Yahweh calls! Return to Him!

Posted on September 10, 2022 by PastorDave

Amos | Lesson 2 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read Amos 3.1 – 5.17

INTRODUCTION

1. We opened up this four-lesson survey of The Book of Amos in Lesson 1. We gave you some background on Amos, the prophet, and summarized the eight indictments he delivered from Yahweh detailing and condemning the sins that the neighboring nations – including Judah and Israel themselves – had committed against Him, other peoples, and against each other.

2. We will now pick up Amos’s prophetic messages where we last left off and continue through the next section: chapters 3.1 – 5.17. This section will contain three messages Amos delivered in Bethel [one of Israel’s primary centers of worship / see ch 7.10-17].

3. Each of these messages is introduced by the same announcement:

[1] Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt… / ch 3.1

[2] Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria… / ch 4.1

[3] Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel… / ch 5.1

4. We will take them in order and describe their themes along with Yahweh’s assessments of their sins and the impending judgments He was bringing on them because of their transgressions of His covenant, righteousness, and Holy justice.

I / CHAPTER 3.1-15 / FIRST MESSAGE:

“HEAR THIS WORD THAT THE LORD HAS SPOKEN AGAINST THE WHOLE FAMILY THAT I BROUGHT UP OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT.”

1 / vv 1-2 / Yahweh addresses Israel as “family” – His ‘family.’ He reminds Israel that He is the One who had created them as a family [through Abraham] and nation by choosing them to be His people, redeeming them from bondage and slavery in Egypt, and delivering them to belong to Him only and exclusively.

[1] Israel had been blessed with immeasurable privileges by the Grace of Yahweh: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth…” This verb ‘known’ is so much more than mere acquaintance or familiarity; it is intimacy. It is the same verb that is used to describe marital intimacy and union [as in Genesis 4.1, et. al.]

[2] Yahweh had singled out the people of Israel to be His covenant people. He had not only claimed them to belong to Him and fear Him only, but He had also committed to bless them, protect them, and provide for them in every way. / Deuteronomy 7.6-11 & 10.12-22

[3] But with that immeasurable privilege had also come a corresponding responsibility and accountability to be faithful in their response to and use of those privileges – but they had historically and repeatedly failed to live up to those privileges. The weight of their guilt had been compounded by the riches of their privileges they had violated. So Yahweh does what His Holy justice requires: He must and will punish them proportionately to their iniquities.

2 / vv 3-6 / Yahweh gives them seven examples of His just ‘cause and effect’ punishments He will bring upon them. [Yahweh’s justification for v 2]

[1] Yahweh’s Holy justice is an example of Newton’s Third Law of Motion: ‘For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ See Proverbs 26.2 KJV, “…the curse causeless shall not come…”

[2] Yahweh will ask them seven simple questions, all answered ‘No!’ They knew the answers from their own common experience. Every question and answer will serve as a self-pronouncement of their own guilt and a vindication of Yahweh’s coming judgments. They had brought everything upon themselves … they had been the ‘cause’ of all of Yahweh’s punishment ‘effect’ they would suffer. “Is the ‘effect’ of Yahweh’s judgments without the ‘cause’ of your iniquities? ‘NO!’”  

3 / vv 7-8 / Yahweh is giving them a loud, clear, unmistakable, unambiguous, advance forewarnings of His judgments against them. Yahweh’s judgments are never ambushes or sneak attacks. In truth, He had been repeatedly and persistently forewarning them for centuries what the disastrous consequences would be for their faithless breaking of His covenant (see 2 Kings 17.7-21). He is now ‘roaring’ again through Amos’s prophetic warnings. / see ch 1.2: Yahweh roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem…

4 / vv 9-10 / Yahweh even calls their equally-guilty neighbors, Ashdod [Philistia] and Egypt, to come to the mountains of Samaria and witness what He will do in punishment to His own ‘family’ for their covenant unfaithfulness.

[1] They will see the ‘tumults within her.’ These are both the internal conflicts they are waging against each other and also the disastrous destructions Yahweh will wreak upon them. They will also witness ‘the oppressed in her midst,’ that is, all the injustices they are committing against one another [which Yahweh will detail as He goes on here…]

[2] Why would He call on these equally-guilty ‘foreign’ kingdoms to witness and witness against Samaria? [see ch 1.6-9]. Because it would show the foreign nations that Yahweh is also equally just to punish the same injustices and atrocities in EVERY nation and peoples. Yahweh is Sovereign Judge over ALL nations and will hold them all accountable for their conduct – even though He will judge Samaria more severely because of their greater privilege and responsibility. / see Luke 12.35-48    

[3] v 10 is very important: it is one of Yahweh’s summary sentences against Israel: ‘They do not know how to do right,’ declares Yahweh, ‘those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.’ He commands them ‘to do right,’ but they have no interest or intention to do so.

[4] Contrast this statement with v 2: “You only have I known [same verb] of all the families of the earth…” And again, Yahweh will indict them in ch 5.12: For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins – you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.  Again, this ‘knowing’ is intimate, first-hand, personal knowledge … except that Israel has betrayed and violated the intimate knowledge with which Yahweh had known them. Yahweh commands the ‘knowing’ and loving of your heart for Him and His Word.

5 / vv 11-15 / This is the ‘word’ that Yahweh is declaring to them – this is what He is going to do…

[1] v 11 / Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD…: He will bring an adversary [Assyria] to surround their land … the defenses they had built and fortified will fall to the enemy … their strongholds will be plundered.

[2] v 12 / Thus says the LORD: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.” Amos gives this interesting simile to serve as a parable … Amos is taking this illustration from his own personal experience as a shepherd … and it also comes from the Law of the LORD. Exodus 22.10-13 / If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep safe, and it dies or is injured or is driven away, without anyone seeing it, 11 an oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor’s property. The owner shall accept the oath, and he shall not make restitution. 12 But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner. 13 If it is torn by beasts, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn. There was a code of honor among shepherds: they would never lose a sheep due to their negligence. They would defend the lives of their flocks with their own life if necessary. But if an animal they were responsible for was killed or torn by a lion or another predatory beast, they could bring back a piece of the animal that was left behind as evidence of the loss that was beyond their control, thus absolving them of personal responsibility. The meaning of which is: Yahweh will not totally annihilate Israel – He will still keep His own word to His covenant by rescuing a faithful remnant [‘the corner of a couch and part of a bed’] from the devouring punishment that is coming.

[3] vv 13-15 / Yahweh will destroy the very parts of their lifestyle and works that were the evidences of their most egregious transgressions: their centers of idolatrous worship – the altars of Bethel … and their opulently furnished winter and summer houses they had built with the proceeds of their injustices against the weak and poor – whom they had oppressed and taken advantage of.

II / CHAPTER 4.1-12 / THE SECOND MESSAGE:

“HEAR THIS WORD, YOU COWS OF BASHAN, WHO ARE ON THE MOUNTAIN OF SAMARIA…”

1 / vv 1-3 / SELF-ABSORPTION: Yahweh condemns them for their self-absorption – living opulent lifestyles from the proceeds of their injustices toward others.

[1] So, is Yahweh delivering this message to their livestock? No, actually – these ‘cows’ are the women of Samaria. Yahweh calls them ‘cows of Bashan’ because Bashan was a rich, fertile region known for the livestock that grazed there. [Psalm 22.12; Ezekiel 39.18]. It was the ‘bread-basket’ for the region.

[2] So, these self-centered, self-absorbed, narcissistic, demanding wives could have been called ‘The Real Housewives of Samaria’ or ‘Keeping Up With The Bashan-ians.’ They were real Jezebels after the example of one of their former queens. They made constant demands on their husbands to ‘feed’ their excessive tastes and appetites of the ‘high life.’ They didn’t care who their husbands had to rob, extort, or oppress to supply their luxuries: ‘who oppress the poor, who crush the needy.’ There was also a real sense of selfish entitlement to their demands. This was their ‘right’ … they ‘deserved’ it: “…who say to their husbands, ‘bring, that we may drink!’”

[3] Yahweh pronounces judgments on them: they will be led away with ‘hooks/fishhooks’ which may have been literal hooks which the Assyrians were known for using to pierce the flesh of their captives to keep them in line as they led them away into captivity. They would be led out through the breaches in their walls of defenses that will be broken through by the invaders.

2 / vv 4-5 / SELF-DECEPTION: Yahweh condemns them for their self-deception – their hypocritical, lifeless, and self-serving exercises of worship.

[1] Amos kinda mocks them as he issues this ‘call to worship’: ‘Come to Bethel…to Gilgal…’ In fact, they were doing just that. They were being very ‘religious’ in their exercises. But they were doing all this religious activity for their own aggrandizement … to assuage their guilt … and to ‘secure’ their place in Yahweh’s favor. But Yahweh not only rejects their self-serving religious activities – He actually says it has the effect of ‘multiply transgressions.’ Yahweh saw through and rejected their hypocrisies.

[2] Both Bethel and Gilgal were historic places where Yahweh had revealed Himself to them and where His covenant with them had been memorialized and renewed over the previous generations. But they had deceived themselves into believing that there was some kind of ‘lucky charm’ inherent in just frequenting these places and going through the motions of their self-made preferred traditions. Both Bethel and Gilgal will come up again in ch 5.4-5.

3 / vv 6-13 / SELF-DELUSION: Yahweh condemns them for their self-delusions – they had deluded themselves into believing that none of these calamities that had previously come upon them were at all associated with any fault or guilt of their own faithlessness … nor did they hear the ‘roaring’ of Yahweh when he had sent all these catastrophes on them.

[1] NOTE: how Yahweh repeats five times: “…yet you did not return to Me, declares the LORD.” / vv 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. This is why I have titled this section of Amos’s messages “Yahweh calls! Return to Him!” These are just more of the often-repeated forewarnings and disciplinary measures Yahweh had administered over the previous generations to try to get their attention so they would repent, turn away from their transgressions, iniquities, and injustices, and return to Him. But, “yet you did not return to Me, declares Yahweh.”

[2] There are eight specific calamities Yahweh had brought upon them to call them to return to Him:

  • v 6 / Famine: ‘cleanness of teeth’ … because they had nothing to eat…
  • vv 7-8 / Drought: rains were critical to their growing seasons – but Yahweh withheld their rains…
  • v 9a / Blight and mildew: spoiling what little would and did grow … ruined crops…
  • v 9b / Locusts: they would devour and strip bare their essential and staple crops…
  • v 10a / Plagues and Diseases: maybe Bubonic Plague…
  • v 10b / War and Corpses: multitudes of bodies of young men and horses left to rot…
  • v 11 / Fires and Wastelands: landscapes burned, maybe salted, and left uninhabitable…
  • v 12 / Coming Final Desolations: “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

[3] NOTE: that in all these previous desolations – and especially in those yet to come – they were not just ‘random flukes of nature.’ NO! Yahweh says of each one: “I…I…I…I…I…I…I…” until He declares that the day is coming when “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” He had sent all the calamities of the previous generations upon them to urgently, insistently, pleadingly call them to ‘Return to Me!’ But, they would not. “Therefore,” Yahweh says, “if you will not return / come to Me, I will come to you … in my judgments! Get ready! Prepare to meet Me!” And it will not be pretty … it will not go well.

[4] Further, to conclude this ‘word’ from Yahweh, He makes it clear to Israel who He is … who this God is … who is calling them … and whom they will meet:

  • He is Israel’s God – the Giver of all their incalculable privileges
  • He is the Creator of Israel and of all the elements of the physical world
  • He is the One who has known them intimately – their most private thoughts and hearts
  • He is the One Sovereign True Judge of Israel … and all the nations of the earth
  • He is Yahweh, the God of armies
  • That is His Name! And they will know it when He comes!

III / CHAPTER 5.1-17 / THE THIRD MESSAGE:

“HEAR THIS WORD THAT I TAKE UP OVER YOU IN LAMENTATION, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL…”

This third message [“Hear this word…”] has several distinctive characteristics:

  • It is a lamentation – that’s what Amos himself calls it. That’s what he wrote it to be. A lamentation is dirge – funeral dirge – that is written and delivered to mourn the death of someone. Like David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1.17-27; or more famously, Jeremiah’s lamentations over the fall and death of Judah and Jerusalem in The Lamentations of Jeremiah. When Amos delivered it in Bethel [maybe even at one of the public services he refers to in ch 4.4-5], he may have even composed a minor key tone or tune and delivered it by singing or chanting it.
  • It is also a literary masterpiece. It is what is called a chiasm [from the Greek alphabet character ‘X/chi’ to mark with a chi]. That means that the verses [or stanzas] are laid out in a symmetrical pattern of statements and reiterations. The first line [or stanza] corresponds with the last line [or stanza]. The second line corresponds to the next-to-last line. And so on – until the climax of the chiasm is written in the middle stanza.

So in the case of this lamentation:

A-vv 1-3 are repeated in other words in vv 16-17.

