History of the Israelites – the quick version

OK, I keep wanting to share this and I keep putting it off. I have truly been blessed while reading the Bible every single day for the last month as part of my Read the Bible in 90 Days endeavor. I’m currently in 2 Chronicles and I have just been amazed at the history of the Israelites and how much I really didn’t understand before reading it. The one question that I’ve had answered (among many) may lead people to believe I’m an idiot but nonetheless, I didn’t understand…who in the world were the Israelites?

You can read a ton about them on the Internet. It doesn’t take a genius to read up on it but here are the basics. Please, please, please correct me if I’m not saying something right but this is my understanding as of now.

1. Abraham was in Canaan when God promised him he’d give him lots of people (a great nation) and all that land around him.
2. Abraham had Isaac.
3. Isaac had Jac0b.
4. God renamed Jac0b Israel.
5. Jac0b/Israel had 12 sons one of which was Joseph.
6. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery and ended up in Egypt.
7. Joseph became a big man in Egypt.
8. There was a famine.
9. Joseph’s father, Jac0b, told his brothers to go buy food in Egypt.
10. Joseph reunited with his family and they all moved to Egypt.
11. Their family and descendants are all called Israelites.
12. They become too numerous and Pharaoh gets scared and puts them all into slavery.
13. From there, you should know that the story picks up with “Let my people go” and eventually leads them back to Canaan, the Promised Land, which God promised Abraham.

But the short of it is the Israelites are Jac0b/Israel’s descendants.

Right, wrong?

Am I the only person on the planet that never really understood who the Israelites where and why they were in Egypt to begin with and what that had to do with Abraham?