National
All of the 12 tribes of Israel
in time became slaves in Egypt.
Exodus 1:11
11
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their
burdens.
Then God used Moses to lead the
children of Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 3:7
7 And
the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are
in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
8 And I am come out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out
of that land to a good land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
Upon leading them out of
slavery in Egypt, God gave the Israelites the Torah, or His written and oral
instructions on how they should live their lives. (Exodus 20)
In time they settled in the
land that God had promised them, and they became a kingdom.
King Solomon was the last king
to reign over the entire Israelite people. Because King Solomon did not follow
God in his old age, and built holy places for the foreign gods of his many
wives, God told Solomon that he would lose the kingdom.
1 Kings 11:11
11 Wherefore the LORD
said to Solomon, For as much as this is done of you, and you have not kept my
covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the
kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.