Old Testament: Judges to Monarchy - Part 2

PDF

Well, it is a joy for me tonight to come back to our study of the Old Testament. We spend a lot of time in the New Testament, and we spend a lot of time going very slowly through the New Testament. There is a benefit to that. There is a benefit to my own soul, and I hope and trust there is for you, too, week after week, but there is also a benefit to stepping back on occasion, as we will do tonight and continue to do, and that is look at the big picture of Scripture.

We are taking an arial tour of the Old Testament, not looking at the details, but rather focusing on its major movements. We’ve discovered that there are in Old Testament history nine major movements. So far, we have studied six of them, and we are in the middle of considering the seventh. Here are the six we have considered in their entirety.

We looked at God’s Universal Dealings in the first few chapters of Genesis, the great Patriarchal Period of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, the Slavery in Egypt in Exodus 1, the Exodus under Moses beginning in Exodus 2 and running through Deuteronomy, and then the Conquest and Division of Canaan in Joshua and then the darkest period of Old Testament history, the Period of the Judges, described in Judges and the book of Ruth.

We are now in the middle of the seventh great movement of Old Testament history and that is the Monarchy. It was, for a time united, the entire country united under one king, but that was a very short time in their history as we will be reminded of tonight. Instead, for a large portion of their history the monarchy was divided. There were two kingdoms and two kings reigning at the same time.

It’s important as we look at these movements not to lose our focus. So, let me step back as we begin to remind you of what we’re really considering together. The Bible has a central theme. There has been a lot of discussion about what that theme is. And there are a lot of valid claims in different directions. But for myself (and as I taught you, and I think it can be defended), I think the best way to see Scripture is that God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His own glory. God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His own glory. That’s the story of the Bible. Wherever you turn, wherever you look, that’s the story.

Now that story is developed in two different ways in what we call the Old Testament, what Jesus and the apostles would have called the Scriptures, the Hebrew Scriptures. It’s also developed differently in what we call the New Testament, the writings of the apostles that our Lord pre-authenticated by selecting the men who would write them, the men under whose authority they would be written. So, when you look then at that major theme that God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His own glory; it breaks out this way in what we call the Old Testament, the message is, He’s coming. And there is a desperate need for Him to come. We will see that tonight as we look at the period of the kings in Israel’s history. He’s coming, and desperately we need Him to come.

And then you come to the New Testament, and the gospels tell us that He came, and here’s the story. Here’s what unfolded during His life and ministry. You come to the book of Acts, and you see continuing expansion of the ministry of Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit. And then of course Christ and His life. They tell us what it meant. He came and here’s what it meant. And then Revelation, He’s coming again.

So don’t lose sight even as we look at some of the details tonight although from 30,000 feet. Don’t lose sight of what we are really talking about. We’re in the middle of a section of Scripture that is saying God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His Own glory. He’s coming. He’s coming, and the need for Him is absolutely desperate.

So, with that introduction, let’s begin then to look at the period of the kings, 1^st and 2^nd Kings. We don’t know for sure who the author of this work was. I say this work because we separated 1^st and 2^nd Kings was one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. And some say Jeremiah, I think it’s unlikely, possibly a contemporary of Jeremiah, but I think more likely, and I develop this a little more later, prophetic Chronicles composed by a series of court prophets in Israel, written, of course, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. First and second Kings was written during the exile, sometime after Jehoiachin’s release from prison which is recorded in 2 Kings 25 and the decree to return to the land issued by Cyrus which is not mentioned, which is not recorded. So, this was written during the exile.

Why? Well, there were three basic purposes. To remind Israel of their consistent violation of the Mosaic Covenant. Remember now, they’re in exile in Babylon. These two books remind them again and again, look at how you have violated the covenant that you made at Sinai, when you promised to be faithful and loyal to God.

Secondly, the exile they were experiencing was consistent with the covenant and the curses that had been made in that covenant.

And ultimately, therefore the purpose of these two books was to encourage repentance.

Really, tonight, that’s a major message. The major message is, if you find yourself having drifted from the commands of God, you find yourself in a pattern of disobedience, and you find yourself feeling the weight of those decisions, repent and return. And God is gracious. This is the message of 1 and 2 Kings.

Just to give you a brief outline. First Kings, we see the kingdom united under Solomon in the first eleven chapters, and kingdom divided under many kings in chapters 12 to 22. Second Kings we see the kingdom divided, but Israel falls. That is the northern kingdom, called Israel. We’ll talk more about that in chapters 1 – 17. And then there’s the kingdom which survives which is Judah in the south, and it falls in chapters 18 – 25. That’s roughly an outline of these two books.

