Walking With Christ

Daniel 1:3-4
Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, (4)youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.(ESV)

I’m doing a study of Daniel with the church. This always leads me to ask more questions and try to dig a bit deeper. I’ve read Daniel dozens, if not hundreds, of times because I was obsessed with prophecy. I grew up being scared to death by Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel, and the Left Behind series of movies. I’m better now. Being told that Revelation is a book of prophecy that is guaranteed to happen without a full understanding of what that means isn’t always a good thing for a young Christian. I digress.

Having read this book as much as I have, it still never clicked in my head that Daniel and the others were noble, if not royal, blood. The genealogy is never actually given to say which house the four were from. Still, every person chosen had to fit the full list of criteria: royal or noble blood, youths, without blemish, good looking, wise, knowledgeable, smart, and competent. They were looking for the best of the best to be servants in the king’s palace.

This ends the usual verse of the day message, but below is an extremely simplified history of the land currently known as Israel from the crossing of the Jordan River to now. This accounts for 3,424 years (approximately, since these dates aren’t exact). Out of that time, the land has been ruled by someone other than the children of Israel for 2,430 of those years. The people who were promised the promised land have actually only had control of the land for 994 of the 3,424 years since they moved in. That’s only about 29% of the time. The highlighted areas are the periods when Israel was ruling Israel.

1. Conquest and Settlement by the Israelites (c. 1400 B.C. – c. 1050 B.C.) – 350
2. United Monarchy (c. 1050 B.C. – c. 930 B.C.) – 120
3. Divided Kingdom (c. 930 B.C. – 722/586 B.C.)
   • Kingdom of Israel (Northern Kingdom) (c. 930 B.C. – 722 B.C.): – 208 – All tribes except Judah and Benjamin (and some parts of Levi). Destroyed by the Assyrian Empire and integrated into that empire to the point of losing their identity.
   • Kingdom of Judah (Southern Kingdom) (c. 930 B.C. – 586 B.C.): – 344 – Remnant of Israel that would be left over through modern times.
   • It should be noted that Egypt heavily influenced the kingdom of Judah during the last twenty years before the Babylonian Empire truly conquered the area. While Judah was listed as a vassal state, it still retained autonomy. It was actually the defeat of Pharoah Necho by Babylon that led to the first Hebrew deportation in 605 B.C.
   • This period: 814 years
4. Babylonian Empire (586 B.C. – 539 B.C.) – 47
5. Persian Empire (539 B.C. – 332 B.C.) – 207
6. Greek (Hellenistic) Rule (332 B.C. – 167 B.C.) – 165
   • Alexander the Great (332 B.C. – 323 B.C.): – 9
   • Ptolemaic Rule (323 B.C. – 198 B.C.): – 125
   • Seleucid Rule (198 B.C. – 167 B.C.): – 31
   • This period: 419 years
7. Hasmonean (Maccabean) Kingdom (c. 167 B.C. – 63 B.C.) – 104
   • This period: 104 years
     
8. Roman Empire (63 B.C. – A.D. 324) – 387
9. Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) (A.D. 324 – 638) – 314
10. Islamic Caliphates (A.D. 638 – 1099) – 461
    • Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasid Caliphates (A.D. 638 – 969): – 331
    • Fatimid Caliphate (A.D. 969 – 1099): – 130
11. Crusader Kingdoms (A.D. 1099 – 1291) – 192
    • First Crusade and Kingdom of Jerusalem (A.D. 1099 – 1187): – 88
    • Muslim Recapture and Crusader Decline (A.D. 1187 – 1291): – 104
      • Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, and the Crusader presence gradually diminished, with their last stronghold falling in 1291.
12. Mamluk Sultanate (A.D. 1291 – 1517) – 226
13. Ottoman Empire (A.D. 1517 – 1917) – 200
14. British Mandate (A.D. 1917 – 1948) – 31
    • This period: 1,811 years
      
15. State of Israel (A.D. 1948 – Present) – 76