Tribal Dimension in the Division of the Kingdom of Israel

The Rwandan Genocide in 1994 prompted Rwandans to ask questions about God's attitude toward their suffering and to lament the failure of the church to prevent the tragedy. Such complaints call for a reflection on the kind of help that the people were entitled to expect from the church and from God and what were the perils of their expectation. This work attempts to answer these questions by the use of a dialogue between two contexts of social conflict in Rwanda and in ancient Israel. The analysis guided by the inculturation approach to biblical interpretation arrives at the conclusion that in neither of the two contexts is God perceived as imposing tragedies on people. Tragedies result from conflicts initiated by free and responsible people. Even God-given social diversity is not an obstacle to social harmony. This work illustrates the strength of the contextual interpretation approach that makes biblical texts relevant to contemporary contexts. It should be useful to students of the Bible and readers of the Bible in general. The work addresses issues related to church and society. It will inspire any person involved in the work of reconciliation.