B-vv 4-6 are repeated in other words in vv 14-15

C-v7 is repeated in other words in vv 10-13

D-HYMN TO YAHWEH is smack in the middle as the climax/theme of the lamentation

So when we outline this chiasm, it will flow like this:

A-Lament of the death of the nation / vv 1-3

B-Call to seek Yahweh and live / vv 4-6

C-Charges of no justice [injustice] / v 7

D-HYMN TO YAHWEH / v 9

C’-Charges of no justice / vv 10-13 [see how we’re working our way backward toward the beginning]

B’-Call to seek Yahweh and live / vv 14-15

A’-Lament of the death of the nation / vv 16-17

Now let’s summarize the messages in each of these stanzas following this chiastic scheme…

A / vv 1-3 / Lament of the death of the nation, 1st part [couple with vv 16-17]

[1] Amos sees forward and projects his message into the inevitable and soon-to-come future when Israel and Samaria will fall in defeat and death to the Assyrians.

[2] Samaria has fallen, no more to rise; she has been forsaken…with none to come to her aid and raise her up again. Those cities and villages that sent out their thousand troops to fight in Samaria’s defense will have maybe a hundred left … and those who sent a hundred will have maybe ten left. Utter decimation.

B / vv 4-6 / Call to seek Yahweh and live, 1st part [couple with vv 14-15]

[1] Two times in this stanza, Yahweh calls to Israel: “Seek Me and live / Seek Yahweh and live.” He calls on those who were frequenting and running to their historical cities of worship: Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. Everyone one of these cities had a long and illustrious legacy of places where Yahweh had promised He would be with them, or where Yahweh had given them promises of His blessing.

[2] But now, for centuries, they had prostituted those same sites with their idolatries. Now they think they can run back there and somehow these places will have magical, mystical, talisman powers – like a ‘good luck charm.’ Or maybe they thought that Yahweh would be obligated to deliver them and save them just because He had given them covenant promises and blessings – even though they had egregiously violated every one of His commandments, conditions, and privileges over and over again…

[3] Their cries for help and their expectations of entitled deliverance shall come to nothing. / see Proverbs 1.20-33

C / v 7 / Charges of no justice [injustice], 1st part [couple with vv 10-13]

O you who turn justice to wormwood [a bitter fruit] and cast down righteousness to the earth!

[1] This is another summary indictment/judgment as in ch 3.10, “They do not know how to do right, declares Yahweh.” / see also ch 2.6-8; 4.1.

[2] Their transgressions, iniquities, and sins were not only spiritual faithlessness, idolatry, and covenant-breaking against Yahweh … but also all their injustices against their neighbors and one another. And they not only committed injustices themselves, but they also colluded with and profited from others who did so also. There was a power structure that abused all those who were weaker than they were.

[3] Yahweh keeps accounts of it all, and He will call them into account for it all.

D / vv 8-9 / HYMN TO YAHWEH [this is the crux, climax, core theme of the chiasm]

[1] The constellations Pleiades and Orion were associated with the new year and the change of the winter and summer growing seasons. And of course, their agricultural cycles were dependent on the consistency of those seasons. If the waters of the Mediterranean Sea did not form into clouds and pour their rains on the earth at the proper times, nothing is going to grow.

[2] Yahweh was in control of it all! He created it all, He commands it all, He provides it all. But He declares in His justice that He will punish them by sending upon them instead destruction and destroy their fortresses in which they were trusting.

C’ / vv 10-13 / Charges of no justice [injustice], 2nd part [see how we’re working our way backward toward the beginning … couple with v 7]

[1] Here are more charges of their social injustices against their neighbors – those who were weaker, poorer, who had no advocates to plead their cases on their behalf against these who were oppressing them.

[2] Not only what they were doing against those weaker than they were, but also “They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.”

[3] Amos himself would certainly have been included in these who were the targets of these rich and powerful people’s attacks against anyone who would dare confront or challenge them.

B’ / vv 14-15 / Call to seek Yahweh and live, 2nd part [couple with vv 4-6]

[1] NOTE how Yahweh turns these commands, promises, and warnings every way they can be turned – how He expresses them every way they can be expressed: “Seek good, and not evil, that you may live… / Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate [where their town councils, trials, hearings, community affairs took place]…”

[2] If they will return to Him, if they will repent, if they will learn to ‘do good’ as He commands, then He will give them what they want: “that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be with you as you have said … it may be that Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

[3] What is the ‘good’ Yahweh seeks in our social and public conduct? One of Amos’s contemporary prophets, Micah, tells us: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” / Micah 6.8

[4] But, in these cases also, they will continue to do what they have been doing for generations: “yet you did not return to Me, declares Yahweh.”

A’ / vv 16-17 / Lament of the death of the nation, 2nd part [couple with vv 1-3]

[1] So there is no other recourse but to suffer Yahweh’s just and pronounced punishment. Once again, Amos returns to mourn and lament the coming destruction and death of Samaria and Israel at the murderous hands of the Assyrians…

[2] There will be wailing and lamenting in every community, every activity, every sector of their society: in all the squares, in all the streets, the farmers, the poets, artists, singers, in all vineyards – everybody will be mourning the destruction and death that will overtake them.

[3] Remember how Yahweh reminded them in verse 1 that they are the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt. You also remember what the last plague was that Yahweh stuck Egypt with: it was the death of all their firstborn. “But I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I AM the LORD.” [Exodus 12.12]. The people of Israel were spared because they obeyed Yahweh and sprinkled the blood of the Passover lamb [Christ] on their houses.

[4] But now, because they have defied Yahweh and have stubbornly rejected His Word through His prophets, and have stubbornly refused to repent of their sins and return to Him, NOW He says, “for I will pass through YOUR midst, says Yahweh.”

[5] Now, THEY will be the ones who are destroyed by His justice and consumed by His wrath.

But … this is not the end of the story by any means! Amos laments in ch. 5.1, “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.”

But Yahweh promises in ch. 9.11 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old….”

That is the promise of Christ who will come! (see Acts 15.12-17).

He will satisfy the justice of Yahweh by His perfect obedience to the Covenant! And He will justify His people by suffering the just punishments of our sins upon Himself! (see Isaiah 53.10-12).

IN CHRIST…WE HAVE BEEN RAISED & RESTORED!

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Yahweh roars! Listen to Him!

Posted on September 3, 2022 by PastorDave

Amos | Lesson 1 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

NOTE: The Lesson Notes document is in PDF form at the end of this post. I also copied the text from those Lesson Notes into this WordPress post, but WordPress doesn’t always respect my original formatting, so there will be some distracting re-formatting going on here…

Read Amos, chapters 1 & 2

I / INTRODUCTION

We are going to conduct a brief survey through the Old Testament Book of Amos. Amos is one of what we call ‘minor prophets.’ There are twelve of them altogether. You will find them at the end of the Old Testament beginning with Hosea and concluding with Malachi. We call them ‘minor’ prophets, not because they are less important than the ‘major’ prophets, but rather because they are shorter, briefer. But each of these twelve ‘minor’ prophets was a very ‘major’ voice and influence during the times they prophesied – or declared Yahweh’s ‘major’ messages to His intended recipients.

II / CHAPTER 1.1  / WHO IS AMOS?

  1. Amos was not called by Yahweh to be a prophet as the primary vocation of his life. He tells us that himself in chapter 7.14-15. By occupation, he was a sheep-breeder/rancher/wool merchant. The word used here in verse 1 for ‘shepherd’ is not the common word for tending one’s personal flock. It is used only one other time in the OT in 2 Kings 3.4 and refers to a sheep-breeder/rancher who owns and runs a substantial business. Most likely the ‘dresser of sycamore figs’ [ch 7.14-15] was an auxiliary business he had to raise food for his flocks. He was faithfully working his business and livelihood when Yahweh called him to deliver His messages to the northern kingdom Israel. We might even say he was an ‘unlikely prophet’ and a surprising choice for Yahweh’s messages … even a ’one-hit wonder’ of a prophet. Just be faithful doing what God gives you to do – and when He wants you to do something else, He’ll let you know and lead you into it.
  2. He came from Tekoa, which is in the northern part of the southern kingdom Judah. Tekoa was about 10-11 miles south of Jerusalem and 5 miles south of Bethlehem. But Yahweh was going to send him north across the border between the two divided kingdoms to deliver His messages ‘concerning Israel.’ There had been intense rivalries between these two divided kingdoms ever since they split from one another. A lot of bad feelings for one another and even wars had been fought across that border. But Amos faithfully obeyed and went … disregarding the consequences.
  3. He delivered his messages to Israel in Bethel / ch 7.10-12. Bethel was only about five miles north of the dividing boundary between Judah and Israel … and it was a center of their idolatrous worship. Jeroboam I had erected one of his two ‘golden calves’ in Bethel / 1 Kings 12.25-33.
  4. Amos conducted his brief prophetic ministry ‘in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam [II] the son of Joash, king of Israel.’ If you want to find out what was going on in each of these two kingdoms at that time, you can find Uzziah’s [also called Azariah] record in 2 Kings 15.1-7 & 2 Chronicles 26. Jeroboam II’s reign is described in 2 Kings 14.23-29.
  5. His brief prophetic ministry makes him a contemporary of: Isaiah, Hosea, Jonah, and Micah / Isaiah 1.1; Hosea 1.1; 2 Kings 14.25; Micah 1.1.
  6. If you look at the dates of the reigns of these two kings, it will become apparent that this period of time is only 30 or so years immediately before the northern kingdom Israel was invaded by the Assyrians and carried off in exile to Assyria [722 BC]. Amos prophesied probably 760-750 BC.
  7. However, it will help you to understand the significances of his messages if you’ll keep in mind that in both of these kingdoms, they were experiencing one of the most prosperous periods they had enjoyed since the days of King Solomon. This was a ‘golden age’ for both kingdoms. Let’s just summarize that period of time as:
  • – a time of national disunity and rivalry [if you want to get a feel for the bad blood between these two kingdoms, read 2 Chronicles 25.14-28 … this event went down between the fathers of these two current kings … about 20 years before the ‘southerner’ Amos delivered his messages to the ‘northerners’ in Israel…]
  • – a time of military strength and superiority [leading to their pride & downfall / ch 2.14-16]
  • – a time of economic prosperity [though much of it was ill-gotten through greed, abuses of power, injustices toward the weak and the poor, and oppression of their neighbors and kinspeople – this is one of the MAJOR themes of Yahweh’s messages through Amos]
  • – a time of religious activity [though it was a mixed-gods kind of worship and practiced in hypocrisy and superficiality…as we shall see]

8. Amos also makes it a point to date his ministry and messages ‘two years before the earthquake.’ While the event of this earthquake is not described elsewhere, it is mentioned again in Zechariah 14.5. Both of these mentions are made to make it clear that Yahweh sent that earthquake as another strong sign to try to get their attention that His judgment was about to fall on them. But, they didn’t pay any mind to either His messages through Amos or the earthquake.

III / WHERE WE’RE GOING OVER THE NEXT FOUR LESSONS…

  1. I want to at least read all of Amos together with you over the next four lessons. I want us to read it like I hope you will continue to read it at home. If I just try to pick out four texts from sections of Amos, you won’t get the feel for the connection and flow of the whole book.
  2. So I’m going to divide up the nine chapters of Amos into four lessons and title each lesson after a common theme in each section:
    1. chapters 1 & 2: Yahweh roars! Listen to Him! From ch 1.2 [also ch 3.4, 8] Yahweh will ‘roar’ with eight specific judgments against eight kingdoms/nations.
    1. chapters 3-5: Yahweh calls! Return to Him! see the themes of ‘yet you did not return to Me’ in ch 4.6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and ‘Seek Me and live’ in ch 5.4, 6, 14.
    1. chapters 6 & 7: Yahweh shows! Plead with Him! From ‘This is what the Lord GOD showed me…’ in ch 7.1, 4, 7; 8.1 and also 9.1.
    1. chapters 8 & 9: Yahweh restores! Hope in Him! From 9.11-15.
  3. Obviously, we won’t be getting into a lot of details in these Lesson Notes or even in our class time together … but I do want to outline the lessons for you to have … and we’ll try to give as many explanatory comments as we can while we read Amos together to give you the gist of understanding Yahweh’s powerful messages through His prophet Amos.
  4. His over-arching themes throughout all his messages are:
    1. [1] Yahweh is sovereign LORD over all nations and their peoples and will call them all into account to Himself;
    1. [2] Yahweh commands and deserves our whole-hearted devotion and obedience to Him;
    1. [3] Our worship of God must be sincere, pure, spiritually authentic, and justly applied;
    1. [4] We must faithfully live out and consistently act out our faith in God through Scriptural social concerns, action, and justice: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” / ch 5.24 / see also ch 5.7, 15 & 6.12
  5. “Amos condemned Israel for an inability ‘to do right’ (3.10). The prophet affirmed the ‘internal’ aspects of covenant relationship with Yahweh, including loving God with a whole heart and obeying His statutes. He also clearly understood the ethical implications of covenant relationship with Yahweh for individual and corporate behavior. His impassioned pleas for the socially disadvantaged (i.e., the poor, needy, and afflicted; cf. 2.6-7; 4.1; 5.11-12; 8.4, 6) and his denouncement of their affluent oppressors (i.e., rich women, dishonest merchants, corrupt rulers, opportunistic lawyers and judges, and false priests; cf. 4.1; 6.1, 4; 7.8-9) have earned him a reputation as God’s spokesman for social justice (cf. 5.7, 15, 24; 6.12).” Andrew Hill/ John Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament
  6. By the way, about Amos’s grasp of literature, vocabulary, and literary style … yes, Amos was a rural farmer and sheep-breeder as his rural allusions reveal [ch 3.3-8, 12], but he is no uneducated bumpkin. Here’s what some scholars have said about Amos’s writing: “Amos makes use of a wide range of literary devices in presenting his oracles: metaphors, simile, epithets, proverbs, short narratives, sarcasm, direct vituperation, vision, taunt, dialogue, irony, satire, parody – a virtual anthology of prophetic forms” / Leland Ryken … and “He is the author of the purest and most classical Hebrew in the Old Testament” / George L. Robinson.

