God knows the end from the beginning … and will do all that He pleases … He will grant salvation to Israel
~ Isaiah 46:10,13
Timeline
Genesis 12:2-3,7
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land."
Genesis 13:15
"All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever."
Genesis 17:8
"The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
Genesis 26:3
"… to you (Isaac) and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham."
Genesis 28:13
… "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you (Jacob) and your descendants the land on which you are lying."
Genesis 35:12
"The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you (Jacob), and I will give this land to your descendants after you."
Genesis 35:10
God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So He named him Israel.
Genesis 22:1-2
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
This was the place where King David would acquire the land for the building of the FirstTemple.
The Law was given to the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Galations 3:19
"What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come …"
God warned Israel that if they did not obey the Law fully then He would scatter them out of the land.
2 Samuel 5:4-7
David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.
The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, "You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off." They thought, "David cannot get in here." Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David.
2 Samuel 24:18-25
On that day Gad went to David and said to him, "Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad.
When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" "To buy your threshing floor," David answered, "so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped."
Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king." Araunah also said to him, "May the Lord your God accept you."
But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.
David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
1 Chronicles 21:18
Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 22:1
Then David said, "The house of the Lord God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel."
2 Chronicles 3:1
Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on MountMoriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.
Genesis 22:2
God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
1 Kings 2:10-12
Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. He had reigned forty years over Israel – seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.
So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.
2 Chronicles 3:1-2
Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on MountMoriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
1 Kings 11:42-43
Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.
Under King Solomon Israel occupied almost all the land that God promised to the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Divided kingdomTen tribes of Israel established a separate kingdom in the north. Judah and Benjamin had a kingdom in the south with Jerusalem as its capital.
2 Kings 15:29
In the time of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria.
1 Chronicles 5:26
So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan, where they are to this day.
The start of the first exile. The scattering of the Jewish people began.
2 Kings 17:3-7,13-15
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser's vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison.
The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the HaborRiver and in the towns of the Medes.
All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods …
The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and seers: "Turn from your evil ways. Observe My commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets."
But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God. They rejected His decrees and the covenant He had made with their fathers and the warnings He had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, "Do not do as they do," and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do.
The survivors of the ten tribes of Israel were taken into exile.
Isaiah 36:1
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
Cities were destroyed, but not Jerusalem.
2 Kings 23:31-34
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his fathers had done.
Pharaoh Neco put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
"The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord.
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ÔÇÿKnow the Lord,' because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
The FirstTemple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were taken into exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah 52:27-30
There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.
This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; in his twenty-third year, 745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard. There were 4,600 people in all.
(See also 2 Kings, chapters 24 & 25)
King Cyrus made a proclamation to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem
Ezra 1:1-4
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
ÔÇÿThis is what Cyrus king of Persia says:"The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of His people among you – may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem."'
Only a few tens of thousands of Jews returned to Israel from the exile in Babylon. Most remained scattered out of the land.
The SecondTemple(see Ezra 1 to 6) was a shadow of its former glory but, hundreds of years later, King Herod would spend 46 years turning it into a magnificent building.
The Torah – Law of Moses – the first of the three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible – was accepted by the rabbis as authoritative.
See the book of Nehemiah. Israel was slowly recovering from its desolation and the first scattering. The regathering was partial and the Jews did not return from all the quarters of the world.
The Neviim – the Prophets – the second of the three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible – were added to the canon.
The Ketuvim – the Holy Writings – the third of the three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible – were added to the canon. By the time of Jesus the full canon of Hebrew Scripture – known as the Tanach, an acronym of the Hebrew for the Law, the Prophets and the Holy Writings – had been accepted by the Jews for hundreds of years.
Alexander brought Greek culture and thinking, and the Greek language, to Israel and the Middle East of the time.
The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek.
The Seleucid empire had succeeded Alexander. Under the rule of Antiochus the Temple had been defiled. The Jews, led by the Maccabees, captured Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple. Jews celebrate the event with the non-biblical Feast of Dedication, also called Hanukkah. John 10:22 shows that Jesus observed this feast.
