Historical Books of Israelites: Narrating the Past to Explain the Present - Essay Sample

Introduction

The historical books in the Bible narrate the collective story of the Israelites from their origin past by relating it to the present Israelites. The historical books of Israelites interpret the occurrence of the past to explain the current events. Furthermore, the historical books show how past actions affect the present happening of events through causation links between two proceedings occurring on different occasions and periods. The books narrate previous stories of Israelites in a specific manner to illustrate what happened and what it meant for them now, intending to explain the reason for current actions (Walters, n.d.). Therefore, the primary purpose of historical books of the Bible is to elaborate on how present deeds are of Israelites are directly affected by past events in a particular way.

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First, the books explain God's expectations from Israelites through Torah obedience. The Israelites were to obey and respect the covenant with God at Mount Sinai for them to possess the promised land and blessings from their creator. Also, through obedience, the Israelites were to conquer their enemies and multiply after settling in Canaan. Secondly, the historical books narrate about Apostasy, where the ancient Israelites were unfaithful through worshipping other gods despite God's plea for them to repent. Whereby after the destruction of their kingdoms by their enemies led them to exile. The books also elaborate on the repentance of the ancient Israelites from the sins after God sends prophets to warn them about the coming judgment (Walters, n.d.). God used prophets to warn His people to repent due to their infidelity.

The books still talk about the land which God promised Abraham to give to his descendants to dwell. In the book of Joshua, Israelites conquered and settled in that land. More so, they explain the Davidic Monarchy, where God had promised David descendants to be kings in Jerusalem. However, the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonians led to the end of the Davidic dynasty.

The prophet plays a typical role of speaking the truth to power regardless of the consequences. God spoke to the kings of Israel through prophets who delivered the correct messages without any fear. The biblical prophet gave the word of the Lord to Israelites, asking them to repent from their sins to prevent the wrath of God. For instance, Nathan confronted King David and prophesied to him about the word of Lord, claiming that the king had disobeyed God by plotting the killing of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba in battle (Walters, n.d.). Nathan dared to speak the right message of God to King David despite the authority he possesses as the king. Eventually, King David repented asking the Lord for forgiveness for his wicked deeds.

References

Walters, J. (n.d.). Lecture 5-Historical Books.m4v. Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxVDP_diSbq7aHUyRnVXcmRTT1E/view

Walters, J. (n.d.). Lecture 6-Prophets-with audio.m4v. Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxVDP_diSbq7TWRnb3J6ZXNxWkk/view