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Series: Through the Bible in Eight Great Stories #4 Faithfulness "Indistinguishable" So far, we have traced the relationship of God and God’s people from creation, through Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, through the Exodus and God’s deliverance of God’s people from slavery, and God’s providence in the desert. Following Moses’ death, Joshua becomes God’s leader of the people of God, and it will be Joshua’s responsibility to lead the ex-slaves and their descendents into the land of the promise. Joshua, in a great march around the city of Jericho, led the people of God in their conquest of Canaan. They resettle in the home land, the land of the promise. Joshua sets up a confederacy of 12 Tribes at Shechem. Over time however, there arose another generation after those who returned to the land of the promise, Canaan, who did not know Yahweh or the work which God had done for Israel. (Judges 2:10) The period of the Judges was a series of “ups and downs” for the people Israel. Good were the times when the people were obedient to God's law, and lived a right life in relationship with God, and hard were the times when they were disobedient. Enemies would often come up against the people in these times, and God would raise up a “Judge” to lead the people against their enemy, but more importantly, to lead the people into a right relationship with God and God's Torah or law. The Judges also arbitrated in disputes among the tribes, and kept unity among God's people. They were raised up by God, and were very unlikely choices. Deborah, a woman, Gideon, a coward from the least powerful tribe. Samson, a prank-playing oaf who wasn't given over to deep thought. Yet all of them faithful, effective, and bold in their leadership. With each Judge, there is a rhythm of rebellion and return. Relationship remains the over-riding concern, always. It is the law of God which identifies God's people as a peculiar people with a peculiar lifestyle and a peculiar diet. What's more, every other people, every enemy is led by a king--a flesh and blood hands-on sort of guy. Why couldn't the tribes of Israel be more like the other kingdoms of the Transjordan? The Moabites, the Ammonites and the Midianites from the desert. There isn't much reward in being different. They would unite to fight the new enemy, the Philistines, if they were a kingdom. A king would protect them, lead them in battle!
But
the people of God are in God's hands, and given supervision by Eli the priest
and Samuel the judge. But they cry out for an absolute ruler. A king. The first is Saul, anointed and set apart as King. And here's how things to after that. Quickly: Saul is charismatic and great military leader. But as all kings will, he begins to rule not in obedience to God's will, but in reason to what he thinks best. God sends Saul out to defeat the Amalekites, under the banner of a “Holy War,” and instructs Saul to leave no one, man or beast alive. Saul reasons it best to capture the king of Amalek alive and to take a few choice animals for a sacrifice. God is incensed. We might not understand. It's more humane to spare the kings life. Right? It's better not to kill all the animals, especially if you are going to sacrifice some to God. Right? The problem is Saul is making the decisions, rather than obeying God's instruction. God withdraws from Saul, which leaves him isolated. A boy is anointed king, the youngest of Jesse's sons, a boy who is a fierce shepherd that fights wild animals with sticks and stones. David will be the next King. Saul goes mad and tries to kill David. In the end, Saul takes up with a witch from Endor only to get yet one more prophesy of doom from Samuel's ghost. Finally, he goes out in a suicidal battle at Mount Gilboa. David is a good king, in fact, will always be known as Israel's greatest king. He is good, because he is a man of God. He defeats all of Israel's enemies, unites the tribes into a single kingdom, and rules over a lengthy period of peace and prosperity. But David is flawed, and in response to an adulterous affair, arranges for the woman's husband to be killed in battle. But even in his darkest moments, David’s relationship with God is unbroken. He comes before God, with confession and repentance. But the consequence of his sin is great. The infant son born to David and Bathsheba out of their affair will die. His family will be further plagued with incest, rape, murder, treason and tragedy. Yet David's kingdom will be extolled as the “great kingdom,” and David's special, close relationship with God becomes the model against which all future kings will be measured. Solomon succeeds David as King. His strength will be his beauty and his wisdom. Solomon builds a temple for God, a project David wanted desperately to complete but was not allowed to as a consequence of his sin. Solomon will build an even more opulent palace for himself. Solomon's name became synonymous with wealth and the glory of the Israelite Empire. Everything God had predicted had come true. Israel had their king, and even enjoyed being a forceful empire in the region, but it had come at the cost God had warned of. Sons were drafted into the military; daughters were taken as wives, servants and entertainers. Heavy taxes