Lecture 9

We started the next section, exile destruciton and cognitive dissonance. it is importatnt to know the date 586. We talked about the events that lead to the Exile.Now there are two accounts of Josiahs death in the Bible. So how do we reconcile this? In one of hte passages, it gives more detail in how he died, it said that he was not following orders which added to the problem. Megiddo was apposing Neco therefore he was killed. It was also said that Megiddo was helping Babylong and therefore God said it was ok to kill him. The reason for this is so that there are no questions as to why a good king was killed.It clears up some problems that people had with his death.
We then talked about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It was considered to be the most beutiful places on earth. How do we know that they were exiled to Babylon outside of the bible. We know it fromt he 290 tablets excavated near the ishtar gate and the four tablets mention judean royal family.
We are given a text that shows how htey kept the kings faithful even though they were exiled. They basically given an allowance. They had tablets/lists of jewish captives that proves this as well.
Now we are given zedekiahs rein. He rebeled against Babylon. But he was so mad that he burned the house of the lord and every great house, he burned down. Eveything was basically destroyed and they exiled all the other people. This is what happened in 586. So now what happens to Gods promise in 2 Samuel. Professor showed us a picture of some arrowheads that were used during the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon.
We are then given 2 conclusions of what happened. In the first one nothing happens and Gods promise is still intact. But in the second one, it appears that he lied becasue they have no king, they have no homeland and were not safe. It is said that God was still very angry that he destroyed it this is completely contradictoy of what he previously stated.This is the first time the we see people trying to notion wtih God breaking his promise. Professor showed us a chart of the Devestation from Babylon. There was less sites and areas  after it happend. Also all the luxuries disapeared at the same time. So then what do you do with your belief was a catastrophy strikes? The end of the dynasty, land ,chosen people, temple, everything just ended. What do you do? he compared it to a story if you got in your car and told soemone you love you'll see them in a little, and you get home and they dont because they died in  a crash on the way home. It was such an awful statement and made me sad and realized how awful it was for them.So one basically like us singing the blues.But another comon thing to do is lament!. hence the name Lamentation. we are still trying to find an excuse for what has happened. We did something therefore God is punishing us.We again see how they delt with greif in Psalm 137.
So now the promise needs to be redefined.We finsihed the class with him showing us how people trying to compensate with what happened. He compared it to the superbowl, if the packers beat the stealers. If you were a packers fan you would say something along the lines of of course then won, they are better. but if you were a stealers fan, you have to find some excuse like it was cold and they cheated, inorder for them to cope with the loss. We tend to rationalize things when they are in complete opposition of each other. LIke my father beats me because he loves me.