Essay Example on Political Powers of Alexander and Sanballat

People use super to enhance their political powers. As it can be seen from the narrative, Alexander accepted the offer of seven thousand soldiers from Sanballat in exchange for his permission to allow a temple to be built a temple at Mount Gerizzini. Alexander knew quite well that the temple was located in Jerusalem, and it was supposed to be the only one for the Jewish. However, since he cared much about the expansion of his territory and he believed in many gods, not the Jewish God, he gave out the authority for the temple to be built.

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Both characters aimed Alexander and Sanballat aimed at building the temple to enrich them rather than for the glory and honor of God. Sanballat had to personal intentions for having the temple to be built at Mount Gerizzini. First of all, Sanballat did not want his daughter to be divorced by Manasseh. Manasseh was a priest, and he would have been kicked out of the priesthood if he had not divorced his foreign wife in according to Jewish laws and regulations from God. Sanballat, therefore, promised to build a temple at Mount Gerizzini where Manasseh would become the high priest (Josephus n.d.).

Secondly Sanballat aimed to have the power of Jewish divided since the temple of Jerusalem acted to unite all the Jewish. Sanballat craftily used the supernatural powers to have his greed satisfied. He knew that people travelled all very far, and every other person would have imagined that he wanted people to worship God from their localities. Corrupting Alexander with seven thousand men to help him acquire Tyre does not portray any Godliness. In fact, corruption is against Gods will.

On the other hand, Alexander pretended to be on the in close coordination with the Jewish high priests. After he had acquired Damascus and Sidon, he sent his epistles to seek help from Jewish priest so that they can feed his men of war to enable them to win and acquire Tyre. It became clear that Alexander was against the Jewish and their beliefs in God because, immediately he acquired Tyre, he threatened to make an expedition against the Jewish high priest.

Also, Alexander was very easily shifted by Sanballat. When he saw the provision of seven thousand men to help him acquire Tyre and Gaza, he gave out authority for a temple to be built at Mount Gerizzini even though he knew it was against the will of God. This is one way in which it can be seen that Alexander believed in many gods for the provision of prosperous of his rule. When Sanballat died, Alexander went to meet Macedonians he asked the people in that land to join him in making sacrifices to the God who was believed to protect that land so that they can protect that land from evils. This came to being even after Alexander was warned by God in a dream that he was to adorn the city without fear of any consequences. The two characters, Alexander and Sanballat, use the supernatural powers to justify their actions and to fulfill their desires.

References

Brookfield, S., & Preskill, S. (2005). Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools and techniques for democratic classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Josephus. (n.d.). CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS. In Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI. Retrieved October 4, 2015, from http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-11.htm