Now, we begin with Solomon. Solomon’s reign was from 971 to 931 BC, 40 years that God gave him as king and his reign is described. His name means peace or peaceable, shalom. You can hear Solomon the relationship of the two names. He is the tenth son of David, the second son of Bathsheba. David grew up as a shepherd, but Solomon grew up at the palace among the powerful and influential.

Now just to give you a brief history of Solomon. Kings begins in the first couple of chapters with the defeat of an attempted coup by Adonijah, and from his deathbed David charges Solomon to loyalty to the Mosaic Covenant. That’s followed beginning in 1 Kings 2:13 to the end of the second chapter with Solomon doing what David had commanded him consolidating his power and following his father’s orders.

First Kings 3, this is perhaps the most familiar portion of the life of Solomon, apart from his sin. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings to acknowledge his need of God’s blessing, and God responded to that with a very gracious offer. He said ask whatever you will, and I’ll give it to you. And Solomon wisely asked for wisdom to rule. And God approved his request, and with, along with it, He also gave him great riches and honor.

In chapter 4 Solomon’s reign is pictured as the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham. For example, 1 Kings 4:20, Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. They were eating and drinking and rejoicing. God was good to His people through Solomon, David’s son.

Now, when you come to chapter 5 really through 9:9, you find the focus on two great building projects, Solomon’s own palace as well as the temple. Really, it centers though, it comes to a focus, and I think the key verse in this passage in this part of 1 Kings is 1 Kings 8, when the temple is completed, the Ark of the Covenant is brought in, the glory cloud fills the temple, and after a brief speech of dedication, Solomon offers a prayer of dedication. This prayer of Solomon’s in 1 Kings 8 is very important both in 1 Kings but also in Old Testament history. Because most of his prayer, if you read it, is a request that when the people of Israel sin in the future and find themselves in a variety of difficult trials, that God hear their prayers and forgive them and restore them.

Near the end this it reaches a crescendo with the word exile. God, if You exile Your people, and they cry out to You, respond. Solomon understood Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28 promised the curse of exile on the face of continued rebellion. If people continually rebelled, God said then I will throw them out of the land. Solomon anticipated that reality, and he asked God to hear and forgive when they cried out in the place of exile. Look at 1 Kings 8, 1 Kings 8:46, here’s a portion of that prayer.

“When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; if they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly’; if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to You toward their land which You have given to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name; then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You, and make them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive, that they may have compassion on them (for they are Your people and Your inheritance which You have brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace),

This anticipates what we will later study. This is exactly what happens, and God answers the prayer of Solomon. This prayer is really an amazingly insightful prayer as Solomon looks down through Israel’s history, and he sees the sins of the people, and he sees God’s response, and he cries out to God, be compassionate, be merciful, hear their repentance, forgive and restore. And of course, that is the nature of God. And so, the story of the Old Testament is a story of God doing exactly what Solomon prays here. Can I just say on a personal note? This is always God’s response to the repentant, to the person who humbles himself and cries out from whatever trouble he’s created for himself or whatever chastening or punishment God may have brought into his life. God hears, as Solomon puts it here, when they repent, make supplication with all their heart with all their soul, God always hears.

Now, remember, when I read this passage to you, remember that this book was written during the exile while God’s people have been carried away to Babylon. They are reading this. They are hearing this while they are captives, and they are hearing what is really a call for them to repent and turn back to God. Now, God heard Solomon’s prayer and agreed to it in the first few verses of chapter 9. And the Lord said in verse 3 of chapter 9, I’ve heard your prayer and your supplication which you’ve made before Me. And He goes on to say, that I will do what you have asked. But God extends a warning. Look at 9:6, God gives this warning.

“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”

What we’re about to see is exactly that. God warned Solomon. God warned Solomon twice. God appeared to Solomon in chapter 3; God appears to Solomon in chapter 9. And both times He warns him about departing from the Lord, about disloyalty, about following after other gods. God says listen, if Israel’s exiled, it will be due to her sin, but if she will repent; I will hear; I will forgive; I will restore.

Now, when you come 9:10 through chapter 10, the achievements of Solomon’s reign are all described. And they are connected, obviously to God’s blessing, as well as to Solomon’s faithfulness. We were told about his building enterprises, his sacrifices, his merchant fleet build, his great wisdom, his wealth, his reputation. All of that was God’s gift, God’s blessing tied to Solomon’s faithfulness. Solomon’s reign was also the golden literary age of Israel. And it’s documented there in that section: history, music, Psalms, wisdom literature. It was the golden, the gilded age of Israel. But sadly, there eventually comes a great decline because of Solomon’s sin.

