The Old Testament

I recently finished re-reading the Old Testament. It was a long project. I'd try to read about 1 page a day on the days I did read. I started this project around 2015. I'd bought a NIV Bible for my mother as a planned Christmas gift for 2014. Alas she was ill and died in December that year before Christmas. So I was left with the Bible.

I took it as inspiration to read the good book again. I'd read it cover to cover over several months around a generation ago, back about 1994. It was King James Version in those days. I'd forgotten a lot of it over the years. The NIV is more accessible. Plus with the knowledge and experience of today, I got new and different things out of the reading. Well I'm not quite done yet. I've started the New Testament, perhaps there will be a post about that at some future point.

My reading of the Old Testament was basically the story of Israel and the Jews. The origins with Abraham/Isaac/Jacob, deliverance out of Egypt, years in the wilderness, the establishment of the kingdom of ancient Israel, the fall of Israel and Jerusalem. It was sad in II Kings when Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem all fell.

I got thinking how did that happen? From the success and splendor of the early kings Saul, David, and Solomon; to later division into Israel/Judah, military defeat by Babylon, and exile. It was quite a fall from the heights of the empire of ancient Israel.

I've assigned the failure of the kingdom of Israel to these three major factors.

Outmarriage
From the original 12 sons of Jacob, of course they would have had to marry wives outside their family to establish the original tribes. And with selective outmarriage such as Ruth it could be a benefit to Israel. But by the time of Saul it was not necessary to marry a wife who was not a Jew. King Solomon had in the area of 700 wives. It would not be possible to keep track of them all. Solomon accepted wives from other nations who had their own gods and were not of the Lord of Israel.

With scant attention or oversight from their husband (as there were 700 of them), and the authority of a king's wife, the wives of Solomon were allowed to bring Baal and Asherah into Israel. Solomon did not consistently require his foreign wives to take his religion and become Jewish. They were allowed to keep their own gods and bring in their own priests from their country into Israel's territory.

These foreign gods in time distracted and corrupted the people of Israel away from the Lord. The Lord certainly noticed, was displeased, and took action, to Israel's detriment. Once these foreign gods were allowed to come in and become established in Israel, they were never successfully completely removed.

Division and Infighting
The separation and creation of the separate kingdom of Judah from Israel was not for the best. A tremendous amount of time and energy and lives were lost between fellow Jews in Israel and Judah scheming and fighting each other. They were surrounded by enemies, and they weakened themselves by splitting into two hostile kingdoms. Divided you fall.

Regression to the Mean
The kingdom of Israel was founded by exceptionals. Consider the original line Saul-David-Solomon. Saul was a head taller than anyone. Strong and attractive. Saul killed thousands of Israel's enemies. David was a great musician and poet. Also a great warrior, David killed tens of thousands. Solomon was wise. A great statesman. Builder of the great temple. Solomon presided over an era of splendor, peace and prosperity.

And then after Solomon ... well there were a number whose name began with J. they all seem pretty unremarkable. So while it was exceptionals at the start, mediocrity followed. Regression to the mean link is a fact of mathematics. There are ways to counter it such as non-hereditary succession, choosing the "best" son as the new king instead of necessarily the "first" son, possibly some others. But after the greatness of the early kings the leadership of Israel fell off and Israel was worse off for it.


Together, over the years and decades and not that many generations, it was all too much. Judah was not too big to fail. Eventually Israel was defeated by enemies and the kingdom fell and the Jewish people were scattered.