It is a code at once religious, political,
civil and penal. God the ruler of the Israelites has the right to
regulate all the details of their lives.
=Religion has made the Jewish People.=--The Israelites did not receive
with docility the government of God. Moses on his death-bed could say
to the Levites in delivering to them the book of the law, "Take this
book that it may be a witness against you, Israel, for I know thy
rebellion and thy stiff neck" (Deut. xxxi. 27). "During my life you
have been rebellious against the Lord, and how much more after my
death." During these centuries some of the Israelites, often the
majority of the nation, had been idolaters. They became similar to the
other Semites of Syria. Only the Israelites who remained faithful to
God formed the Jewish people. It is the religion of Jehovah which has
transformed an obscure tribe into the holy nation, a small nation, but
one of the most significant in the history of the world.
THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL
=The Judges.=--Once established in Palestine the Hebrews remained
divided for several centuries. "In those days," says the Bible, "there
was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own
eyes.
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