Eighteen centuries before Jesus Christ many nomadic tribes leave Chaldea along with their flocks to go and leave in Egypt. Among these tribes and nomadic clans there are certain number of families whose chief is Abraham. For Abraham – quite insignificant for the historians - , this force migration was accompanied by a great hope: God had called him and had promised him an extraordinary recompense: “Abraham, all generations will be blest in you.”
When God revealed himself to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were still nomads; they shared a simple religion with other nomads, an attachment to the “God of their forebears” and the veneration of a number of family idols. Their meeting with the Living God led them to a new awareness: God watches over those who He chooses. Many trials seemed to contradict God’s promise to them; but each time God intervenes in favor of His faithful people. This led to the establishment of a privileged relationship between God and the patriarchs, marked by God’s fidelity to His word and by the unshakable confidence of his people. Through them, Israel was incited to contemplate both the marvels of God for those he has chosen and the unfailing faith of their ancestors.
Six centuries later, descendants of the patriarchs were in the desert being guided by Moses towards the Promised Land. The sojourn at Horeb was decisive: it was here that the nomadic clans were to live a spiritual experience, such that the Biblical text would never cease referring to it. God solemnly committed Himself to His people at the same time that He gave them a Law: the rule of a covenant with God and a code of personal and communal behavior for Israel. The word spoken to Abraham was echoed by the message of Sinai. The Promise, the Alliance and Salvation will be the three pillars of Israel’s faith and the strong point of the first five books of the Old Testament.
With the entry to the Promised Land, Israel was confronted by other people much more culturally advanced. For more than two thousand years these people had an urban civilization, developed agriculture, established commercial relations within the region of the Near East, and beyond. This civilization, brilliant but pagan, would be a constant stumbling block for the faith of Israel. God sent prophets to His people; they were His representatives. David took hold of a small Canaan town and made it his capital: Jerusalem. To it he brought the Ark of Covenant, the visible sign of the presence of God in the midst of His people. From this date, not only did the Holy City enter into the history of God’s people but its vocation surpassed time and history as it appears in the last pages of Revelation as a figure of humanity definitely reconciled with God. Solomon, in the building of the Temple of Jerusalem, which in time would be recognized as the only legitimate sanctuary, gave his people a rallying center: “God’s dwelling place.”
Condemnation for Israel’s numberless infidelities, remembrance of God’s tireless mercy towards Jerusalem, the demand for truth and sincerity in the cult of the Temple, proclamation of the coming salvation: all these are at the heart of the prophets’ message.