“O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us.” (Isaiah 26:13)
Each Passover, Jewish people gather in their homes to celebrate the wonderful ancient delivery from slavery in Egypt. This pattern of subjugation followed by deliverance was to be repeated throughout the history of the nation, and will indeed continue into the future. Following the exodus from Egypt, Israel was subsequently oppressed, in a less severe manner, by rulers of other areas such as Mesopotamia, Moab, Canaan and Midian. Isaiah wrote warning of the impending invasion by the Assyrians. It is believed that Chapters 36-38 of his book were written at the time of the Assyrian invasion.
Over a century later, the Babylonians invaded the Land. The prophet Jeremiah was scorned when he foretold the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Nearly 50 years later, the Medo-Persians under their ruler Cyrus, conquered the city of Babylon, taking over the empire and thus becoming master over Israel. The book of Esther is set during the time of the Medo-Persian Empire. The Greeks, under Alexander the Great, invaded Israel during the intertestamental period. By the time of Jesus’ youth, the Romans were the masters. They made full occupation of the Land in AD 6, replacing the Herodian rule. Following the Romans, a number of invaders took over Israel’s territory, including Persians, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders and Egyptians. Then, the giant Ottoman Empire absorbed it in 1517, holding it for 400 years. Details of relevant dates and how they correspond to the Bible are provided in the first of the two charts at the back of this book.
Daniel Chapter 2 relates to the troubling dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. The secret of the dream was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. He was able to both describe the dream of a statue with a head of gold and explain to the king what each part of the statue represented. The statue is, in effect, a three-dimensional history timeline that stretches from the Babylonian Empire to the Second Coming of Jesus...
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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation. www.lockman.org