IV / chapters 1 & 2 / LET’S OUTLINE AMOS’S MESSAGES IN THIS FIRST SECTION OF HIS PROPHETIC WARNINGS TO ISRAEL: THE JUDGE & THE JUDGED

  1. “Yahweh roars! Listen to Him!” This theme is announced in ch 1.2 / And he [Amos] said: “Yahweh roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem…” Yahweh is compared to a lion – the indisputable king of beasts [see also 3.4, 8, 12; 5.19]. There are numerous references in the OT histories of lions being in their regions and were a constant threat to their populations, flocks, herds, and livestock. Since Amos was a breeder of flocks and herds, he would have had first-hand experience with their ravenous ways – especially the terrifying, paralyzing power of a lion’s roar.
  2. Yahweh is going to ‘roar’ against the sins of eight specific kingdoms/nations … we will take them in order as they come.
  3. Eight indictments / think of these next eight sets of charges as Yahweh’s righteous indictments against these kingdoms. Yahweh will preside as both the sovereign Judge and the Prosecutor.
  4. Each specific bill of indictment or set of charges will follow the same pattern: [1] Verdict: “I will not revoke the punishment”; [2] Evidences [nowadays, we say ‘I have the receipts’]: “because…”; [3] Sentence: “So I will…”  
  5. There is a common formula that Yahweh ‘roars’ to announce each kingdom’s sins: “for three transgressions…and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because….” … and then Yahweh will proceed to enumerate the specific sins of each neighboring kingdom that He condemns – and for which He would judge them … and what He will do to judge them.
    1. the numbers of these transgressions are not specific – there were certainly more than three or even four … nor are they random – Yahweh is not just throwing out numbers
    1. but they do convey the message that Yahweh had recorded all their transgressions and would call them into account for every one
    1. also…if you add 3+4=7…and 7 is the number of completion or fullness. Yahweh is testifying that His ‘because’ of their judgments are both verifiable and more than sufficient evidences for His judgments / see, for example, “Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? [2.11]
  6. Yahweh is also testifying to His patience and longsuffering toward every kingdom before He sends His judgments on them / compare Romans 2.5 & 11.22.
  7. All of these kingdoms were neighbors of Israel … and each kingdom had long histories of animosities, warfare, atrocities, and even oppressions against Israel … and also toward their own peoples. God cares how we treat our neighbors and each other and will call us into account for every transgression, not only against Him, but also toward others. Every kingdom, every nation is under God’s indisputable sovereignty, and He will judge every nation for their injustices and oppressive treatments of all other peoples.
  8. So what Yahweh will do with these pronouncements of judgments is throw out a web [or a noose, if you please] and begin to draw all the surrounding nations into His court of judgment and pass His sentence of ‘punishment’ on each one – until He calls in Judah in His 7th judgment – and then finally begins to pronounce judgment on Israel themselves in His 8th judgment.
  9. ALSO [and please note this very carefully], I know that often when we read the OT prophets, it is all so ‘foreign’ to us – all the names, places, events, histories, etc – we can’t make heads or tails or sense of it. It is all kinda like ‘prophetic gibberish’ to us … like some kind of cryptic, secret code or something. We don’t ‘get it.’ But, believe me, those who heard these words from Yahweh and His prophets understood them very well. They ‘got it.’
  10. If there was some way to transport Amos to our 2022 world [“Beam him in, Scotty”], and transpose and translate his messages into the events we are experiencing in our culture, society, nation, and international affairs, his messages would be just as crystal clear to us as they were to them.  

V / HERE ARE THE EIGHT JUDGMENTS: THE JUDGE & THE JUDGED…

[1] ch 1.3-5 / DAMASCUS [or Syria/Aram] / Treating people as if they have no worth…

  1. Damascus was the capitol of the bordering kingdom of Syria [or Aram]. They were situated to the NE of Israel.
  2. Their transgression was “because they have threshed Gilead with the threshing sledges of iron.” Gilead was the Israel territory east of the Jordan River just to Aram’s south where the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh settled when they entered the Promised Land.
  3. Aram [or Syria] had been Israel’s oppressors for nearly 100 years at the time of Amos’s prophecy.
  4. These ‘threshing sledges of iron’ were instruments they would use during their grain harvests. Oxen would pull the wooden sledges [or sleds] over the grain to break the husks loose from the kernels and also to chop up the straw stalks with iron spikes that would drag across the grain.
  5. But Aram is said to have threshed Gilead with these sledges of iron, either by their constant warfare or maybe even by dragging these threshing sledges over the captives and prisoners of war they had taken. Either way, it was an act of atrocity with no regard for the worth or value of a human being.
  6. “War or no war, Hazael had no liberty to treat people as if they were things. It is the first absolute principle for which Amos campaigns: people are not things … ‘Threshing’ is what a man does to a thing, a grain crop, in order to extract profit from it. This is what Hazael did in Gilead. He treated people as things. But found no sympathy, allowance, or forgiveness in Heaven.” / J. A. Motyer
  7. Yahweh sentences them to be devoured by fire [just like you would burn the left-over chaff], and they will be taken off into captivity themselves.
    1. NOTE: in every one of these first seven of eight judgments Yahweh pronounces, “I will send a fire” is included in the destructions that will come upon them. Watch for it…
    1. Burning the city down was not only one of the most common and convenient ways to wreak destruction on those who were conquered – but it is surely a precursor to the final judgment all evildoers and unbelievers will suffer in Hell … the lake of fire / Revelation 19.20; 20.10, 14-15; 21.8. ‘Fire’ is mentioned nine times in Amos / also ch 5.6 & 7.4
  8. That’s why we emphasize in our treatments of all people that they are ‘image-bearers’ of God’s image. People have worth because of God’s image they bear–and God will judge every person or people who treat human ‘image-bearers’ as merely a thing–as if they have no worth. / see James 3.9   

[2] ch 1.6-8 / GAZA [or Philistia/Philistines] / Human trafficking … using people for profit…

  1. Gaza was one of the principal cities of Philistia or Philistines, along with Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, [and Gath]. All are named in this indictment. They were situated to the SW of Israel.
  2. They were one of the longest-running and best-known oppressors of Israel.
  3. Their transgression was “because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom.”
  4. They were like the Syrians – they treated people as mere things – except that their transgression was compounded by their human trafficking of the people they took captive. They would take the captives and sell them as slaves to other nations – in this case, “to deliver them up to Edom.”
  5. Yahweh sentences them also to be burned up by fire and utter destruction, “and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish.”
  6. This same sin of human trafficking is a prevalent and pervasive perversion of human beings in our own world … whether it is for financial profit or sexual pleasure. / see Revelation 18.13

[3] ch 1.9-10 / TYRE [or Phoenicia] / Breaking one’s word to a brother to use him for a profit…

  1. Tyre was a prominent city in Phoenicia and was situated on the Mediterranean coast to the NW of Israel because they were the professional sea-going peoples and merchants of that day.
  2. Their transgression was “because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.”
  3. Apparently, they had made an alliance [‘the covenant of brotherhood’] with another kingdom [which was well-known at the time], but when an opportunity arose, they betrayed that covenant for a profit. They not only broke their word, but they did so out of greed. They gained the trust of a neighboring kingdom, and then betrayed and sold them as slaves. “In addition, as appalling as that sin was [slave trading/human trafficking], their wickedness went deeper because the very people they sold were their friends. Their debauchery was compounded by their treachery.” / T. J. Betts
  4. Again, as with the Philistines, in this case also, “they delivered up a whole people to Edom…” This is now the second time Edom is said to be complicit in and benefactors of another kingdom’s transgression. “It is possible they [Phoenicia] were in collusion with Gaza and Edom’s slave trade.” [T. J. Betts]. Edom’s turn is coming…wait for it…
  5. What Yahweh is demonstrating here in all these indictments is, not just His displeasure with all these kingdoms’ transgressions … but He is also demonstrating His own character. In this case, Yahweh is a God truth and faithfulness, and He commands the same from all His ‘image-bearer’ creatures.
  6. Lying, breaking faith, reneging on your word of promise, and betrayal of trust is a transgression for which Yahweh says, “I will not revoke the punishment.” “…and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.” / Revelation 21.8

[4] ch 1.11-12 / EDOM [or Edomites] / Unrestrained hatred and spite toward a brother…

  1. Edom was situated SW of Israel around the southern tip of the Dead Sea.
  2. The Edomites were actually blood brothers with the Israelites. They were the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s older brother and Isaac’s other son. Yahweh had forbidden the Israelites to despise the Edomites because of this blood relationship: “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.” / Deuteronomy 23.7
  3. Their transgression was “because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.”
  4. There was a constant family feud and warfare going on between the Israelites and the Edomites. But there may have been a specific, more recent event at that time when the Edomites committed some kind of unrestrained atrocity against Israel – in spite of the history and legacy of their brotherhood. They abandoned any expression of human sympathy or pity and perpetuated their hatred and spite with violence when they had the opportunity.
  5. Because of this transgression … along with all the other transgressions with Philistia and Tyre in which they were complicit … Yahweh decrees “I will not revoke the punishment” they deserve.  

[5] ch 1.13-15 / AMMONITES [or Ammon] / Ambition and uncontrolled violence against the helpless…

  1. Ammon was situated due E of Israel and S of Aram [Syria].
  2. The Ammonites also were distant relatives of the Israelites. They were descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, by a drunken, incestuous liaison between Lot and his younger daughter / Genesis 19.30-38. [The other one, by the way, was Moab…coming up next…]
  3. Their transgression was “because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.”
  4. This was just another inhumane and violent atrocity [war-crime] often committed against conquered peoples, but Ammon committed it specifically against the Israelites who lived in Gilead, bordering them on the west solely “that they might enlarge their border” and expand their territory.
  5. Yahweh pronounces “I will not revoke the punishment.”

[6] ch 2.1-3 / MOAB [or Moabites] / Showing contempt for others…

  1. Moab also was situated SE of Israel, sandwiched in between Edom to the S and Ammon to the N.
  2. Moab was a brother to Ammon from another incestuous liaison between Lot and his older daughter.
  3. Their transgression was “because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom,” in other words, they didn’t just conquer and subjugate the Edomites, but they intentionally desecrated his corpse by burning it, and then used his ashes to make common whitewash – utter contempt.
  4. For this transgression, Yahweh says, “I will not revoke the punishment.”