In 1 Kings 11:1-13, even though Solomon started well, we’re told what his downfall was. His downfall, his temptation came through the international treaties that he made. He made a number of them. And it was common to seal, in that time, it was common to seal those alliances as treaties with marriages although it was forbidden of Israel’s kings to multiply wives, Deuteronomy 17:17, nevertheless, Solomon did it. He disobeyed the clear law given to kings in Deuteronomy 17. He multiplied wives as you know. And the marriages in Solomon’s cast became much more than formalities. The foreign women that he married to enter into these treaties won his heart and turned his heart to other gods. One of the most difficult passages in the Old Testament to read (after all we have seen of Solomon, and we’ve just touched the surface) is 1 Kings 11. Look at verse 4.

For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to [Yahweh] … his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon [this is shocking] Solomon went after Ashtoreth [that is a deliberate distortion of Ashtart; it’s a Hebrews word that sounds like Ashtart, it means shame] … the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. [And] Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow [Yahweh] … fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, [watch this] on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem [probably what we call the Mount of Olives], and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. [Remember, Molech demanded child sacrifice.] Thus also [verse 8] he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, [back in chapter 3 and in chapter 9, and both times] … had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded.

By the way, you just see God’s character here, you see God’s patience and His grace. You see Him warning and warning through His Word, and then you see the rebellious heart of Solomon. It’s a reminder to us. God expects us to take the warnings He has given us in His word seriously as He did of Solomon. Because of the sin of Solomon God said the kingdom would be taken away. God promised to remove it because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness to the covenant. God didn’t give up on Solomon; He confronted Solomon. God, as I said had spoken to him twice.

But God did something else as well. God raised up men to bring pressure on Solomon in order to lead him to repentance, and those circumstances are described in this chapter. Hadad and Reason and Jeroboam all brought pressure to bear on his life, and it was God’s way of bringing him to repentance. Again, we see a standard operating procedure of God. God confronts through His word and then through his circumstances. He brings weight to that in our lives to remind us of what He expects of us, what He’s commanded of us.

By the way, we don’t know this for sure, but I do believe, as I read the Scripture and many do, that Solomon did eventually repent at the very end of his life. It was in his old age that he departed from the Lord, but it’s very possible, I think likely, that he did eventually repent near the end of his life. As a young man we know he wrote the Song of Solomon, It’s rejoicing over his first wife. I don’t think you can write Song of Solomon to wife 300. I think that is a delight in his first wife. Then you have in his middle age, you have Proverbs. He’s teaching his teenage son, and maybe a little older teenage son, and those also who were in the court how they ought to live in wisdom in a way that pleases God.

And it’s very likely in old age that he wrote Ecclesiastes. In fact, if you read that amazing poem about old age and the decline that happens at the end of life, and it frankly sounds and I think was possibly was autobiographical, likely after repentance for his sin, toward the end of his life. And here is how Ecclesiastes ends, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is this, fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

But you know what Solomon never did, and this comes out very clearly in the history of Israel. He never destroyed the temples which he had built for his wives. And they become a continuing stumbling block for Israel. Solomon’s death marks the end of the united monarchy. Think about this now, one king ruled over all Israel, that is only one king for 120 years of her history. Forty years under Saul, forty years under David, forty years under Solomon, 120 years. Under those three kings a central government was established; it was strengthened, and the borders were extended. The united monarchy, those 120 years was really the high point of Israel’s history. But on Solomon’s death the glory days ended, and we begin the period of the divided monarchy.

The question is, who divided the kingdom of Israel, the land of Israel? Well, the answer is God, it was divided by God. Because of Solomon’s sin in accommodating and facilitating idolatry in Israel, by catering to his foreign wives, God determined to take most of the kingdom away from Solomon’s descendants. Look at 11:29.

It came about at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak; and both of them were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes (but he will have one tribe, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel), because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and observing My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David did. Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of My servant David whom I chose, who observed My commandments and My statutes; but I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and give it to you, even ten tribes.

This was God’s will. The kingdom was divided by God. The question is, how did God accomplish that? And boy do we get a wonderful lesson here in how God and His providence works. How did He accomplish it? And the answer is through the sin of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. After Solomon’s death, the people approached Solomon’s son Rehoboam and made a request. You read about it in 1 Kings 12:1 to 5.

