G-d's Control of the World

This week in class, we learned about Israel's neighbors from the 8th to 5th centuries B.C.E.  Although Bnei Yisrael was not a major world power at the time, they were surrounded by the empires of Persia, Babylon, and Assyria who were all vying for control of the Fertile Crescent and the surrounding areas.  Power was constantly shifting between these three powers and occasionally Egypt joined the mix.  If that was the case, what would the tiny country of Israel have to do with power and land-hungry empires?

Israel is located in perhaps the best "spot" in the Middle East.  It has fertile land and is rich in resources.  It is the direct land route between Africa and Asia, making it essential for trade routes.  It also shares a border with the Mediterranean Sea.  The surrounding countries were almost completely reliant on Israel for their trade routes.  In addition, if an African country wanted to invade and conquer an Asian country, they had to march their entire army through Israel.  In other words, Israel was a small but huge damper on the three major empire's plans for world domination.

During the 8th to 5th centuries B.C.E., Bnei Yisrael was entering the land, conquering it, and establishing a monarchy in the name of Hashem.  If you were a person living at that time, you might think that the constant power shifts were occurring because of the political situation (treaties with the other countries, a king's bad decision, etc.).  This was not the case for the Jewish people.  One of the major principles of Jewish theology is that everything comes from G-d; man has a certain role on Earth and to help us fulfill it, G-d has given us a code of ethics and a system of governing ourselves with Tzedek Umishpat.  At the time of the kings of Israel, various wars, victories and defeats occurred because the people's spiritual level fell in some way.  If they repented, they would win the battle and if they didn't, they would lose.

The idea that G-d is in control of everything is a difficult one to come to terms with.  As a young child, you believe pretty much anything and don't question the facts.  Now that I am a teenager, I have started to see the stories in the Torah and Navi in a different light.  Also, I really enjoy learning history and in hindsight, we (people) can see the chain of events that caused something.  Sometimes the buildup to something is so elaborate that we forget where it started.  The Torah and Navi both suggest that the original source of the problem that led to an event (ex. a war) was a sin of Bnei Yisrael and G-d sent the other nation to punish them.  This idea can also be applied in the modern day: Jews are intermarrying and becoming less and less religious while Iran is building nuclear bombs that could destroy Israel.  Maybe the Navi is trying to teach us that in order to fix the problem and avoid an extremely harsh outcome (G-d's punishment for us), we have to return to faith and remember that everything in life comes from G-d.