[7] ch 2.4-5 / JUDAH / Unfaithfulness to God and His Word…

  1. Now, Amos introduces Judah into Yahweh’s denunciations. Judah is Israel’s estranged brother kingdom to the S.
  2. Their transgression is “because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.”
  3. [Since we have just concluded an extensive study of Judah’s transgressions and eventual destruction, I will refer you to our lessons from 1 & 2 Kings…especially this one: https://daveparksblog.com/2022/08/27/the-fall-of-the-southern-kingdom-judah-aka-treacherous-sister-jeremiah-3-6-11/ ]

[8] ch 2.6-16 / ISRAEL / NUMEROUS BREACHES OF COVENANT & SOCIAL INJUSTICES

  1. Now, keep in mind that Amos is delivering these denunciations and pronouncements of Yahweh’s judgments on Israel’s neighboring kingdoms in Bethel, one of the most prominent centers of Israel’s idolatrous religious activity [see ch 7.10-17]. As Amos throws out the web of Yahweh’s “I will not revoke the punishment” sentences to their neighboring kingdoms, they begin to listen with increasing interest, and they like it. Then Amos indicts even Judah, and the cheers of “Right on! Yes! Go get ‘em! Bring it on!” begin to erupt… [This is called “rhetoric of entrapment” or ‘gotcha’]
  2. They didn’t suspect that Israel would next up in the queue of Yahweh’s docket – but here it comes! “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because….”
  3. Since these charges and indictments will be the subjects of Amos’s successive messages, and we will develop them in the following lessons, we will just summarize the charges here:
    1. vv 6-8 / They abused their power and perpetrated egregious injustices – financially, sexually, legally – to exploit the weak and helpless for their personal profit and pleasure … and in so doing, they actually chose to follow in the ways of those who formerly had oppressed them
    1. vv 9-11 / They failed to recognize their debts of gratitude they owed Yahweh for all of His past covenant mercies, deliverances, prosperity, and providences … He had made them all they were and given them all they had: “yet it was I…” / v 9; “Also it was I…” / v 10; “And I…” / v 11. They deliberately abandoned Yahweh and chose to worship other gods
    1. v 12 / They persecuted those who were committed to faithfully serve Yahweh [Nazirites] and oppressed those who faithfully delivered Yahweh’s Word and warnings against their transgressions [prophets]. Rebels against God will oppose [cancel] those who live for God.
  4. So Yahweh passes His righteous and just sentence on them:
    1. v 13 / Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down… Just like a wagon or cart breaks down when it is overloaded beyond its capacity, so they are filling up and overloading the ‘cart’ of their guilt with their transgressions and injustices until it breaks down under the weight of Yahweh’s punishment.
    1. vv 14-16 / Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; 15 he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; 16 and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” declares the LORD. All of their superior military strength and prowess in which they trusted – all of it will fail in the day of Yahweh’s punishment. They are going down…

“LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN LIKE WATERS, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE AN EVER-FLOWING STREAM” / ch 5.24

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The Fall of the Southern Kingdom Judah (aka ‘Treacherous Sister’ / Jeremiah 3.6-11)

Posted on August 27, 2022 by PastorDave

1&2 Kings | Lesson 11 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read 2 Kings 25.1-21

I / INTRODUCTION

I don’t know any better way to begin this lesson than by quoting the aphorism we’ve all heard many times: ‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.’ Winston Churchill did give this line in a 1948 speech before the House of Commons, but he was also paraphrasing an earlier statement by writer and philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Regardless of who said it first or in what words, both warnings are true – and both warning apply to the Southern Kingdom Judah … as we will learn in this lesson.

II / MAKING THE CONNECTION

  1. So, let’s begin where we left off in our last lesson: the Northern Kingdom Israel had been invaded, captured, and its inhabitants taken off into exile and captivity in Assyria. Yahweh was both emphatic and specific that His judgment on them was because of their repeated and flagrant violations of His covenant He had made with them / 2 Kings 17.1-18.
  2. The Holy Spirit-inspired narrator of The Books of Kings then gives a brief retrospective summary of what eventually befell the Southern Kingdom Judah as well … 136 years later: Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of his sight. / vv 19-20
  3. The lesson is clear: Judah should have seen what Yahweh had done in Israel and turned from their own evil ways – and certainly should not have ‘walked in the customs that Israel had introduced’ which brought the disastrous consequences upon Israel.
  4. But – as the narrator says, “Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God…”
  5. NOTE: They followed the exact same steps and course that led to Israel’s fall: egregious sins … repeated warnings … stubborn refusals and rebellions … disastrous consequences / see Lesson 10
  6. That’s why the prophet Jeremiah would shame Judah after their own exile and captivity into Babylon by calling them “the treacherous sister” who should have learned from the history they had just witnessed – but refused to do so: The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.” 11 And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.” / Jeremiah 3.6-11
  7. That is the story we will unfold in this lesson – the path and course that ‘Judah also’ walked to follow their northern sister kingdom into exile and captivity.
  8. What we will do is pick up Judah’s story here in 2 Kings 17.19-20 when Israel went into Assyrian exile and follow them king by king. There were eight kings who reigned in Judah between Israel’s Assyrian exile [722 BC] and Judah’s fall to Babylon [586 BC]. as recorded in chapter 25.
  9. We will [1] name each king, [2] where his historical record is found in 2 Kings, [3] how Yahweh evaluated him and his reign, and [4] how his reign affected Judah’s final fall and demise.

III / JUDAH’S DOWNWARD SPIRAL INTO APOSTACY AND EXILE

[1] HEZEKIAH / 2 Kings 18.1 – 20.21 / He reigned 29 years / ch 18.2

  1. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). 5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following Him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. / ch 18.3-8
  2. Keep in mind that Hezekiah assumed the Judah throne ‘in the third year of Hoshea…king of Israel,’ which means he would have witnessed the invasion and capture of Samaria to his north.
  3. In fact, one of the most notable accounts of Hezekiah’s reign was how the Assyrians then moved south against Jerusalem and laid siege to the city. There was a long standoff as the Assyrians demanded their surrender and mocked Yahweh and their faith in Him. Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh to intervene on their behalf. Yahweh sent Isaiah the prophet to Hezekiah with a prophecy of doom against Assyria. And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. / ch 19.35
  4. You will find the full account of this momentous deliverance in chs 18 & 19 … and also in Isaiah 36-39

[2] MANASSEH / 2 Kings 21.1-18 / He reigned 55 years / ch 21.1

  1. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. / ch 21.2
  2. Read what all he re-introduced into the mainstream of Judah’s  religious, national, and social culture / ch 21.3-9
  3. We need to stop and focus on Manasseh before going on … because Yahweh specifically names Manasseh as being the ‘tipping point’ of Judah’s apostacy and destruction. Manasseh greased the skids that sent Judah careening down the course of their rebellion against Yahweh.  
  4. In fact, Yahweh places the weight of blame on Manasseh for tipping the scales of Yahweh’s holiness, justice, and wrath against Judah toward their inevitable destruction and exile. Read it in ch 21.10-16
  5. We will note it when we come to it, but Yahweh will ‘circle back’ again to Manasseh when He credits a couple future kings of Judah for their temporary reforms they instituted, trying to save Judah from His wrath. But as Yahweh will say, “the die has been cast” by Manasseh / see ch 23.26-27 & 24.1-4 

[3] AMON / 2 Kings 21.19-26 / He reigned 2 years / ch 21.19

And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. 21 He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them. 22 He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.  / ch 21.20-22 / That’s all we need to know about Amon…

[4] JOSIAH / 2 Kings 22.1 – 23.30 / He reigned 31 years / ch 22.1

  1. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. / ch 22.2
  2. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. / ch 23.25
  3. ch 22.8-10 / Josiah is one of the brightest of the shining stars of Judah’s kings. Almost two whole chapters are given to chronicle how he repaired the Temple of Yahweh … and in the process, they discovered the long-neglected Torah, the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.  
  4. ch 22.11-17 / When they read what Yahweh had pronounced against them if they violated His covenant and commandments as they had done for centuries, they were terrified at the prospects of the impending judgments that loomed over them.
  5. ch 22.18-20 / However, Yahweh assured Josiah that because his own heart was penitent toward Yahweh, and because he had made sweeping reforms and called Judah back to Yahweh, the judgment would not fall on Judah during his lifetime. It would come, but it would be later after he had died.
  6. Still, after all the good he did, he couldn’t re-tip the scales of Yahweh’s holiness, justice, and wrath back to pre-Manasseh / ch 23.26-27: Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of His great wrath, by which His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And the LORD said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem,  and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”

[5] JEHOAHAZ / 2 Kings 23.31-33 / He reigned 3 months / ch 23.31

And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. / ch 23.32

[6] JEHOIAKIM / 2 Kings 23.34-37 / He reigned 11 years / ch 23.36

  1. His original name is Eliakim. But when Judah was subjected to be a subservient state to the Egyptians, the Pharaoh Neco appointed him to be king and changed his name to Jehoiachim. He was Jehoahaz’s brother and the son of Josiah.
  2. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. / ch 23.37
  3.  ch 24.1-2 / The beginnings of the end began during Jehoiakim’s reign: In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets.
  4. ch 24.3-4 / And yet again, Yahweh circles back to Manasseh, telling us again that Manasseh’s sins had cast this die that was now being filled with the inevitable wrath of Yahweh and the destruction of the kingdom: Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon.

[7] JEHOIACHIN / 2 Kings 24.6-9 / He reigned 3 months / ch 24.8

  1. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done. / ch 24.9
  2. v 10 / It was during his reign that the Babylonians began their final and fatal siege against Jerusalem.
  3. vv 11-12 / Jehoiachin surrendered himself to the king of Babylon along with many of his relatives, kingdom officials, and prominent leaders. They were carried off to Babylon / vv 15-16
  4. v 13 / The Babylonians began plundering and stripping the Temple of all its treasures and gold that Solomon had made.
  5. v 14 / They captured and carried away 10,000 of the ‘brightest and best’ of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. None remained, except the poorest people of the land.
  6. v 17 / And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

[8] ZEDEKIAH / 2 Kings 24.18-19 / He reigned 11 years / ch 24.18

And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For because of the anger of the LORD it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He cast them out from His presence.

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ch 24.19-20.

CHAPTER 25 / “AND NOW, THE END IS NEAR, AND SO I FACE THE FINAL CURTAIN…”

  1. That’s right – Zedekiah started in on his own rendition of “I did it my way!” … it didn’t end well
  2. v 1 / He submitted to his role as vassal king for nine of his eleven years … but in the ninth year of his reign, he decided he would rebel against the king of Babylon and take Judah back from him. He kinda declared Judah’s independence from Babylon.
  3. vv 2-3 / Once again, the king of Babylon moved against Jerusalem and laid a two-year siege against the city and its remaining inhabitants … they ran out of food … famine ensued.
  4. vv 4-5 / The walls of the city were breached, and the Babylonians surged into the city … all the remaining soldiers and men of war fled in their vain efforts to escape…
  5. vv 6-7 / Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.
  6. vv 8-10 / In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.  10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
  7. vv 11-17 / More of the inhabitants of Jerusalem taken as prisoners and carried into exile … along with all the treasures, gold, silver, bronze and everything else of material value was stripped from the Temple before they burned it – and all of it was carted off to Babylon. [Some of these treasured vessels will re-surface in Babylon in Daniel 5.1-4 when Belshazzar brings them out to mock Yahweh … that didn’t end well, either].

So, let’s go back to where we began this lesson in 2 Kings 17.19-20 / Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.

  • ch 17.23b: So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.
  • ch 25.21: So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

2 Chronicles 36.15-16 / The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against His people, until there was no remedy.  

BUT … YAHWEH HAS PROMISED ‘YOU SHALL NOT LACK A MAN ON THE THRONE OF ISRAEL.’ / 1 Kings 2.4; 8.25; 9.5; 2 Chronicles 6.16; 7.18; Jeremiah 33.17

WE WAIT AND LONG FOR HIM TO COME! / Luke 2.25, 38

“THE KING IS COMING!” / Luke 1.26-33

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The Fall of the Northern Kingdom Israel: when, how, & why

Posted on August 20, 2022 by PastorDave

Read 2 Kings 17.1-41 | Lesson 10 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

I / INTRODUCTION

  1. We are all surrounded in our daily lives by all kinds of warning alerts and alarms: tornado warning sirens, smoke and CO2 alarms, screeching alerts on our phones warning us of weather dangers, and, of course, in our automobiles. When Debbie and I first bought our new vehicle, both of us were paranoid and skittish about driving it because we had to get used to all the beeps and alerts that frequently gave us warning signals and messages. If we drive too close to the lines on either side of the driving lane, we get a bright orange icon that pops up on the console screen “LANE DEPARTURE,” and the steering wheel gently wobbles back and forth. If we ride the lines too long, the bright orange icon flashes “STEERING REQUIRED,” and the beeping starts. If we approach an object or another vehicle too closely, the bright orange warning icon flashes “BRAKE,” and if we don’t brake enough soon enough, the repeated warning beeping starts, and the vehicle will actually begin braking itself. Then, of course, when the fuel begins to run low, the bright orange warning icon flashes “LOW FUEL,” and the car will start ‘ding’ing.
  2. The purpose of all these warning signals is to alert us to DANGER, and if we ignore them, it will end in DISASTER.
  3. That is the story we will learn from in our lesson: how Yahweh repeatedly sent the Northern Kingdom Israel warning message after warning message; but Israel stubbornly rejected and rebelled against them all; until Yahweh finally brought disaster upon them by the invasion of the Assyrians – casting them out of their homeland and into bondage, captivity, and exile.
  4. In this lesson, we’ll examine The Fall of the Northern Kingdom Israel: when, how, and why.

II / MAKING THE CONNECTION

  1. After the death of King Solomon, the united kingdom of Israel was divided when the northern tribes rebelled and seceded / 1 Kings 12
  2. The northern tribes/kingdom were called Israel and the southern tribes/kingdom were called Judah.
  3. The northern kingdom’s first king was Jeroboam … by the way, the history of the kingdom Israel is summarized for us again here in 2 Kings 17.21-23
  4. They existed as a separate kingdom for 209 years until this time we are studying now [Jeroboam’s reign over Israel was circa 931 BC]
  5. 722 BC. This seminal date marks the Assyrian exile and captivity. This is one of those dates you need to know and remember. This event will set the course of history forever for the 10 northern tribes.

