I think ancient Israel and Judah were the Koreas of the ancient Middle East.
If you look at ancient Israel in the north and Judah in the south, they were like South and North Korea respectively (more so in ideology than geographical position).
They both claim to have been unified as a single country, but split among different social systems. Israel was a wealthy, cosmopolitan country that was thought of for its inequality (like South Korea), while Judah was more religious, poorer, and militaristic (like North Korea).
Yahweh was treated like how North Korea treated Kim Jong-Un (Yahweh being the God of War, and Kim Jong-Un being the "great general" playing a similar role), with Yahwists persecuting polytheists like how North Koreans punish dissent. They both depended on foreign support from surrounding powers. The Bible and archeology support this.
Awkwardly, Judah, the equivalent of North Korea, ended up winning out in this case, with their descendants being much more populous and powerful than those of Israel (the Samaritans only number a few hundred today).
I think if North Korea or both Koreas collapsed, and a robust North Korean diaspora emerged, North Koreans in other territories (especially the more radical ones) would still continue to worship the Kims.
Also, as a side note, I find it interesting that the reasons archeologists claim that Israel and Judah were never united could also be used to argue that Korea was never united. Korean architecture before the split was mostly wood/paper-based, which tends to rot. Large concrete and steel buildings were only built after the Koreas were divided. And both Koreas have a self-interested bias to claim the country was united even if it wasn’t: as justification to conquer the other (which they do use in their propaganda). So generations into a dystopian future in which most of our history gets buried, archeologists could use that to argue that a united Korea might have been a myth, or was only a small chiefdom or something - even though we know today it was historically an actual polity.
They both claim to have been unified as a single country, but split among different social systems. Israel was a wealthy, cosmopolitan country that was thought of for its inequality (like South Korea), while Judah was more religious, poorer, and militaristic (like North Korea).
Yahweh was treated like how North Korea treated Kim Jong-Un (Yahweh being the God of War, and Kim Jong-Un being the "great general" playing a similar role), with Yahwists persecuting polytheists like how North Koreans punish dissent. They both depended on foreign support from surrounding powers. The Bible and archeology support this.
Awkwardly, Judah, the equivalent of North Korea, ended up winning out in this case, with their descendants being much more populous and powerful than those of Israel (the Samaritans only number a few hundred today).
I think if North Korea or both Koreas collapsed, and a robust North Korean diaspora emerged, North Koreans in other territories (especially the more radical ones) would still continue to worship the Kims.
Also, as a side note, I find it interesting that the reasons archeologists claim that Israel and Judah were never united could also be used to argue that Korea was never united. Korean architecture before the split was mostly wood/paper-based, which tends to rot. Large concrete and steel buildings were only built after the Koreas were divided. And both Koreas have a self-interested bias to claim the country was united even if it wasn’t: as justification to conquer the other (which they do use in their propaganda). So generations into a dystopian future in which most of our history gets buried, archeologists could use that to argue that a united Korea might have been a myth, or was only a small chiefdom or something - even though we know today it was historically an actual polity.