had to be paid, and when they could not, land and people were pledged to the king. Taskmasters were once again laying whips on the backs of Hebrew slaves, but now the taskmasters were fellow Hebrews, their orders from the king of Israel. Solomon also was tolerant of the worship of other gods, especially by his many wives, and was judged by God and found to be wanting. At his death, Solomon's son Rehoboam would begin rule over Israel and Judah, but soon after a revolt and civil war led by Jeroboam would throw him over and there would always follow afterward, two kingdoms and two kings. The northern ten tribes will be known as Israel. The southern two tribes, Judah. There are many, many kings to follow. Onscreen, we've projected a list of them and their reigns, one set for Israel and one set for Judah. And from the text, the pronouncement from the Bible as to whether or not they did what was right in the eyes of God. Israel, sad to say did not have one single king reckoned as good. Of the bad ones, only Joram and Jehu had any redeeming qualities. Omri and Ahab were downright evil. The ten tribes of the north, Israel were defeated by the Assyrian empire in 721 BC after a three year siege. The people of God were deported into the region of Persia and the land Samaria, the northern land of the promise, was repopulated with colonists from Babylon, Elam and Syria. The northern tribes would never be heard from again. In Judah, most of the kings were bad, but interspersed here and there were some who did what was right in the eyes of God. Asa and Jehoshaphat brought reforms and helped to rebuild the people's relationship with God. Uzziah and Jotham did likewise. But none brought the rightness of worship and relationship as Hezekiah, who restored worship of Yahweh and the Mosaic law just at the time that Israel was defeated by the Assyrians. But Hezekiah's reforms would not last beyond his own reign. Manasseh followed and did what was evil in the eyes of God, and capitulated to the Assyrians following the fall of Israel. He also reopened Judah to the influences of pagan worship--even in the Temple build and consecrated to Yahweh, the God of Abraham. Here in God's Temple, the people worshipped the sun moon and stars, and Manasseh even burnt his own son as an offering to pagan gods. All of Hezekiah's reforms were undone by Manasseh. There was a glimmer of hope with Josiah, who discovered a scroll of the ancient Mosaic law as he cleaned the Temple of foreign gods and objects. The people were assembled and the scroll read. And the distant, sacred memory was re-kindled. The people heard the story, their story, and began to understand their claim in this story. And in the story was the relationship, the relationship of the covenant, the promise. What was it? You will be my people, and I will be your God. Abolished by Josiah were Baal, and Asherah, and horses of the sun, and gone were the practices of sacred prostitution and child sacrifice and the consulting of wizards and mediums. The people would be the people of God. The God of Creation. The God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. The God of Jacob. The God of Joseph. The God of Moses. The God of the Exodus. The God of the manna. The God of the land of promise. But for all of Josiah's efforts, the people were in a king's hands. It's what they had wanted. And kings come and go. They die and are succeeded. And following Josiah, the reign of four wicked kings spell out Judah's doom. You see, the political climate was changing rapidly. Assyria was no longer a threat in the Fertile Crescent. Egypt now was in a position to control who sat on the Throne of Judah, the kingdom becoming no more than a puppet of Pharaoh. Jehoiakim, son of Josiah became the Egyptian puppet king of Judah. Heavy taxes were levied to pay tributes to Egypt. Meanwhile, Jehoiakim wanted the glory and wealth of Solomon. He is cruel and selfish, and forces once again people into slave labor to build his magnificent palaces. Jehoiakim also re-introduced paganism his father had tried to eliminate--the horrific rites of child sacrifice were again practiced. And the idols returned to the Temple. It all ends badly. A destabilized middle East brings to power the Babylonians. Eventually it is during Zedekiah's reign that Judah loses it all--and the Temple is destroyed, the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins and the Babylonians carry off the best and the brightest of Jews, the inhabitants of Judah, into exile. Judah's last king, Zedekiah is captured and blinded by Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. Hear now the word of the 137th Psalm, which comes to us from the people of Judah, in exile in Babylon. 1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill . 6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. 7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!" 8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us- 9 he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. The people have been defeated, their land of promise and their Temple of God destroyed. It is here, in exile, that they will have time to think, 50 years in fact, to reflect upon one central question. What went wrong? How did it all come to this? Indeed.
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