III / vv 1-5 / THE FALL OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM ISRAEL … WHEN

  1. v 1 / Hoshea was the reigning king of Israel. He reigned for nine years.
  2. v 3 / Early on in his reign, Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria [the superpower at that time] began marching toward Samaria, conquering all the other kingdoms as he came / see ch 16.9
  3. He forced Hoshea to submit to him as a vassal kingdom and pay an annual tribute. Hoshea acquiesced, conceded, and complied with his demands.
  4. v 4 / However, Hoshea began feeling his oats, and didn’t want his annual tribute to the Assyrians any longer. He resented being subject and subservient to the Assyrian king.
  5. So instead he took the annual tribute money and sent it to So, king of Egypt, and made an alliance with the Egyptians, thinking they could fend off the Assyrians. Of course, the Assyrian king took that as an act of insubordination, betrayal, and treason and decided to move in to take Samaria by force.
  6. v 5 / The king of Assyria captured Hoshea and imprisoned him … then they laid siege to Samaria – barricaded and blockaded the city – for three years. They shut the city in on themselves – no one could come in or go out for those three years while they lived off of what food and water they had in the city.

IV / v 6 / THE FALL OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM ISRAEL … HOW

  1. Then, in the 9th year of King Hoshea’s reign – THIS IS THE 722 BC DATE – the Assyrians broke into the city and captured it.
  2. They carried off the inhabitants of Samaria to Assyria and re-settled them in cities they had designated for that purpose.
  3. Assyrian historical records of this event record that they carried off and re-settled 27,290 captive Israelites.

V / vv 7-18 / THE FALL OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM ISRAEL … WHY

  1. Now we get to the crux of the lesson: the WHY. NOTE the opening phrase in v 7: And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God…”
  2. KEEP IN MIND: the Holy Spirit-inspired author, writer, historian, narrator is not writing like a field reporter – describing the events as they happened – but rather many years later as a commentator [see “to this day” in vv 23, 34, 41]. He is evaluating the events in retrospect … from Yahweh’s perspective … as Yahweh saw, evaluated, and judged them!
  3. As a reminder, I’m including this statement from Lesson 1: However, these records are not just royal or national chronicles [they recorded and kept meticulous records of their national affairs – especially their royal reigns]. They are specifically Yahweh’s holy critiques and evaluations of their relationships with Him. Here is an excellent Purpose Statement for these books from Yahweh’s holy perspective: “The books of Kings continue the story of kingship begun in Samuel, and their primary purpose is to record the ‘covenant failure’ of the Hebrew united and divided monarchies. The Biblical narrative implicitly balances the notion of God’s sovereignty and the reality of human freedom and declares that God was justified in exiling His people for the failure of the kings of Israel and Judah to uphold the ideals of the Davidic covenant.” [A Survey of the Old Testament / Andrew E. Hill & Jonathan H. Walton]. This theme also serves to show us the ultimate failure of all human kings and our need for King Jesus to come with His Gospel and salvation!
  4. vv 7-8 / YAHWEH’S CHARGES & INDICTMENTS: Here is a summary of what will follow. The narrator will give numerous details in the succeeding verses. What we will do in the following verses is note several specific kinds of statements that are all woven together to build the case for cause and effect…charges, indictments, evidences, witnesses against them, and consequences.
  5. I will denote them by these categories:
    • Egregious Sins that the people of Israel committed against Yahweh
    • Repeated Warnings that Yahweh had given them over and over again – pointing out what they were doing against Him and His covenant, calling them to repent and return to Him, and warning them of the disastrous consequences of their continued disobedience and rebellion against Him
    • Stubborn Refusals/Rebellions that Israel threw back at Yahweh. These were not just ‘slip-ups’ that they committed – they flouted and flaunted their contempt and disdain for Yahweh with every act of rebellion
    • Disastrous Consequences that Yahweh brought upon them as He had warned them and said He would / Yahweh had even warned them of eventual captivity in Deuteronomy 28 & 29!

vv 7-18

  • Egregious Sins: And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.  / What would have made Israel think that if Yahweh had cast the Caananite nations out of the land so He could give that Promised Land to His people as their covenant homeland … that He would not cast Israel out also for importing, adopting, and practicing the same sins?
  • Egregious Sins: 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right.  / These were the sins they practiced in secrecy because they refused to love Yahweh with all their hearts and keep His covenant commandments – then there were all these other egregious sins they committed openly in their national and civil and ‘religious’ life…
  • Egregious Sins: They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.  / in other words, everywhere they lived in Israel … from the smallest village and hamlet to the major fortified cities.
  • Egregious Sins: 0 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. / These were vile, obscene, and idolatrous images to the false gods of the heathen nations … which they adopted and practiced.
  • Egregious Sins: And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, 12 and they served idols,  / and they did all this openly, brazenly, throwing it back in Yahweh’s holy face, as if to say, “NO! We will not love You only – take this!”
  • Repeated Warnings: …of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this.” / as He did repeatedly from the first giving of the Law at Sinai / see Exodus 20.1-4, et. al. 
  • Repeated Warnings: 13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”  / Yahweh had repeatedly sent them prophet after prophet with their stern warnings from Yahweh – warning after warning… [NOTE: a similar testimony from Yahweh will be given to Judah 136 years later when they, too, fell to the Babylonians / 2 Chronicles 36.15]
  • Stubborn Refusals/Rebellions: 14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God.  / We have to remember here the solemn warnings for stubborn refusal to receive and obey God’s corrections in Proverbs 28.14 & 29.1 … read them]
  • Stubborn Refusals/Rebellions: 15 They despised His statutes and His covenant that He made with their fathers
  • Repeated Warnings: …and the warnings that He gave them.
  • Egregious Sins: They went after false idols and became false,
  • Egregious Sins: …and they followed the nations that were around them,
  • Repeated Warnings: …concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. 
  • Stubborn Refusals/Rebellions: 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God,
  • Egregious Sins: …and made for themselves metal images of two calves;  / these are the two golden calves that Jeroboam initially erected as their central and primary objects of worship / see 1 Kings 12.25-33
  • Egregious Sins: …and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.  / even continued after Elijah’s showdown at Mount Carmel / 1 Kings 18 
  • Egregious Sins: 17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.  / Yes, this was child sacrifice which was prominently practiced.
  • Disastrous Consequences: 18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.

VI / vv 19-20 / NOW IT’S JUDAH’S TURN: THE SUBSEQUENT APOSTACY AND FALL OF THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM JUDAH

  1. The events in this brief account did not happen for another 136 years after the Fall of the Northern Kingdom Israel. That was in the year 586 BC. That’s another important seminal date you need to know and remember:
    • 722 BC: The Fall of the Northern Kingdom Israel and their captivity and their exile to Assyrian – from whence they never returned en masse.
    • 586 BC: The Fall of the Southern Kingdom Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem and The Temple, and their captivity and exile into Babylon – from whence they would return 70 years later according to Yahweh’s promise / Jeremiah 25.1-14 [especially vv 11-12] & 29.10-14
  2. This account is written more fully in 2 Kings 24-25 & 2 Chronicles 36
  3. But the narrator, again writing in retrospect years after the events, brings this statement into this account to show that “And Yahweh rejected ALL the descendants of Israel [both Israel and Judah] and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.” [NOTE: from 1 Kings 5-8 to here is the beginning and end of The Temple]
  4. You would have thought that the Southern Kingdom Judah would have taken serious note of Yahweh’s disastrous consequences that He brought upon the Northern Kingdom Israel … would have seen Yahweh’s judgment and Israel’s fall as yet another serious warning and ultimatum to turn from their own idolatries and covenant-breaking against Yahweh. But they didn’t – and the same disastrous consequences befell them 136 years later.
  5. Jeremiah laments their obstinate refusal to repent of their same sins and return to fear Yahweh and serve Him only … even after this serious warning and ultimatum Yahweh gave them by casting Israel out of the land / Jeremiah 3.6-11

VII / vv 21-23 / IN SUMMARY: A THREE-VERSE REVIEW AND SUMMARY OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM ISRAEL FROM JEROBOAM TO EXILE IN ASSYRIA

  1. These verses briefly and succinctly summarize and encapsulate their 209-year history as a separate, divided kingdom – from the time of their secession from Judah under Jeroboam, their first king [1 Kings 12], to the Assyrian captivity and exile.
  2. And as the narrator says when he writes years later, “So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.”

VIII / vv 24-41 / THE IDOLATROUS RE-POPULATION OF SAMARIA … AND HOW THE SAMARITANS BECAME ‘THE SAMARITANS’

  1. We don’t have the time to draw out this section of 2 Kings 17 – so let me summarize it briefly…
  2. When the Jewish Samaritans were taken into exile to Assyria, the Assyrian king transplanted them with numerous other nationalities from other peoples he had conquered. When they moved into the land, they brought their own provincial gods and idolatries with them and began to practice them.
  3. Yahweh plagued them with ravaging lions … so they petitioned the Assyrian king to send them a former Samaritan priest to “teach them the law of the god of the land” …which he did…
  4. However, what they did was to mix, syncretize, and assimilate their own pagan practices with some of the formalities of the worship of Yahweh they had learned from the Samaritan priest.
  5. From that day on, ‘the Samaritans’ would be known as a mixed-breed inferior ethnic/religious class.
  6. So that, even in Jesus’ day, it would be the prevailing rule: “For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” / John 4.9

BUT JESUS CHRIST, THE MESSIAH, WOULD COME & SAVE THEM, TOO! / JOHN 4.42

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“Your love is like (no, better than) fine wine”

Posted on August 20, 2022 by PastorDave

Today is Debbie’s birthday.

Although she has been the delight of my eyes from the very first time ever I saw her face, she has become the delight of my heart the more I came to know her … and the delight of my life as she has given me hers, and we have lived and served the Lord together for the past 48 of her years.

Her delight to me and my delight in her has aged well – kinda like fine wine. She just keeps getting better and better!

“And no one after drinking old wine desires the new, for he says, ‘The old is better’” [Luke 5.39].

So, thank you, Debbie, for all the ways you keep saving, giving, and bringing out the best of yourself for me to love more and more:

“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” [John 2.10].

“You have captivated my heart, my Sister, my Bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. How beautiful is your love, my Sister, my Bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! Your lips drip nectar, my Bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon” / Song of Solomon 4.9-11.

Sometimes I think I couldn’t love you more than I have and do – but you keep giving me reason to sing,

“Oh, I love you more today than yesterday

But not as much as tomorrow

I love you more today than yesterday

But, Darling, not as much as tomorrow” ~Spiral Staircase

I’m already looking forward to tomorrow … and then “forever and a day!”

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The Day the ‘Music’ Almost Died

Posted on August 13, 2022 by PastorDave

King Joash of Judah: The Day the ‘Music’ Almost Died

2 Kings 11.1-21 | Lesson 9 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read 2 Kings 11.1-21 & 2 Chronicles 21-24

I / INTRODUCTION

  1. Yes, I’m alluding here to Don McLean’s song “The Day the Music Died” just to make a connection to our lesson. Don McLean wrote that song to mourn the deaths of three of the most prominent musicians in the early days of rock and roll music: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson. They were just introducing and innovating their revolutionary trend of music when they died in a plane crash in Iowa while going from one gig to the next. As far as Don McLean was concerned [along with many others of that era], their style of music and the ways they wrote, played, and sang it was ‘the music.’ And so, when they died, ‘the music died.’
  2. The ’music’ we will focus on in this lesson is the promises Yahweh had made to King David in 2 Samuel 7, that one of David’s physical descendants would always sit on the throne of Israel / see 2 Samuel 7.12-13, 16 [and many other repetitions throughout Scripture].
  3. This promise is also succinctly summarized, established, and confirmed in Jeremiah 33.17: “For thus says the LORD, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel…’”
  4. This promise was actually made to Christ and would be fulfilled in Christ / see Matthew 1.1; Luke 1.31-33; Acts 2.29-32; et al.
  5. One of the most prominent names by which Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah, was prophesied, expected, known, called, and which He called Himself is: “Son of David.”
  6. But in order for the prophetic promise to be fulfilled in the fullness of time with the virgin birth of the Christ, ‘The Son of David,’ a physical descendant of King David and of the royal family line would have to live until His coming. The physical, human family tree and lineage from David to Christ would have to be perpetuated, continued, and kept intact until Christ Himself was born to fulfill it!
  7. This story of King Joash [Jehoash] of Judah is the story of the day that prophetic promise [‘music’] almost died!
  8. This six-year-old child king was the only surviving male heir of that royal family of King David … and his wicked grandmother tried to kill even him / 2 Kings 11.1-3.
  9. But we’re getting way ahead of our story again…

II / MAKING THE CONNECTION / CAST OF CHARACTERS

Read 2 Kings 11.1-3

So, to get our story started, we need to name the characters, who they are, how they are related, where they came from, and the roles they played in this saga: “The Day the ‘Music’ Almost Died”

