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Section One:
1. Solomon’s policy of forced labor is that it required men to perform physical labor for the king during certain portion of the year (or of their lifetimes) as a form of taxation.
2. Forced labor was a violation of the Covenant because of the unequal distribution of the country’s wealth was not only a source of individual discontent, but it was also a violation of the Covenant principle that all people were of equal worth before Yahweh, and therefore equal before the Law.
3. A ‘summit marriage’ is a marriage between one royal family and another, contracted in order to form an alliance between two nations. In other words, it’s like having a princess from my family, marrying a prince from Amber’s family. The main reasoning for this, is so that we have backup alliances between nations, so if we were to go into war, we’d have someone else’s nation to back us up.
4. Solomon’s summit marriages were a violation of the Covenant because all of his marriages were to foreign wives and they brought in with them the believe of many gods other than Yahweh. In doing so, Solomon followed his many wives and started worshiping other gods, but he forgot the Covenant’s demand that Israel be different than other nations.
5. Syncretism is the attempt to blend differing religious ideas into one belief, without distinguishing one from another. For example, it’s kind of like compromising a broad group of something, without saying where they’re from. When I wrote that, I reminded myself of putting an outfit together. You have many, many name brands, and I know, that I mix my name brands, and no one has to know whether or not I got it from Abercrombie and Fitch, or Hollister.
6. Rehoboam is Solomon’s son a successor. He pursued the worshiping of foreign god, the unequal distribution of wealth, and the in justice of forced labor. He continued where Solomon left off.
7. After the split of the kingdoms, the term ‘Israel’ is referred to the north and ‘Judah’ to the south. After this, only the northern kingdom is called “Israel.” This is because Israel and Judah both accused each other of violating the Covenant. The North objected to Solomon’s policies and the South thought that rebellion against the House of David violated the Covenant.
8. Fertility worship seemed logical to the ancient Israelites because they wanted to get a ‘clean’ start with everything, and everyone. The ancient Israelites found this to be the most logical system of worship.
Section Two:
1. Seer, is a type of prophet. They lived in groups and their message appear to have been received through altered states of consciousness. Court prophet, are prophets who spoke Yahweh’s word as officials of the royal covenant. An unofficial prophet, is a prophet who did not belong to a guild or hold a position at court.
2. Samuel is an example of a seer. He became a great leader of the Israelites, who revered his closeness to Yahweh. Nathan is a court prophet under King David who criticized the king for his affair with Bathsheba.
3. Court prophets often spoke of what the king wanted to hear because they felt that if the king heard what they wanted to hear, they’d run a better kingdom.
4. The three elements of the prophetic message as described in Deuteronomy are: clear and direct, addressed to specific audience, and immediate action.
5. The importance of Elijah in Jewish tradition because Elijah was a persistent and forceful advocate of Yahweh’s Covenant with Israel.
6. Elisha is best remembered for being Elijah’s successor as prophet. Elisha is remembered as a wonder-worker and a political activist, doing much that Elijah had done, including bringing a dead boy back to life. He healed people, and found lost items.
7. The questions that Elijah raised relate to our time now because they all relate to what’s going on with us now. For example, the first question; What do we know today about the environment and its importance to our lives? We attempt, or should be attempting to prevent global warming. We’re aware of the environment in the fact that we make recyclables.
8. Elijah’s struggles for justice the understanding of history relate to our own day because he tried to educate the people and to tell the word of the Lord to future generations, such as ourselves. Elijah insisted on seeing God’s power behind all that happened, and demanded that people respond to God with faithfulness and courage.
