My family and I love visiting muzeums and one of my favourites is the Muzeum in Cairo. It is so rich in wonders. Hidden quietly in a nondescript corner of this museum, as if it did not wish to advertize the fact of its existence, is a piece of important artifact; in it we glimpse the earliest historical record of ancient Israel's existence as a people. It is what is known as the Merenptah's Stele. Erected by the Egyptian pharoah of that name in 1220 BC to celebrate his victories over his enemies, he boasted—among other things—that:
Plundered is the Canaan
with every evil,
Carried off is Ashkelon;
seized upon is Gezer;
. . . Israel is laid waste,
his seed is not;
Hurru is become a widow for Egypt.
Like the boasts of all men in all places high and low, his inscription fortunately contained more sound than substance. Whatever was the nature of his encounter with Israel, Israel survived. Egypt soon after Merenptah was assailed by the Sea Peoples, the Nubians and the Libyans,1 and went into decline; though its end as an independent empire would come only a millenium later, it would never again be the power it once was. It is difficult to imagine how Israel could have survived if Egypt, after Merenptah, had retained its former might and was able to impose the kind of imperialist influence in Canaan as it once did.
Two important observations emerge from this stele. First, whatever may be said about the uncertainty of the date of the Exodus event (for which see Date of the Exodus Event), Israel was already in Palestine by 1220 BC. Second, the manner in which Israel is described in the inscription suggests that she was, at that point in time, more like a people-group but not yet a full-fledged nation. This suggests the historical background of the conquest-settlement, perhaps within two or three generations of the exodus event itself.
But Israel's beginning as a people and nation is to be traced from their liberation from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Apart from the biblical records, there exists at the moment no other. It is hardly realistic to even imagine that any Egyptian pharaoh would have permitted any record of such an event of national disaster and humiliation to be preserved. At best we can say at the moment is that archaeological findings in Egypt show that the biblical accounts are not inconsistent with them.
The emergence of Israel in Palestine2 at this time was not to be unique. The period from about 1200 to 1000 BC is designated by historians and archaeologists as Iron Age I, i.e., the time when iron first became a technological innovation. But as biblical geographer, Thomas Brisco, has noted, "the real changes that heralded a new era had little to do with the rapid introduction of iron. The distinguishing characteristic of Iron Age I was the appearance of new peoples in the Levant, including Israel."3 Israel was only one among many groups of peoples on the move seeking new homes for themselves in this period. The great Mycenean and Hittite empires had just collapsed, resulting in waves of displaced people, collectively called the Sea People, sweeping from the Balkans, Asia and Anatolia in seach of suitable land to call a home. Even Egypt was not immune to attacks by these people. Of particular interest to us here are the Philistines, who settled on the Palestinian coast at about the same time as Israel was invading the land from the east. There they established themselves into the famous pentapolis, the five city-states of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath.
Though the Philistines were eventually to become Israel's most famous enemies, that did not seem to be the case in the earlier days of Israel's history in the land. Two things are of particular note about the relationship between the two. First, the Philistines did not seem interested in occupying the highlands which the Israelites had taken for themselves. Influence and trade seemed more their 'thing,' and here they held the upper hand because they had something to offer the Israelites which the latter could not, in the long run, do without, and that is their iron technology. (They were also masters of chariotry for which Israel had no interest until the time of Solomon.) They would gladly sell their iron tools to the Israelites but they would not permit their smiths among the latter. Everytime an Israelite had a tool that needed sharpening or repair, they had to seek out the Philistines; "So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their ploughshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening ploughshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads" (1 Sam 13:20-21). Call it technological imperialism if we may. For a long time it worked well for both sides. Second—and not inconsistent with the first—most of the Israelites seemed happy enough to live alongside their Philistine neighbours. They were still learning the ropes, as it were, of a settled civilized life in a strange new land; safer to live at peace with those who have useful things to teach you. This is obvious from the Samson narratives. If the woman in Timnah that he wanted to marry was not Philistine, the many wedding guest who eventually managed to get his wife to reveal the secret of his riddle were; "this time I have a right to get even with the Philistines" was his excuse for revenge once he found out that her father had given her away to someone else as wife (Judg 15:3). And when the Philistines wanted Samson captured three thousand Israelites were prepared to betray their judge to the Philistines says much where their hearts were (15:11ff.).
The Philistines were not, therefore, at this time nascent Israel's biggest challenge. That came from elsewhere but had its origin in Israel's own failure. Having been commanded stictly to destroy completely the Canaanites in the land during their conquest, they were largely indifferent to it (for an examination of the moral issue surrounding this commandment see The Annihilation of the Canaanites). This resulted in Israel now dweilling in the land with pockets of Canaanite settlements all over the place. The hill of Jebus—later to become Jerusalem—is a case in point. This had two disastrous effects on Israel. It seriously hampered communication between the various tribes thereby loosening the unity between them as a nation, which, as anyone reading the OT even for the first time, was never very strong in the first place. Tribal jealousies seemed always to have aced loyalty to the nation throughout Israel's history. One particular incident illustrates this better than any other.
The kingdom centered on Hazor in the north was supposedly destroyed in the conquest under Joshua (Jos 11). Nevertheless by the time of Deborah, the city seemed to have recovered enough so that its new king Jabin and his commander Sisera could harass the northern tribes at ease (Judg 4). Because most readers of the Bible lack a sense of the geography of the land, the significance of this event falls on most readers like water on a duck's back. If Jabin had had his way, he would soon control the length of the Jezreel Valley, and that would have entirely cut off the northern tribes like Asher, Zebulun, Issachar and Transjordan Manasseh (Open Map) from those south of the valley. They was no way these isolated tribes could have survived such a fate and it would have spelled the death of Israel as a nation before it had time to consolidate itself. The war against Jabin and Sisera led by Deborah was, therefore, more critical for Israel's survival than is often realized. But that war also shows by what a very fine thread Israel's survival as a nation hung. Deborah's song of triumph recorded for us in Judg 5 is bitter sweet. While it is full of praise for Yahweh and some of the tribes, it is also permeated through and through with signs against the indifference of others:
In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
Why did you stay among the campfires
to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.