ATHALIAH

  1. She was the wife of former Judah King Jehoram.
    • [Jehoram, by the way, had already killed all his brothers, making him the sole heir of ‘the sons of David’ and the throne in his generation / 2 Chronicles 21.4-6]
    • NOTE: v 4 / When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel.
  2. She was the granddaughter of former Israel King Omri [father of Ahab] / 2 Chronicles 22.2
  3. She was the daughter of Israel King Ahab and Jezebel / 2 Chronicles 21.6
  4. She was the mother of Judah Ahaziah [who had just been killed in battle against the Syrians].
    • This Ahaziah, the youngest son of Jehoram, thus became the sole surviving ‘son of David’ and heir to the throne of David when his other brothers had been killed by the Arabians, leaving him only to carry on the royal line / 2 Chronicles 21.16-17 & 22.1 [he is called both Jehoahaz and Ahaziah]
    • ch 21.16-17 / And the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the anger of the Philistines and of the Arabians who are near the Ethiopians. 17 And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions they found that belonged to the king’s house, and also his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest son.
    • ch 22.1 / And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.
  5. She became the chief counselor to her son, Ahaziah / 2 Chronicles 22.2-4
  6. When Ahaziah was killed in battle, Athaliah seized control of the throne of Judah and reigned as queen for six years / 2 Kings 11.3 & 2 Chronicles 22.12
  7. It was this Athaliah who proceeded to massacre ALL of Ahaziah’s sons, her grandsons, which would have left NO surviving ‘son of David’ to ascend to and occupy the Throne of David. That’s what this story is all about … we’re getting there… [2 Kings 11.1-3]

JEHOSHEBA [also called Jehoshabeath in 2 Chronicles 22.11]

  1. She is the daughter of Judah King Jehoram [probably by another mother than Athaliah] / 2 Kings 11.2
  2. She is also the half-sister of Judah King Ahaziah [who succeeded Jehoram]
  3. This would have made her Joash’s aunt.
  4. She is also the wife of Jehoiada, the High-Priest/counselor to the young king Joash / 2 Chronicles 22.11

JOASH [also called Jehoash in 2 Kings 11.21 & 12.1]

  1. He was the son of the former Judah King Ahaziah who had just been killed by the Syrians.
  2. He was the grandson of the wicked Athaliah.
  3. When his grandmother, Athaliah, murdered all of her grandsons, the sons of former King Ahaziah, this infant Joash was snatched away by his aunt Jehoshabeath [and her husband, Jehoiada], hidden in secrecy, and spared from the massacre / 2 Kings 11.1-3 & 2 Chronicles 22.10-12

JEHOIADA

  1. He was the husband of Jehosheba/Jehoshabeath / 2 Chronicles 22.11
  2. He conspired with her to hide Joash from wicked Queen Athaliah’s murderous purge of all of her deceased son Ahaziah’s royal heirs to the throne of David.
    • NOTE: If she had succeeded in murdering ALL of Ahaziah’s sons, this would have terminated the ‘house and lineage of David.’ 
  3. He was the chief priest of Yahweh in His Temple at that time, and in that capacity, he had charge of all the faithful servants of Yahweh who were still serving the best they could in His Temple.

Now, I know that all this may be just a jumbled-up, tangled mass of relationships – and if it is new to you, it will be complicated to unravel and keep straight in your mind as we unfold the story. But I want to give you thumbnail sketches of their bios and profiles here at the beginning so you can appreciate how Yahweh preserves His royal line of King David’s sons against all attempts to destroy and exterminate them … so He can keep the royal lineage intact … so can fulfill His promises to David and to Christ that a son of David will always sit on the Throne of Israel and reign over His Kingdom … FOREVER! In the Person of King Jesus, the Son of David!

Just so you can see from the beginning where Yahweh is going in all the ways He dealt with the sins of these kings who were in the lineage of the sons of David – let me give you a couple of Yahweh’s purpose statements along the way … the Holy Spirit-inspired narrator [author] inserts these pointers into the narrative to alert us to the prophetic significances of these events – to show us what Yahweh is doing:

1 Kings 15.4 / Nevertheless, for David’s sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem…

  • This is said of Judah King Abijam who walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.
  • Yet, Yahweh would not punish him as his sins deserved because it was necessary to continue the human, physical lineage of David for the purpose of bringing Christ into the world in the fullness of time.
  • So Yahweh allowed the lineage of David to continue to the next generation … and the next… to keep the Messianic prophetic ‘lamp’ burning – to keep the ‘music’ promise from dying!

2 Chronicles 21.7 / Yet the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

  • This was said of Judah King Jehoram [the son of Judah King Jehoshaphat] after he had intermarried with Athaliah, the daughter of Israel King Ahab
  • … and after he had killed all his royal brothers to make him the only surviving son of David.
  • Yahweh could and should have punished him with death, but that would have extinguished the royal seed, descendants, lineage, and ‘lamp’ of David. Yahweh will not permit that to happen!

III / 2 Kings 11.1-3 / HOW DID THE ‘MUSIC’ ALMOST DIE?

  1. v 1 / This wicked woman, Athaliah, the mother of Judah King Ahaziah, heard that he had been killed in battle against the Syrians / 2 Kings 9.27-28
  2. She seized this opportunity to enthrone herself as queen of Judah. But in order to be sure no one would challenge her, she then proceeded to kill all her grandsons – the sons of Ahaziah – so there would be no male heirs to the throne.
  3. Keep in mind also, that Ahaziah had no uncles because his father, Judah King Jehoram, had killed them all [2 Chronicles 21.4] … and he had no brothers because the Arabians had killed all of them [2 Chronicles 21.16-17] … leaving him only to occupy the Throne of David.
  4. But Ahaziah had sons to succeed him – so Athaliah must kill them all … leaving her as the sole occupant of the Thone of David and no heirs of the lineage of David to succeed her.
  5. v 2 / BUT … Yahweh will not allow the ‘lamp’ of the royal lineage of David to be extinguished. So, He arranges in His sovereign Providence to save a royal heir to the Throne of David.
    • BUT Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram [Judah King Jehoram], sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death.
  6. v 3 / Joash was kept alive and raised in secrecy from his murderous grandmother, Athaliah, for the six years she reigned as queen.

IV / vv 4-12 / “LONG LIVE THE KING!” [JOASH]

  1. For these long six years, everyone in Judah mourned under the assumption that the ‘seed of David’ was dead … that the royal line of David had been terminated … that the ‘lamp’ of David had been extinguished … that the promise that Yahweh had made to David that ‘you shall never lack one of your sons to sit on your throne forever’ had been broken.
  2. Jehoiada, the chief priest in charge of the Temple, knew. And his wife Jehosheba knew. But they couldn’t dare let the secret out – until now!
  3. v 4 / When little Joash was six years old, it was time to let the faithful priests and Levites – all the servants of the Temple – know. So he got them all together, swore them to secrecy, and he showed them the king’s son!
  4. vv 5-8 / Jehoiada divided all the priests, Levites, Temple servants and guards into three companies. Each company was assigned their duties to guard the little king and to prevent anyone from interfering with his coronation.
  5. vv 9-12 / When Jehoida gave the signal, Then he brought out the king’s son and put the crown of him and gave him the testimony [see Deuteronomy 17.18-20]. And they proclaimed him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, “Long live the king!”
  6. They were clapping their hands to the ‘music’ of Yahweh’s promise that had ‘almost’ died – but it didn’t die!

V / vv 13-20 / “TREASON! TREASON!” ~Athalia

  1. vv 13-14 / The ‘music’ of their celebration of Yahweh’s kept promise resounded all over Jerusalem – and Athaliah had to check it out … she went to where she didn’t often frequent…
    • When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the LORD to the people. 14 And when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”
  2. But she was the one who had been committing the treason against Yahweh!
  3. vv 14-16 / Jehoiada gave the orders that she must be carried out of the house of Yahweh – along with anyone who followed her and took her side – and executed. The sentence was carried out.
  4. v 17 / And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD’s people, and also between the king and the people. He called them back … again … to re-commit themselves to worship and serve Yahweh.
  5. v 18 / They carried out a mission of destruction of all the remnants of Baal worship…
  6. v 19 / And he took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the gate of the guards to the king’s house. And he took his seat on the throne of the kings.
    • A ‘son of David’ was once again sitting on ‘The Throne of David’!
    • You have to hear faint pre-echoes of this shadowy pre-enactment of Psalm 2.6: As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill … which would be perfectly fulfilled in Christ yet to come from this royal lineage!
  7. v 20 / “Happy days are here again!” So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been put to death with the sword at the king’s house.

And thus was preserved the ‘music’ of the promise of Yahweh which would be fulfilled in Christ!

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His Name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the LORD God will give to Him the throne of His father David, 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” / Luke 1.31-33

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified! / Acts 2.29-36

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Others May, You Cannot

Posted on August 8, 2022 by PastorDave

If God has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater then Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with the loving God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

G. D. Watson, in Living Words

G.D.Watson (1845-1924) was a Wesleyan Methodist
minister and evangelist based in Los Angeles. His
evangelistic campaigns took him to England, the West
Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Korea. He also
wrote several books.

NOTE: I have had this message in tract form for probably 50 years. In the tract, it was credited to “Author unknown.” In recent searches, I have seen attributions to both G. D. Watson and Leonard Ravenhill. Regardless, the message of the tract has both rattled and comforted my soul for all these years. I have learned to make it my personal pursuit to be content in Jesus’ pleasure in me.

Here it is in captioned audio… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6V0MyBsbMA

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Elisha: “This Day is a Day of Good News!”

Posted on August 6, 2022 by PastorDave

Read 2 Kings 7.1-20 | Lesson 8 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

I / MAKING THE CONNECTION

  1. “This day is a day of good news!” [verse 9] is what the four lepers said to one another upon discovering these large stashes of food left behind by the panic-stricken Syrian army – thus breaking the tragic famine that the people of Samaria had been suffering … but we’re getting way ahead of the story!
  2. Here’s what had been happening to set up this spectacular, gracious provision that Yahweh had made for them…
  3. For months, the Syrian army had been blockading and besieging Samaria. They had surrounded the city and prevented anyone from either coming into or going out of the city. Think of it as a severe ‘supply chain’ issue. The Syrians had totally cut off any supply chains of food from getting into Samaria.
  4. It was so dire that they were eating even the last remaining of their service animals and beasts of burden.
    • ch 6.25 / a donkey’s head – the most undesirable part of an unclean animal – was selling for two pounds of silver…
    • and a pint of dove’s droppings [probably to be used for fuel for a little fire] was selling for two ounces of silver.  [Two ounces of silver was what an average worker would earn with six months of labor.]  
  5. The inhabitants of Samaria had even been driven even to cannibalism – they were boiling and eating their own children / see ch 6.26-29
  6. This drove King Jehoram to swear by God that he would kill Yahweh’s prophet Elisha before that day was done / ch 6.30-31
  7. He sent assassins to take Elisha out / ch 6.32-33

But Yahweh had a message for Jehoram and the people of Samaria – and He gave it to Elisha to deliver to Jehoram and the starving populace of Samaria…

II / ch 7.1-2 / “DON’T DOUBT ME!” ~YAHWEH

  1. v 1 / Elisha announced that Yahweh had a message for him to deliver – a message of relief from their famine and starvation. He quoted Yahweh twice so there would no mistaking who was speaking: “Hear the word of Yahweh: thus says Yahweh…” When God speaks, even through His prophet, we must believe Him and trust Him to do what He says He will do … even when we see no way He can do it!
  2. God has no limits or restraints on what He is able to do … or the means by which He chooses to do it!
  3. Do not doubt God! To doubt God’s Word or His power to fulfill His promises is to call God a liar / see 1 John 5.10
  4. What Yahweh promised was “Tomorrow about this time a seah [about 7 quarts] of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel [2/5 of an ounce of silver – much reduced and more affordable prices than were being demanded during the famine / see 6.25], and two seahs [about 13-14 quarts] of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” There was going to be food tomorrow – real food! And at affordable prices! No more donkeys’ heads! The food supply chain was going to be restored! And Yahweh was going to provide it! They didn’t know how … but they couldn’t wait!
    • The ‘gate’ was their gathering places for city council business and marketing – kind of like their ‘farmer’s market’ for the people.
  5. v 2 / The poor starving people were ecstatic. But the ‘captain on whose hand the king leaned’ [chief of staff / right-hand man] was not just skeptical – he was openly and brazenly scoffing at such an ‘impossible’ prospect. He arrogantly disdained God, His Word, and His prophet.
  6. And besides, he was not about to let Yahweh be seen as the One who would do this. He said to the man of God, “If Yahweh Himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Obviously, if there was a Yahweh, only He would be able to produce such a turn-around. But he wasn’t about to let this stand. This was not just doubt and unbelief at the word of Yahweh … He was mocking, insulting, ridiculing, blaspheming the very notion that even Yahweh could do such a thing!
  7. Elisha doubled down: Not only will Yahweh do this as He had said, but this unbelieving, mocking Syrian captain – the king’s ‘right-hand man’ – will not be alive to enjoy any of it. “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” Hold this in in your memory for when we get to the end of this story – we’re going to see if Yahweh shows him who is God!
  8. Before we go any further, we have to ask ourselves: Why would Yahweh even be willing to be so gracious to this unbelieving city of Samaritans? Why is Yahweh doing this? Why is this story in the Bible? What is the narrator’s purpose for telling it?
    • Yahweh will graciously demonstrate again to unbelieving Israel that He alone is God
    • …And that He can – and is willing to – provide for them
    • …And He will again authenticate and validate His prophet who is faithfully delivering His Word to call Israel to repentance and to return to love and worship Him only as their true God
    • As He did with the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness, He will demonstrate again that He is faithful to all His promises to be gracious to them and to provide for all their needs – if only they will believe and trust Him. But, as we shall see … they will not!  

