From Abraham, through Ishmael, descended the Ishmaelites; through Midian, the Midianites; and through Isaac, the chosen people, called Israelites, from Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  The interesting story of Joseph tells how his father and brothers, with their families, were brought into Egypt at the time of a famine, where they grew from a few families to a great nation, capable of maintaining an army of more than six hundred thousand men.  A new king, “who knew not Joseph,” came on the throne, and after a period of oppression, the exodus took place, about 1490 B.C., the leader being Moses, a man eighty years of age.  At his death, after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Joshua became the leader of Israel, and they crossed the Jordan at Gilgal, a few miles north of the Dead Sea, capturing Jericho in a peculiar manner.  Two other incidents in the life of Joshua may be mentioned here.  One was his victory over the Amorites in the neighborhood of Gibeon and Beth-horon, where more were slain by the hailstones which Jehovah cast down upon them than were killed by Israel with the sword.  It was on this occasion that Joshua said:  “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.  And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. * * * And there was no day like that before or after it.”  The other event is the complete victory of Israel over the immense army of Jabin, king of Hazor, fought at the Waters of Merom, in Galilee.  The combined forces of Jabin and several confederate kings, “even as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many,” were utterly destroyed.  Then came the allotment of the territory west of the Jordan to the nine and a half tribes, as Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had been assigned land east of the river.  The allotment was made by Joshua, Eleazer, the priest, “and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel.”

The period of the Judges, extending from Joshua to Saul, over three hundred years, was a time in which Israel was troubled by several heathen tribes, including the Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites, Amalekites, and Canaanites.  The most troublesome of all were the Philistines, who “were repulsed by Shamgar and harassed by Samson,” but they continued their hostility, capturing the Ark of the Covenant in the days of Eli, and finally bringing Israel so completely under their power that they had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their tools.

The cry was raised:  “Make us a king to judge us, like all the nations.”  Although this was contrary to the will of God, and amounted to rejecting the Lord, the Almighty gave directions for making Saul king, when the rebellious Israelites “refused to hearken to the voice of Samuel,” and said:  “Nay, but we will have a king over us.”  Two important events in Saul’s reign are the battle of Michmash and the war with Amalek.