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]