Observant Jews were trying to live out the Law isolated from Greek influences and the corruption of the priesthood in Jerusalem.
Rome became the dominant power in the world and established peace through ruthless suppression of all dissent.
Herod, and his successors, owed allegiance to Rome. Herod the Great was famous for his many building projects. The SecondTemple renovations were started in 18 BC and would take 46 years, being completed after his death. The disciples of Jesus would, like everyone else, be impressed with the huge stonework but Jesus would be dismissive [Matthew 24:1-2, Mark 13:1-2].
Mark 13:1-2
As He was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!"
"Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
Matthew 24:1-2
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when His disciples came up to Him to call His attention to its buildings.
"Do you see all these things?" He asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
Giving of the new covenant [Luke 22:17-20].
Luke 22:17-20
After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you."
Start of the church, for many years comprising entirely Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah.
Gentiles started to come to faith in Jesus in great numbers, largely, but not exclusively, through the missionary efforts of the apostle Paul.
The Romans destroyed the SecondTemple.
The Essenes fled the monastry at Qumran after hiding their library in caves around the Dead Sea.
Rabbi YochananbenZakkai established a model of Judaism that did not depend on the Temple building or sacrifices for atonement. In the absence of the Temple altar, this fell far short of the Torah requirements. Rabbinic Judaism, as practised today, with its hoped-for salvation by works and good deeds, can be dated from benZakkai's academy in Yavneh during this period.
The Romans put down the revolt with great ferocity. Hundreds of Jewish communities in Israel were destroyed. The Jews were scattered from the Promised Land for the second time.
The Temple Mount was ploughed with salt and Jews were banished from Jerusalem on pain of death. Jerusalem was renamed AeliaCapitolina and the land was renamed Syria Palestina (or Palestine, as it was known until 1948). This was done in a deliberate attempt to humiliate Israel by favouring their ancient enemies, the Philistines. The Arabic word for Philistine is Falastin, from which comes the English word for the Palestinians.
Multitudes of Christians became martyrs for their faith.
The Edict of Milan decreed toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
There was a call for "seclusion and humiliation" of the Jews. By this time the vast majority of Christians were non-Jews. After the start of an all-Jewish church of believers in Jesus, Christianity had become a Gentile enterprise.
Constantine declared Christianity to be the official state religion of the Roman Empire
This signalled the start of the Dark Ages.
Islam was established by Mohammed in Mecca.
Under Moslem rule Jews were permitted to return to the city.
Moslem presence established on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Schism arose between Catholics of Rome and Orthodox Christians of Constantinople.
Jews were massacred across Europe as the Crusader armies marched toward the Holy Land.
The Jewish and Moslem inhabitants were slaughtered.
The great Gothic cathedrals in Europe were constructed. The church saw itself, not as a humble community of people saved by grace, but as a triumphant, dominant institute of state, even world, government.
Christianity was the state religion of western Europe. The great missionary effort had succeeded but it was an imposed religion of works, rather than faith from the heart by individuals who had been born-again spiritually. The Inquisition attempted to root out unbelievers, meaning non-adherants of the church of Rome.
Torture was sanctioned during the Inquisition as a means of extracting the truth from suspects.
Bubonic plague killed one third of the population of Europe.
The Byzantine Empire came to an end although Eastern Orthodox Christianity, primarily the Greek and Russians strains, continues to this day. Orthodox Christians do not give allegiance to Rome. They remain influential in Israel and parts of the Middle East.
The Bible was printed in Latin. Prior to this the Scriptures had to be copied by hand and were not available to the common people.
The Authorised Version of the Bible in English was published
Jewish communities in Russia were attacked. It prompted migration of Jews from eastern Europe to the Holy Land.
The second and great regathering of Israel started as a trickle
Isaiah 11:11-12
In that day the Lord will reach out His hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of His people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.
Continued persecutions prompted the first wave of Jews to migrate from eastern Europe to what was then called Palestine.
A scandal involving a Jewish officer in the French army brought out anti-Semitism in Europe. It prompted TheodorHerzl to promote the cause of a Jewish State.
