Significant Turning Points in the History of the People Israel

Three significant events in the life of the People of God

A description of three significant events and turning points in the life of a people. These events help shape Israel's identity and faith in God.

Three Significant Turning Points

The three important events in the life of Israel as a people:

• The Exodus
• David
• The Exile

1st Turning point - The Exodus: around 1250 BC

The Exodus was a liberating event for the life of Israel as a people. After being enslaved for many years, Yahweh raised a prophet in the name of Moses, to lead the people out of oppression in Egypt into the promised land. As the people left Egypt and went through the desert in the direction of Palestine, the Egyptian army went in close pursuit. The people reached the Red Sea, but was caught at an impasse. It was then that Moses implored Yahweh to help the Israelites cross the Red Sea into freedom. For "the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." [Exodus 14:21-22]

The people of Israel were able to cross the Red Sea but the Egyptians were destroyed by the receding of the waters. As the people slowly settled after the escape from the Egyptians, the band of tribes were made as one People, through a covenant made with Yahweh, and with Moses as their prophet. The covenant was: that Yahweh would give a new way of life, and a promise, to lead them into Canaan if they would obey His commandments [the 10 commandments or decalogue] and be their God.

2nd Turning point - David: around 1000 BC

As the people arrived in Canaan, the Israelite tribes settled and struggled to keep their new God-given identity and to achieve unity as a nation. This they were able to do through a king, David. David succeeded, through Yahweh's anointing, in making one great nation out of the northern tribes of Judah and the southern tribes.

David was a king loved by his people. As time went on, the kings of the Israelite people became of lesser quality than David. This is why the people look back to the reign of David as a reference point for the hope of another king like him, a "new David". Bethlehem, David's birthplace, and Jerusalem, his city, also became signs of hope in the minds of prophets and the People.

As the reign of David and his son, Solomon, were over, the nation soon split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. After 200 years of independent existence, the northern kingdom was conquered and devastated by the Assyrians.

3rd Turning point - Exile: 587-538 BC

The independent existence of the southern kingdom lasted for about 400 years. It too was conquered, but this time by the Babylonians. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and deported tens of thousands of people to Babylonia. This was the beginning of the Exile.

The people Israel lived in exile for about 50 years. Although they were in danger of losing their cultural identity to the Babylonians, they did not. The Exile was turned into a kind of "retreat", a time of profound reflection and purification of their faith.

Then God worked a miracle through the person of, Cyrus, the Persian, who led his powerful armies against the Babylonians. He permitted the Israelite people to return to their land and rebuild their temple. This amazing turn of events came to be thought of as a "new exodus" - another journey of the people through the desert and back into the land God had given to His people.

Related resources:

• "Understanding the Old Testament", by Bernhard W. Anderson "Journey: Volume I - Torah", by Msgr. Marcel Gervais
• The Promised Land: Introductory Article
• The Promised Land: Three Theories of the Canaan Conquest

Israel's Organization into a Twelve-Tribe Confederacy

The Twelve-Tribe Confederacy

A striking feature in the early organization of the Israelites is their grouping into twelve tribes: each founded on the ancestors in Jacob's family line.

Jacob and his twelve sons

The twelve-tribe structure of Israel is read back into the ancestors described in the book of Genesis, namely: Jacob (who was renamed "Israel" after a crucial experience [Genesis 32:26-30]) and his twelve sons. The twelve tribes of "Israel" thus obtained their name from the twelve sons of Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher [Genesis 35:23-26]. Each of these twelve sons was a leader of a tribe [Genesis 29:16-30:24; 35:16-20]. It was these twelve tribes which settled into Canaan and gained control of the whole country in a span of many generations. Full control of the land came to them in the time of David, around 1000 B.C.

United through the Covenant

Each of the twelve tribes functioned more or less on its own. Although there was no political unity, no central government, they had the Covenant Law and a shrine (where the Ark of the Covenant was kept) in common. Their unity was religious and not yet political. All of them believe that Yahweh was their King and that He fought their wars for them. Since the Yahweh and the Covenant made with Him was their source of unity, they also felt bound to assist each other, especially when one tribe or other was in trouble. As the tribes got together to help each other to fight the enemies, they eventually were led to the process of political unity - beginning with the tribes that settled in the northern territory of Canaan.

"May God rule"

The twelve-tribe confederacy basically was a theocratic community which had their common religious center at Shechem. Shechem was a great Canaanite city-state where Joshua called all the twelve tribes of "Israel" to a reaffirmation of the sacred covenant they made with Yahweh at Mt. Sinai. The reason for this reaffirmation was after entering Canaan and taking the land, "Israel" was tempted to adopt the religious practices of the Canaanites. Joshua thus led "Israel" to choose to serve Yahweh as their God, be faithful to the Covenant, and, in a manner of speaking, follow seriously the meaning of their name, "Israel": "may God rule".

A time of testing

The years after the entry into Canaan and before the establishment of the kingdom under David were rough years for the twelve tribes of "Israel". The people struggled to survive: ighting enemies and learning to farm from their Canaanite neighbours. It was a hard life for the twelve tribes of "Israel": they continually were tempted to follow the gods of their neighbours and thus incurred Yahweh's punishment in the form of encountering enemies and hostile forces. As the people cried out for God's mercy, God raised up a judge (a leader, a hero) to deliver His people. This pattern of sin, punishment, crying out to God, and the sending of a judge, was to be a ommon pattern in the life of the people until the establishment of the kingdom under David's rule.