see Psalm 81.8-16 / “Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! 9 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. 10 I AM the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. 13 Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. 15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward Him, and their fate would last forever. 16 But He would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

III / vv 3-8 / FOUR UNLIKELY ‘SAVIORS’

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the Presence of God” / 1 Corinthians 1.27-29

  1. v 3 / Look who Yahweh chose to be the messengers of this deliverance – four lepers … who were not only outcasts from their society, but they were shunned and excluded from any social contact or privileges. They were huddled outside the city gates – just waiting to die from starvation along with the rest of the people in the city.
  2. They decided to do … something other than…Why are we sitting here until we die?
  3. v 4 / They weighed their options – they had zero good options if they hoped to stave off their own dying from starvation:
    • if we sit here like we’re doing – we die
    • if we enter the city – the famine is there, and we die with everybody else
    • Hey! I’ve got an idea: let’s defect to the camp of the Syrian soldiers – if they kill us, then we die … but we’re going to die anyway
    • but maybe …  they’ll spare our lives, and maybe even give us some food … and we live!
    • since we’re going to die anyway one way or the other, it’s worth the risk!
  4. v 5 / So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians… – but, lo and behold, there was no one there! The camp had been deserted…abandoned. Nothing but an eerie silence…and LOTS of food and stuff everywhere!
  5. v 6 / What had just happened? Yahweh had intervened! He had messed with the minds and ears of the Syrian army. For Yahweh had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, ‘Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites [from their north] and the kings of Egypt [from their south] to come against us!’
  6. Of course, King Jehoram had done no such thing … but Yahweh sent them this delusion to accomplish his purposes!
  7. v 7 / So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.
    • Notice that in the same ‘twilight,’ at the same time, simultaneously, the lepers were coming in ‘the front door’ and the panic-stricken Syrian army were running for their lives out ‘the back door’! And Yahweh was orchestrating both of these actions!
  8. v 8 / These four starving lepers began gorging themselves with the food the Syrians left behind. And they started going from one tent to another, carrying stuff off to hide it so they come back later to retrieve it. It was like hitting the Powerball Mega-jackpot!

IV / vv 9-15 / “WE GOTTA SHARE THIS GOOD NEWS!”

  1. v 9 / While they were celebrating and hoarding all their new-found bounty … suddenly their consciences smote them: “Wait a minute here … We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.”
    • We should be so gracious and willing to share the Gospel [Good News] with all of those around us who are dying and perishing in their sins! / see Luke 2.8-20
  2. v 10 / They did come back to the city. They told the gatekeepers what they had found.
  3. v 11 / The gatekeepers immediately dispatched messengers to carry this good news to King Jehoram.
  4. v 12 / King Jehoram didn’t believe it – he suspected that the Syrians were only playing hide-and-seek [or maybe hide-and-slaughter] by sneaking off to hide in the countryside to draw them out of Samaria and into the open plains so they could ambush and slaughter them.
  5. vv 13-14 / King Jehoram’s counselors urged him to at least check it out: ‘Let us send and see’; so he agreed to send out some scouts to sneak around the perimeters to see if they were really gone… ‘Go and see’
  6. v 15 / So the scouts sneaked out and circled around the Syrian campsite – and what to their wondering eyes should appear but behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste! It was true! The camp was empty and all the roadways and paths and fields were strewn with the stuff the Syrians had jettisoned in their haste to escape from what they thought were approaching armies hired against them by King Jehoram [the delusion Yahweh had sent them].

V / vv 16-20 / “TOLD YOU SO!”

  1. v 16 / Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD / see v 1.
  2. Notice how the narrator of this book repeats word for word what Yahweh had said would happen and when it would happen … and how it actually did happen as Yahweh had said: ‘according to the word of Yahweh’!
  3. That’s why I titled the first section “DON’T DOUBT ME!” ~YAHWEH” and why I have titled this section “TOLD YOU SO!”
  4. These verses 16-20 are a word-for-word repetition of:
    • Elisha’s prophecy from Yahweh that he delivered yesterday that not only would there be plenty of food by this time today, but also at what prices they would be sold / v 16
    • how King Jehoram’s ‘right-hand’ man had scoffed, mocked, disdained, and ridiculed how such a thing couldn’t possibly happen – not even Yahweh could ‘make windows in heaven’ and make this be / vv 18-19a
    • and how Elisha had pronounced the death sentence on the king’s ‘right-hand’ man for doubting and not believing what Yahweh had said He would do: And he had said, ‘You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it’ / v 19b
  5. The key emphasis the narrator wants to make here is that according to the word of the LORD that He had said in every detail – SO IT HAPPENED!
    • v 17 / Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. During the time of the famine, his charge was to maintain order, crowd control, and put down any uprisings and riots that may have erupted among the starving townspeople.
    • Now that the supply chain has been restored and food is flowing in from the camp of the Syrian army, he is put in charge of the ‘gate’ to still maintain order.
    • Instead, he got trampled to death by the townspeople in the mad stampede to get food for themselves! And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him / v 17
    • When he had scoffed at the word of Yahweh, Elisha had said, ‘You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.’ And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
      • ‘according to the word of Yahweh’
      • ‘as the man of God had said’
      • ‘and so it happened to him’  

Again … Yahweh is demonstrating to Israel that He is most capable and willing to be their God, to be faithful to His every promise, to supply for their every need – even in the severest of their extremities and by the most unlikely of means. AND in His time, He will do that fully and perfectly by giving them and us Jesus Christ, “the True Bread from Heaven” / John 6.32.

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal” / John 6.27.

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” / John 6.29.

“I AM the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” /John 6.51

Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed / Romans 2.4-5.

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a loving tribute to my dear friend – Betty Anne Lance

Posted on August 5, 2022 by PastorDave

BETTY ANNE LANCE

February 17, 1935 – July 23, 2022

Delivered at her Memorial / Celebration of Life service

I can only wish that I had known Betty during her more healthy and active years. But I didn’t.

Many of you did and have shared some of those testimonies since her going Home to Heaven. And you are looping them in your memories right now as I speak.

I would like to share with you what Nancy Farley wrote on her Facebook, 7/23/2022, the day after our Lord called Betty Home to Heaven:

Yesterday we lost a friend, Betty Lance. Betty had been my neighbor for several years, but I didn’t get to know her well until we started attending the same church.

I was in several Bible studies with Betty and also in a homemakers’ group where she became the one most-called-upon to pray.

Betty prayed the sweetest, most sincere prayers I’ve ever heard. I always felt God’s presence so strongly whenever she was speaking to Him. He was there in the midst of our group.

On one occasion I had invited a visitor to our meeting, a lady who never attended church. On our way home that lady remarked about Betty’s special prayer and how it had touched her heart.

Betty had mentioned in her prayer a verse of Scripture that says, “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” The lady wanted to see Betty again after that, so one day we went to visit her, took her out to lunch, and came back to see all of her beautiful artwork. It was her hobby, and Betty’s house was filled with her creations.

When we left, she gave both my friend and me a beautiful wooden angel that her husband, Ted, had carved in his wood shop. Betty’s small delicate hands had painted all of the intricacies on the creature’s tiny face. The love she had put into every stroke of paint penetrated my heart as she handed it to me. She smiled and thanked us for spending the afternoon with her. However, it was her I wanted to thank. It was she who had been a blessing to us.

I will always cherish that little piece of art, knowing the couple who created it and gifted me with something that can only partially reflect how special they are to me.

Betty truly was like an angel, so much that others could see and feel that she was different. There was no pretense with her; she was genuine.

Prayer….

“Lord, may others see YOU in us as we go about our lives. May we demonstrate the sweetness and kindness that Betty Lance demonstrated to us, especially on that day during her prayer. Yes, Lord, you do own the cattle on a thousand hills, and I thank you that my friend Betty is there with you now. She’s home at last, looking down with You perhaps on those cattle and all of creation, your creation…your handiwork, that someone like Betty will truly appreciate.

Amen.”

And then, others of you have told me so many of your stories about ‘the Betty I never knew…’ Like how groups of you all used to fellowship with other area churches and conduct joint Bible studies and social events – like the Fashion Shows. And when it came your turn to present, Betty would write the scripts for skits you all would act out … she would write your lines for you and even dress you all with outfits from her abundant wardrobe of clothes she had either made herself or acquired for such occasions. Your words were: “It was hilarious! Betty was vivacious, witty, funny, a cut-up, creative in every way.” Some of you even used the word ‘corker’ to describe her. You’ve told me, “And that was a ‘Betty’ that not everybody saw and knew.”    

And, every one of you has similar memories and testimonies to the Grace of God that made Betty such a messenger of God’s own Grace. I’m sorry I missed knowing that ‘Betty’!

As it was for me, I have known Betty only for the past five years we have been here at Buck Run. But she has made a lasting impression on me during that time … that I will really fully appreciate only when I am re-united with her in Heaven.

Betty’s physical stature could have been sized, I suppose, as “Petite” with a capital “P.” But if there was a size for hearts, her gracious heart and gentle spirit would have been, like, “100 XXL.”

My lasting impression I will have of her until we are re-united in Heaven is one of what I call “the sweetness of grace.” In fact, I have often thought that if there could be a pictorial illustration of 1 Peter 3.3-4, it would be the picture of Betty Lance:

“Do not let your adorning be external – the braiding of the hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear – but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

That’s the best way I know how to sum up Betty’s person, character, and testimony: ‘the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.’

I first met Betty in the late summer of 2017 shortly after we had come to our church. I was making some visits with Pastor York and Brandon Dodd, one of our interns at that time. Our first visit was with Ted and Betty. She was recovering from a recent injury [Ted thinks it may have been her broken ankle]. But on that first visit, I met this sweet, gracious, and quiet saint. She just smiled and spoke in quiet, gracious, and encouraging words … and she immediately won my heart.

A few months after that, I would assume teaching our Sunday School class, and Ted and Betty were members of our class. There was nothing showy, pretentious, or ostentatious about Betty. She would just sit beside Ted – probably fewer than ten feet in front of me – and smile sweetly at me as I taught the lesson. She often reminded me of what Mary may have looked like as she sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching. She was receiving the Word of Christ through me … with meekness and joy.

She lived out in her quiet ways the fruit of the Spirit in its fullness.

Betty was an encourager and a minister of the grace of Christ. She would send Debbie and me cards on every special occasion – or sometimes on no occasion … but just to tell us how much she loved us. She did the same – and more so – for many of you and numerous others who knew her longer than we have.

Only God knows how many more … but He does know!

The LORD took note and recorded every one of them:

Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed His Name. “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make them my special treasure…” / Malachi 3.16-17

Betty was – and is – a special ‘jewel’ and treasure to Jesus … and to all of us.

During the last two times I visited her just a day before she died from here, I tried to take what few moments I had of her weak attention to engage her eyes, and I told her: “Betty, you really have no idea what an influence and witness you have been to so many just by living Jesus through your life. Jesus will tell you when you behold Him … and see Him face to face. But hundreds of people love you and are praying for you – just because you crossed their paths and came into their lives … just because they know you and came to know who Jesus is … through you.”

And so say we all!   

Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, we are here today not just to celebrate the life of one of your sweet saints whom we love dearly – but more … to celebrate your grace that made her so.

She was surely a treasured trophy and faithful witness of your Gospel and grace.

As Paul the apostle wrote to the churches in Galatia as he recounted his own testimony of saving, transforming grace … he said, “And they glorified God because of me.” We glorify you because of Betty.

Through Betty Anne, your love toward us was perfected, completed, and delivered.

And now we’re asking you that you will be pleased to continue to perfect and complete your love to Ted and all their family through us.

May you bless them and keep them, may you make your Face to shine upon them, and be gracious to them … May you lift up the light of your Countenance upon them, and give them peace.

Through the merits and righteousness of your Son and our Savior we pray,

Amen.