Influential Jews agreed on the imperative of a homeland for their people.
A second wave of Jews, mainly from Russia and Poland, migrated to Palestine. They were driven by persecutions.
The first kibbutz was established at Degania in the Galilee.
Establishment of Tel AvivWhat was to become the largest city in Israel started as a few Jewish homes in the sand dunes north of Jaffa.
Turkey, the occupiers of Palestine, allied with Germany at the start of World War I.
The British defeated the Turkish rulers of Jerusalem, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule.
Balfour DeclarationThe British expressed their support, in writing, for a homeland for the Jews in Israel. Their actions, at the end of the Mandate period, did not match their promise.
Britain received a mandate from the League of Nations to administer Palestine.
Start of the Third AliyahA third wave of Jews, mainly from Russia, migrated to Palestine.
Hebrew languageHebrew was recognized as the official language of the Jews in Palestine. This marked the first time since the loss of the Promised Land that Hebrew moved from being a liturgical language to that of the man in the street.
A fourth wave of Jews, mainly from Poland, migrated to Palestine.
Jews started leaving to settle in Palestine (Fifth Aliyah)
A limit was placed on Jewish immigration to Palestine and on the purchase of land by Jews.
Six million Jews perished in the Nazi concentration camps. After the War thousands of survivors of the death camps made their way to the Promised Land.
British forces in Palestine continued turning away Jewish refugees who came from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.
Partition Plan for PalestineA Partition Plan, calling for separate states within the land for Jews and for Arabs, was adopted on 29 November by the United Nations, supported by the USA and the USSR.
Zionist leaders accepted the plan, but the Arabs rejected it.
Britain refused to co-operate with the Partition Plan, washed its hands of the Palestine problem, and announced its withdrawal.
The State of Israel was declaredIsrael was proclaimed a State by David Ben Gurion on 14 May
Isaiah 66:8
"Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children."
The new State was immediately recognized by the USA and Russia, but not by Britain.
The next day, 15 May, the last British troops departed and Israel was invaded by five Arab armies – Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
The first Arab-Israeli War began.
Arrival of 120,000 Jewish immigrants, in spite of the war.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews migrated to Israel from Europe and Arab countries.
In January, Israel defeated the Egyptian army – armistice agreement signed the next month.
Eilat and the Negev were captured.
War of Independence endedIn March, the War of Independence was over as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon signed armistice agreements.
Jerusalem dividedIsrael controlled the west, the new city. Jordan occupied the OldCity and the east.
(Palestine Liberation Organisation)
Israel captured the OldCity of JerusalemIsrael gained control of Jerusalem, the Sinai desert, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and areas of Judea and Samaria which became known as the West Bank.
Israel more than tripled the size of the area it controlled.
In November, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242 calling on Israel to withdraw from the territories occupied in the Six-Day War. The Resolution also called on the Arab states to make peace with Israel, and recognized that Israel was entitled to secure boundaries. The Resolution did not require that Palestinians be given political rights or territory.
In October, in a statement to the UN General Assembly, the PLO rejected Resolution 242.
Israel, under the Likud Party and Prime Minister Begin, agreed to withdraw from territory in the Sinai Peninsula, and to give the Palestinians autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
7,800 black Jews were rescued from Ethiopia and brought to Israel.
Mass immigration of Russian Jews – one million moved to Israel over the next 10 years.
In a 36-hour airlift, codenamed Operation Solomon, Israel rescued 14,300 black Jews from Ethiopia.
Gulf WarUS-led coalition liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
Israel was bombed by Iraqi scud missiles even though she stayed out of the war. Jewish migrants continued to arrive in Israel throughout that period.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators conducted secret talks leading to the Oslo agreement.
The handshake on White House lawnPresident Clinton presided as Itzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, signed the Declaration of Principles with Yasser Arafat of the PLO.
While the USA, the EU and the UN press Israel to give up land for a Palestinian state, efforts to reach this peace accord are continuously derailed by hostilities, including suicide bombings. Throughout this time the economy of Israel grows, as does its military, and there is a steady stream of migrants to the land from all the nations of the world.