Related resources:

• "Understanding the Old Testament", by Bernhard W. Anderson
• "Journey: Volume I - Torah", by Msgr. Marcel Gervais
• The Promised Land: Introductory Article
• The Promised Land: Three Theories of the Canaan Conquest
• Three Turning Points in the Life of Early Israel

St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor: ca. 1206-1280 A.D.

Feast day, November 15

Born of noble background in Germany
St. Albert the Great was a German, born in the family castle of Lauingen, on the upper Danube, in Swabia, Germany, around the year 1206 A.D. His father was the Count of Bollstädt, a powerful and wealthy ruler. In 1220 A.D., St. Albert was sent to an uncle in Padua so he can be educated in the University of Padua - a renowned center of the liberal arts at the time. In Padua, Albert was influenced by the Dominicans, that in 1222 A.D., when he heard the sermons of Blessed Jordan of Saxony - the one who succeeded Saint Dominic as head of the Order of Friars Preachers (the Dominicans) - Albert entered the Order as one of their postulants. This angered Albert's father, who heard of it, and wanted to remove his son from the Order by force. The Dominicans, however, discreetly moved Albert to another friary, probably at Cologne, where he finished his ecclesiastical studies, and then was ordained a priest.

Teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas
While teaching and studying at Cologne in 1228 A.D., then at Hildesheim, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Regensburg, and Strasbourg, St. Albert soon developed a widespread reputation for his learning and intellect. He also went to teach and study at the University of Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1245 A.D. Then he was named regent of the newly established school, the studia generalia, at Cologne in 1248 A.D. Among his students at Paris and Cologne was St. Thomas Aquinas, whose genius he early perceived and proclaimed. St. Thomas Aquinas was to be St. Albert's friend and comrade in intellect until St. Thomas' death in 1274 A.D.

In defense of the Mendicant Orders
In 1254 A.D., St. Albert was named provincial of the Dominican Order. At about that time also, the mendicant orders of the Franciscans and the Dominicans, were being attacked by William of St. Armour, as not having a legitimate right to teach in the University of Paris. In 1256 A.D., as both St. Thomas Aquinas (Dominican) and St. Bonaventure (Franciscan) were doing their part to defend their religious orders, St. Albert traveled to Rome to support the two from there. St. Albert's mission was successful, because Pope Alexander IV condemned William of St. Armour. While in Rome, the Pope also noticed the role that St. Albert played for the mendicant orders, that he asked St. Albert to become master of the sacred palace and his personal theologian - an office instituted by Saint Dominic and always filled by a Dominican.

Settling his headquarters at Cologne
In 1257 A.D., St. Albert resigned from his position as provincial to devote himself to study. Then in 1259 A.D., with Peter of Tarentasia and Thomas Aquinas, they drew up a new study curriculum for the Dominicans. Although Albert wanted just to teach and write at this time, against his wishes, he was appointed bishop of Regensburg in 1260 A.D. by Pope Alexander IV. After two years, he resigned from this post as bishop and then went to resume his teaching at Cologne. Cologne was then to remain his headquarters for the rest of his life, although he was also called in to make several journeys in behalf of the Church. In 1263 A.D., Pope Urban IV (who succeeded Pope Alexander IV) appointed him to be papal legate to preach in Germany and Bohemia on behalf of a Crusade to the Holy Land.

A voluminous writer of the sciences and theology
A long period in St. Albert's life followed, during which he was able to write a lot. He produced an amazing number of books on every topic of learning known at the time: natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, ethics, economics, politics, mineralogy, anthropology, biology, zoology, botany, weaving, agriculture, geography, navigation, and most especially, philosophy and theology. Though in the light of modern science St. Albert's scientific knowledge would be considered primitive, he is still basically the only one (except for Franciscan Roger Bacon), who seriously investigated the sciences since the time of the ancient Greeks.

Among his writings of a strictly religious nature, St. Albert wrote a treatise on mysticism, a commentary on the Gospel of Luke, and a treatise on the Blessed Sacrament. St. Albert saw in the Eucharist the great sacrament of unity - not only between Christ and the individual, but also among all who participate in the sacrament. The brilliance in these spiritual writings and all his written works (filling thirty-eight volumes), brought St. Albert the title "Universal Doctor", conferred on him by his own contemporaries. It was also his own peers who dubbed him Albert the Great.

Last years and death
In 1274 A.D., St. Albert was active in the Council of Lyons, working for the reunion of the Greek Church with Rome. He also brilliantly defended his disciple Thomas Aquinas (who already passed away) and his philosophical position against Bishop Stephen Tempier and a group of theologians at the University of Paris in 1277 A.D. He was partially successful in this effort since he was not able to prevent the University of Paris from condemning twelve of St. Thomas' theses. In 1278 A.D., a memory lapse progressed into two years of ailing health and mind (probably Alzheimer's Disease), which led to his death in Cologne on November 15, 1280 A.D.

Though he was never beatified, St. Albert was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1931 A.D. The Pope did this by means of a "Decretal Letter" instead of the usual canonization. St. Albert the Great was also declared the patron of scientists and philosophers. The Church celebrates his feast on November 15.

References of this article

• Dictionary of Saints, by John J. Delaney
• The Doctors of the Church vol 1, by John F. Fink
• A Year With the Saints, by Don Bosco Press, Inc.
• Saints for Our Times, by Ransom