an old man took the levite and his concubine into his house for the night a group of men from the town came to the old man's house and demanded he'd turn over his guest the levite so that they could sodomize him the old man pleaded with them and offered to give them his own virgin daughter and the levites concubine the men wouldn't listen and the levite pushed his concubine out of the house the townspeople raped and abused her all night long in the morning she was found dead at the entrance of the house the levite put her on his donkey and brought her home once there he did something quite strange he cut up her corpse into 12 pieces and sent them throughout the territory of israel the levite was outraged and was sending a clear message something needed to be done to those responsible the people's response was overwhelming four hundred thousand fighting men including all the leaders of the other tribes descended upon the territory of benjamin all of israel united against the town of geva and the tribe of benjamin they demanded to know how such a thing could possibly happen and for those responsible to be handed over and brought to justice but the people of benjamin wouldn't yield instead they chose war 26 000 men to oppose the huge force arrayed against them early on benjamin was winning the israelites were dismayed and asked god whether they were right to fight god answered in the affirmative when a society will not correct injustices in its midst everyone is guilty the next day the israelites routed the troops of benjamin killing 25 000 men it didn't stop there the other tribes vowed to ban the tribe of benjamin and would not allow marriages with them the dangers of not having centralized and formal leadership are summarized by the book of judges in those days there was no king in israel everyone did as he pleased it's a complex statement which at first glance appears neutral or ambiguous and perhaps we could say that without a central government the people were even more responsible for their actions the fact that this system endured for 200 years is evidence that in many ways it worked and was a transition into the monarchical governing space the return to canaan held great promise for the exiled israelites they were no longer wandering people but one with their own land and their own god these elements are foundational for israel's mission of building a holy society and being a light unto the nations but the path to gaining sovereignty in the holy land would be a difficult one the people's frequent disobedience to god led to cycles of punishment and repentance in which the figure of the judge played an important role the judges were outstanding individuals who led israel through this challenging informative period yet for all of their merits the judges could not unite the nation in a way that established justice ensured domestic tranquility provided for the common defense promoted the general welfare and secured the blessings of liberty to borrow a phrase from america's founding fathers a different model of leadership was needed or at least had to be tried by the end of the second millennium bce the populist call for a king would become deafening thank you for watching i hope you liked this video don't forget to subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications so you'll know when we upload new videos

Channel: Unpacked

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Keywords: Judaism, Israelites, religion, jewish, judaism 101, israel, jewish people, jews, jewish videos, Deborah, the prophets, bible, old testament, biblical stories, biblical stories explained, bible study, tanakh, torah, hebrew bible, deborah prophetess, book of Judges, the book of judges, samson, bible stories, gideon, samson and delilah, Canaan, canaanites, ancient near east, jerusalem, jericho, jewish history, jewish educational media, the jewish story explained, unpacked, the bible, educational

Id: OTwva-gOjyo

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020