Quickie: Israeli history explained.

Just read Nehemiah this morning, the account of the Persian governor of Judah, rebuilder of Jerusalem’s walls after the Chaldeans destroyed them under Nebuchadnezzar.

Alright, from Joshua through Nehemiah, I can pretty much boil it down to this:

Nation israel = new Nation();  
for ( ;; )  
{  
  israel.forgetAbout( GOD );  
  israel.getPunishedBy( GOD );  
  israel = new Nation( israel.getRemnant() )  
}  

GOD, of course, is a global constant, visible to everyone.

* * *

I mean, granted, just look how much Americans have screwed-up our own society in only 200+ years, which is a mere drop-in-the bucket compared to Moses->David->Jesus, but could these people NOT understand what was going to happen?

Ultimately, Israel (and then Israel + Judah) was a peon little nation at the crossroads between one big hairy power to the South (Egypt) and a REALLY bad set of guys to the northeast ( take your pick–Assyria, Neo-Babylon, Persia, Alexander the Great, the Selucids ). God (YHWH) was pretty much their only chance, walled cities or not.

[Stewie]“Hey, pass the Asherath pole, I’m feeling sinful!”[/Stewie]