Benjamin, Judah and Simeon never came near enough to warrant a passing reference.
The other effect of their failure and isolation was to heighten their exposure to the cultural and especially disastrous religious influence of the Canaanites. While the political threats to early Israel's existence were serious they were also the easier to deal with. Israel's wilful syncretism with the religious practices of the Canaanites so early in her history was to grow and proved her eventual downfall.
We have looked at Israel's early relation with the Philistines and those within Palestine. It is now time to turn to affairs in the Transjordan. These lands—originally the domain of Sihon and Og—now occupied by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, were the first to be taken by Israel, while Moses was still alive. Here the threat was of a different nature. The first was their isolation; the Jordan was not fordable everywhere, which made communication between them and the main body of the nation in Cisjordan even more difficult than that experieced by the other tribes. This sense of isolation was so keenly felt by these two and a half tribes that, once they had fulfilled their obligation to aid the other tribes in the conquest of Cisjordan and were on their way home they decided that they needed to erect an altar "on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side" (Jos 22:11) that caused such a furor among the other tribes they wanted to go to war against them. It had the odour of apostacy. Called to account for their action, they replied:
"The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows! And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, do not spare us this day. If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord himself call us to account. No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, `What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? The Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the Lord.' So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the Lord. That is why we said, `Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.' On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and fellowship offerings. Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, `You have no share in the Lord.' And we said, `If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the Lord's altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.' Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle." (Jos 22:22-29)
This was how tender and tenuous the sinews were that bound the tribes together as a nation in the early days of Israel's history in the land, particularly for those on the other side of the river. That said, the Jordan also provided protection to the Transjordan tribes from the woes of the Philistines and Canaanites. Here their troubles came mainly from the Midianites and the marauding Amalekites and other desert peoples;4 human parasites who made a living raiding and looting the fruits of other people's hard labour. Unlike their Philistine counterparts they had no compulsion crossing the Jordan in their raids—their use of the more versatile camels rather than the clunky iron-shod chariots of the Philistines probably accounts for this difference in attitude. It was thus Gideon, living in Cisjordan Manasseh and having felt the full blunt of their robbery, who finally subdued them. It was then, for the first time, that Israel began to show signs of a national consciousness and the need for some formal and tangible expression of national unity; they asked Gideon to rule over them (Judg 8:22). Wisely Gideon refused and so postponed the institution of the monarchy—for all its good and ills—in Israel for another century and a half. Meanwhile "there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes" (Judg 17:6; 21:25), and the nation spiralled into the sickening lawlessnss recounted in the closing chapters of Judges.
The beginnings of Israel as a nation in the Promised Land were, therefore, days of immense hardship and tenuous prospects. The authors of the book of Joshua and Judges, however, made sure to underline the fact that much of it had to be laid at the feet of the Israelites themselves. The life of faith to which Israel had been called cannot be lived with the convenience and ease of disobedience. The dynamics of faith simply does not permit it, and Israel's history is witness to that. But if there was one man who during this period did more than anyone else to help Israel transit this difficult passage of her history, it was Samuel. He was born towards the end of one of Israel's most disastrous phase of her history, a time when—in the tantalizing expression of the author of 1 Samuel—"the word of the Lord was rare, there were not many visions . . . and the lamp of God had not yet gone out." We read of no judges in office at the time but Eli the priests seemed to have provided whatever incompetent leadership he could for a nation that seem to have lost its way at the sanctuary at Shiloh. But there God began a new work for Israel.
The young boy Samuel was supposed to be tutored by Eli but it was the word of the Lord Himself that did the work: "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognised that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word" (1 Sam 3:19-21). Interestingly, with this comment Samuel disappears from the narrative for the next three chapters, reappearing again only at 7:3. Those three chapters are crucial for an understanding of Samuel's ministry, and they relate to the greatest disasters to befall Israel in this phase of her history. Somewhere along the way the nation had gotten onto a war-ath with the Philistines. When the people came up with the silly idea that having the ark of the Lord into the battle field would ensure their victory, Eli went along with it when he should have counsel against such superstitious folly. The Lord, of course, would countenance no such nonsense and He duly allowed the ark to be captured by the Philistines. Samuel's absence from these chapters underlines his absolute non-involvement in this sordid affair. When he reappears again at 7:3, we hear him warning the people of Israel that liberation from the Philistine oppression can only come if and when they rid themselves of their idolatous ways and commit themselves fully to the Lord. Faithfully, and year after year, he went on circuit moving from one sanctuary to another around the country to council, to judge and to strengthen the people in the ways of Yahweh. With advancing years Samuel thought his sons would carry on his work. Like many great men of God, however, he was to be disappointed for they "did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice" (1 Sam 8:3). And when the people came to Samuel, they more than complained about his sons. They asked for a king.Four times the author of Judges had made the point that in those days Israel had not king (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) and twice added that "all the people did what was right in their won eyes" (NRS). Would having a king bring things to right? Or was the author already hinting that it didn't matter? We must wait and see.
We suggest you take the time now to read through the entirety of the book of Judges and the at least the first eight chapters of 1 Samuel to a) consolidate your reading here and b) ensure that this essay comports with Scriptures.
Low Chai Hok,
©Alberith, 2021