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Elisha: The cleansing of Naaman the Syrian

Posted on July 30, 2022 by PastorDave

Read 2 Kings 5.1-14 | Lesson 7 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

I / MAKING THE CONNECTION

  1. Here is what has happened in Israel since our last lessons from the ministry of Elijah
    • Elijah has anointed Elisha to be his successor / 1 Kings 19.19-21
    • Elijah has been taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind and chariots of fire / 2 Kings 2.1-18
    • Elisha asked for and received a ‘double portion of your spirit’ that had rested on Elijah / 2 Kings 2.9-14
    • Elisha proceeds to perform a number of miracles – again to show to Israel that Yahweh was their God and to display His Glory / 2 Kings, chapters 2-4
  2. That brings us to this lesson’s story – yet another miraculous healing/cleansing of the leprosy of Naaman, the Syrian commander…

II / JESUS’ INTERPRETATION AND COMMENTARY ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STORY / LUKE 4.16-30

[We’re going to begin our lesson with Jesus’ interpretation and commentary on 2 Kings 5 that He delivered to His hometown folks on His return visit to Nazareth … recorded in Luke 4.16-30. The reason we’re doing this is because Jesus will give us insight into Yahweh’s purpose and motivation for healing/cleansing Naaman, who was a Gentile. Yahweh was giving us a pointing finger toward His ultimate purpose of reaching out to and saving Gentiles through the Gospel when Messiah comes. That is what Jesus was fulfilling and interpreting in Luke 4.

Think of it this way: you know how when we are starting a trip, we often use a GPS like Google Maps or Waze to take us there. When you enter your starting point and your destination, the GPS will also show you the route you’re going to follow on your trip. Well, 2 Kings 5 is kind of like our starting point [at least for this lesson] and Luke 4 is kind of like Yahweh’s destination being announced by Christ. 2 Kings 5 is pointing us to Luke 4. Or, to flesh it out even more, 2 Kings 5 is a beginning ‘leg’ of the journey that will find its fulfillment in Acts 13.46-48; 14.27; 15.13-17; and many more such references [both OT and NT]. See Lesson Notes below, II, #14.]

  1. Before we even get into unfolding this story from 2 Kings 5, let’s fast-forward to how Jesus interpreted and commented on the significance of it – because Jesus is going to draw some distinct parallels between Israel of His day and how they treated Him … and the Israel of Elisha’s day and how they were treating Yahweh in their day.
  2. AND – be sure you get this – Jesus will also reveal to us Yahweh’s purpose in ministering His healing power to Naaman through Elisha … and that is, to show His compassion to Gentiles and His purpose to save Gentiles as well as Israelites.
  3. So, what is happening in Luke 4.16-30? Jesus had gone back to His hometown, Nazareth, where He had grown up.
  4. When He stood up in the synagogue that Sabbath and read from Isaiah 61, He announced “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” “I AM your Messiah!”
  5. At first, everyone spoke well of Him and marveled at His gracious words. But that was because they just thought of Him as one of their peers: “And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’’
  6. But then Jesus unmasked the hypocrisy, superficiality, and unbelief of their hearts toward Him. And He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” What Jesus was unmasking in their heart was that they were not believing in Him and receiving Him as their Savior. They were not accepting Him as the Son of God. To them, he was just their famous ‘homeboy.’
  7. The key is found, I think, in that Jesus specifically pinpointed their accusation against Him: “What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well” / Luke 4.23. So what specifically did He do at Capernaum that they were taking such offense at?
  8. Keep in mind that just a short time before this Luke 4 return visit to Nazareth, His boyhood hometown, He had moved from Nazareth to Capernaum [see Matthew 4.12-16]. He performed many miracles in Capernaum and the surrounding regions. One such notable miracle was the healing of the son of a Gentile royal official [see John 4.46-54].
  9. Whether this specific act was in the minds of his hometown people, we don’t know. What we can be sure of is that His former hometown neighbors were expecting Him to bestow on them the same kinds of preferential treatment and special favors that He had performed at Capernaum.
  10. So we can identify the sinful attitudes they had toward Him under at least these three categories:
    • pride / privilege / entitlement: in their merely human relationships with Him based on religious tradition, ethnic and provincial kinship
    • maybe even resentment: that He had performed acts of mercy and healing at Capernaum – and they were expecting special favors for themselves [like, ‘we owned You first! … or something like that]. Or maybe even resentment because they had heard He had ministered to Samaritans and even a Roman official – surely they would take priority preference over them! Was there maybe even some prejudicial bigotry in their hearts here?
    • unbelief toward His claim to be The Christ: Matthew and Mark both highlight that “…He could do no mighty work there … because of their unbelief … And He marveled because of their unbelief!” / see Matthew 13.58 & Mark 6.5-6
  11. When the hometown folks at Nazareth were offended at His claims to Deity and Messiahship, they violently attacked Him and even tried to push Him over a cliff to His death / Luke 4.28-30.
  12. Jesus scolded them for their unbelief and proclaimed to them that since they would not believe on Him, then He would go and save those who would – even among the Gentiles.
  13. IT WAS THEN that He reminded them how Yahweh had bypassed the unbelieving Israelites during the ministries of Elijah and Elisha AND MINISTERED HIS SAVING GRACE TO GENTILES:

And He said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” / Luke 4.24-27

  1. So … in those two Old Testament illustrations, Yahweh was demonstrating His passing over unbelieving Israelites to show compassion for Gentiles … and His ultimate Gospel purpose to call His people from among the Gentile nations! / see Acts 13.46-48; 14.27; 15.13-17; many others
  2. That is what Yahweh is doing here prophetically in 2 Kings 5 by providentially extending His healing mercy and saving grace to this Gentile, Naaman the Syrian!

III / vv 1-4 / NAAMAN’S LEPROSY … AND HOW YAHWEH PROVIDENTIALLY ARRANGES TO CURE & CLEANSE HIM

  1. vv 1-2 / Naaman was a high-ranking military commander of the king of Syria’s army – but he had a major defect!
    • commander of the army of the king of Syria: supreme commander, Syrian army’s highest-ranking officer
    • a great man with his master: high social standing, respect, and prominence
    • in high favor: highly regarded by his king because of his military victories and conquests
    • because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: THIS statement tells us that Yahweh is the Lord and King over all the nations, their armies, and the courses they all take – and Yahweh is going to use the armies of Syria to win military victories even over Israel AND use those victories to bring His message of grace to this Gentile general… YAHWEH is exercising His sovereignty and providentially arranging for Naaman to meet His prophet Elisha, come to know Him, and receive His mercy and grace!
    • a mighty man of valor: a man of great wealth and a courageous warrior
    • BUT he was a leper: meaning he had a serious, disfiguring skin disease which according to Levitical law rendered him ceremonially ‘unclean’ … and under the same Levitical law would have excluded him from society / see Leviticus 13 & 14
  2. v 2 / During one of Naaman’s guerilla strikes into Israel, he had taken hostage one of their young girls, and she had been brought back to his house to be their maidservant to Naaman’s wife.
  3. v 3 / You would have thought that this young girl would harbor hatred and resentment toward her captor and master – but, No! She had only compassion for him and his disease … much like Yahweh’s mercy and compassion He had for the lost among the Gentile nations that were attacking Israel. She only wishes that her master knew about Yahweh’s prophet Elisha … Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.
  4. v 4 / Naaman trusts the heart of this young Israelite girl. She must have demonstrated and proven herself to be a young girl of character, sincerity, and believability.

IV / vv 5-7 / THE KING OF SYRIA MAKES AN OVERTURE AND APPEAL TO THE KING OF ISRAEL

  1. vv 5 / The king of Syria writes a letter of request to the king of Israel to fulfill this request for his beloved general’s cure … and accompanies his letter of request with a gift and peace-offering of 750 pounds of silver and 150 pounds of gold [a sizeable and rich monetary gift] and ten outfits of fine clothing.
  2. v 6 / The king of Israel was Jehoram [see ch 1.17]. But more importantly, this Jehoram was the son of Ahab and Jezebel [ch 3.1] – which means that…
    • this Jehoram would have witnessed the ministry of Elijah during his father’s reign
    • and he was carrying on his wicked father’s and evil mother’s abominations in Israel.
    • The king of Syria is just assuming that the king of Israel would have a working relationship with and be a channel to the prophet Elisha.
    • But, Jehoram knew nothing of Yahweh [by personal faith] and couldn’t have cared less … except to save his own skin!
  3. v 7 / Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? However, Jehoram did know that only God [Yahweh] had the necessary power to cure this Syrian general’s leprosy. The curing of Naaman’s leprosy was comparable to the power of resurrecting the dead – something that Elisha had performed in raising the Shunammite’s son [ch 4.18-37]. Surely Jehoram had heard of that!
  4. This demand threw Jehoram into a panic and rage. He tore his clothes which was a demonstration of utter frustration and consternation, mourning and grief.  He could only conclude that the king of Syria was placing this impossible demand on him in order to pick a fight with him and start a war!

V / vv 8-10 / ELISHA INTERVENES TO DELIVER YAHWEH’S GRACE, HEALING, AND CLEANSING

  1. v 8 / When Elisha sends word to King Jehoram, it is not just to bail him out of his distress … but Yahweh’s intention is to show Jehoram and Israel that He alone is God, and that Elisha is His prophet. And Yahweh is also going to show unbelieving Israel that He will receive glory – even by showing mercy to a Gentile!
  2. v 9 / When Naaman responds to Elisha’s invitation to come to him, he assumes that Elisha will personally honor him because of his personal standing, importance, and prominence … and come himself to meet him – and maybe even perform a miraculous show of healing on the spot [see v 11].
  3. v 10 / But instead, Elisha sends one of his own messengers out to Naaman with simple instructions from Yahweh: Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.
    • NOTE: Naaman would also receive a lesson about how Yahweh treated leprosy in Israel – it was a symbol of our moral and spiritual ‘uncleanness’ before God; in other words, a type for our sin that requires ‘cleansing’ by being ‘washed.’ In Levitical law, the ‘cleansing’ of leprosy was also accompanied by sacrifices that pointed to the ‘washing’ by regeneration and by the blood of Christ.
    • ALSO this action would require Naaman to exercise humble faith in Israel’s God, Yahweh, And the seven times would require him to believe and find out that the healing/cleansing was a miraculous act from Yahweh.

VI / vv 11-13 / “HELP MY UNBELIEF”

  1. v 11 / Now it is Naaman’s turn to fly into a rage…and he actually starts to leave and go back home without receiving the cure he had come to receive. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Is this any way to treat a man of my caliber and standing?” This is not what he expected. He was sure that Elisha would honor him by making a big fuss over him – and he would be the star of this performance. But when God extends mercy to us – only He will be glorified, recognized, and receive the credit!
  2. v 12 / And, Naaman is right – the rivers in his native Damascus were more beautiful and would have served better than this muddy rivulet Jordan if his cure was to be found just in the physical element of the water. But the cure and cleansing was not in the physical ‘washing’ in physical river water, but in the word and power of Yahweh that would make the cleansing effective. Naaman would have to trust in Yahweh’s message of grace delivered through His prophet.
  3. v 13 / Naaman’s own servants now approach him to reason with him … notice how they address him as “My father…” which shows the warm, mutual relationship of affection between them, more than just mere servile subservience … “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”
    • “Isn’t this what you have come all the way here for? Isn’t he telling you how to be clean?”
    • Also, the word for “‘great’ word” is the same word for “‘great man with his master’ that was applied to Naaman in verse 1 – as if to say, “This word from Yahweh through His prophet is a fitting word for you and your need … it is what you wanted and asked for, isn’t it?”

VII / vv 14 / “ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH BE IT DONE TO YOU”

  1. Naaman humbled himself and did what Yahweh’s prophet had told him to do: So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God…
    • We do have to admire this demonstration of humility and faith in the word of Yahweh, Elisha’s God, by this great Syrian general: to make the additional journey of 25 miles to the Jordan River … go down into the muddy water in the presence of all his servants and attendants … dunk himself under the water one time, two times, three times, four times [and after each dunking inspect himself to see if there was any change], five times, six times, and then the seventh time!
  2. …and when he obeyed the word of Yahweh through His prophet, …and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean!
  3. NOTE: it was a ‘little’ Israelite girl who had first told him about Yahweh’s prophet … and when he trusted and obeyed, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a ‘little’ child [same word]. Didn’t Jesus tell us that we must humble ourselves and trust Him like ‘little’ children to receive His mercies and be ‘great’ in His sight [Matthew 18.1-4]?
    • “The Hebrew is na‘ar quaton, and there is evidently a play on the phrase na‘arah qetannah [“little girl”] in v. 2. The “great man” [v. 1] had a problem, to which the “little girl” had the solution; but the solution involved Naaman’s becoming, like her, “a little child” – someone under prophetic authority, humbly acknowledging his new faith.” [ESV Study Bible]
  4. But Yahweh is the One who receives all the glory, praise, honor, and yes – even the new-found worship of this former worshiper of idols! / see vv 15-18
    • “He had looked to the prophet himself for a cure, in line with the words of his Israelite informant [v. 3]; but the way in which the cure has been wrought has made it clear to him the Elisha’s God [Yahweh] is a living Person, not simply a convenient metaphor for unnatural [supernatural] prophetic powers.” [ESV Study Bible]

“TAKE HEART … YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL!” [Matthew 9.22]

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