Deb

Oops. I meant to say the that whole period after Solomon's empire broke
up was that of the prophets. Solomon built an empire rich in material
ways and mingled with the customs of foreign wives and vassal nations.
BY time he was done the spiritual life of the nation of Israel was
already deteriorated. That's when Jews left the ways of the Torah,
mingled them with other pagan ways, and the kingdoms were destroyed and
the Jews taken captive by the Assyrians and later the Babylonians.

I have heard it said that when a society appears to be at its strongest,
it is already falling. Its the force of material vs spiritual. And here
I speak of individual spiritual values and actions; they are often
strongest when a religion is growing, and when it reaches it so-called
peak it may already be stagnating due too the taking over the individual
responsibilities and responses by some organized group that supposedly
acts and speaks for all.

The precarious balance of individual vs group, and attempts to
peacefully and co-operatively maintain a social culture and activity
with varying views of those within it. School "culture" vs home culture,
should we do stuff with our kids all the time or leave them to work it
out themselves, who should speak for homeschoolers? We could all speak
for ourselves, but co-ordination makes a bigger impact - then who'll
watch and decide, how to keep the group from overwhelming the
individual? And how to manage the material while not falling prey to its
seduction but keeping our values regards what is most worthwhile in
life.

We have a very philosophical discussion group here really, these are
some of the big questions of life - ;)

Debbie

>>>>>>David moved the capital for the first time to Jerusalem (after battling
its pagan inhabitants). He had the strong backing of the tribe of Judah
(from whence comes the name of the religion: Judaism) but united and
ruled all the Israelites in their lands as king. and conquered
neighboring land too expanded his kingdom. His son Solomon expanded it
even further as an Empire, ruling neighboring lands. After Solomon's
death, Israel and Judea split apart again and the rest of the tribes
took sides with them. They were rivaling kingdoms until Israel fell to
the Assyrians. About 45 years later, Judah was taken by the Assyrians as
well. This whole period was that of the prophets.

>>>That's more or less what is recorded. I might have missed something.