Rehoboam asked for three days to consider their request. And during those three days he sought advice. He sought counsel about how to maintain control over his father’s kingdom. He asked the elders of Israel for their council, the old wise men who led their tribes, and what they said to him is, it is time for you to give the people tax relief and scale back significantly on he forced labor for the various building projects that Solomon has in play. That was their advice. If you do that, they said, the people will love you and follow you.

He also asked his peers for their counsel. Boy, there’s a sermon here. You who are younger, let me just say to you, this is always your temptation to talk to your friends and get their counsel. Can I just say, that’s stupid. And you see it right here. He asked his peers for their counsel. You know what they said? They said, listen, the people are asking for relief. You need to crack down. You need to let them know you are in charge. You need to assert your authority. Flex your muscles. Tell them that if Solomon beat them with whips, you will beat them with scorpions. He followed the advice of his peers.

And look at 1 Kings 12:15, ^“So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a turn of events from the Lord, that He might establish His word, which the Lord spoke through Ahijah … to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” Again, you see God in His providence working. Did God make Rehoboam sin. Of course not. Rehoboam did exactly what was in his heart to do? Of course, he did, and God used it to accomplish what was exactly His purposes.

This is how God’s providence always works. As a result of God’s decision accomplished through the sin of Rehoboam, ten northern tribes broke away from the Davidic kings, and they established a separate kingdom in the north. They had their own royal families. They created their own apostate religion and worship centers.

So, after 931 BC, after Solomon’s death, and with the very beginning of the reign of his son Rehoboam, the kingdom splits. There are two kingdoms. There is the northern kingdom which you see on the map here in the purple. It’s called Israel because ten of the tribes of Israel were a part of it. And then you have the southern kingdom which is called Judah.

Now, let me just briefly give you a (that’s the green on the map as you can see there). Now let me just give you an overview of the divided kingdom. I think this will help you. As you read the kings it’s hard to keep up sometimes. But if you keep this chart in mind, if you keep these facts in mind, I think it will help you.

Let me compare the north and the south. First of all, as I have said the north is called Israel. Sometimes, in Hosea for example, it’s called Ephraim because that was one of the tribes connected to the northern kingdom. The south is called Judah. It’s actually two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. In the north are the other ten tribes. In the north as you look at their kings, there were nine different dynasties. Now, how do you get a different dynasty? Assignations. There is a whole lot going on. There is a whole lot of intrigue in the north, nine dynasties. In the south there is only one dynasty, the descendants of David. In the north there are nineteen kings. In the south there are nineteen kings and one queen. In the north, there isn’t a single good king, you won’t find one. They’re all bad. In the south there are eight good kings, and five of them are actually ones who instituted religious reforms: Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.

The first king in the north is Jeroboam. We read about him just a moment ago. The first king in the south was Solomon’s son Rehoboam who behaved foolishly. The northern kingdom is destroyed in the year 722. Now think about this, when the kingdom was divided under Rehoboam in 931, just a couple hundred years later, In 722 BC the northern kingdom is destroyed and its people carried off by Assyria. It took longer, but eventually the southern kingdom is destroyed in 586 by Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.

Now, as the king of the north, let me go back now and give you context. Now divided, Rehoboam has the south. Jeroboam has the north. Jeroboam reasoned that if his people were always going to the south to Jerusalem where the temple was to worship. Remember, they were required to three feasts a year all Israelite males, that if that happened, that eventually the two nations would be reunited, and the people would become loyal again to the south, to the Davidic king. And so, he came up with what seems from a human perspective to be brilliant. He established substitute worship in the north. He established substitute worship in Dan in the far north of that northern kingdom and Bethel in the south. Here is a map to show you. Again, you see the two, colored areas representing the north and the south. And you can see that in the past, when Israel was described, it was described as Dan to Beersheba.

Now Jeroboam says I don’t want them going across the border down there to Jerusalem. You see it’s very close. Instead, we are going to establish worship centers for us at Dan and at Bethel. And so, this was his plan. He would establish high places. This is one in Dan where, essentially, it was like a platform for the gods to watch both for the sacrifices and the sexual sin of the people, supposedly committed to please the gods.

But it didn’t start that way. Eventually, initially, I should say, he did institute substitute worship, but it wasn’t initially false gods. Initially, he erected gold images of calves in Dan and Bethel and his intent was still to worship Yahweh, but a new way. It was just an effort to keep the northern ten tribes from going to Jerusalem, thereby consolidating his own rule. The one expert scholar said the calves probably didn’t represent Yahweh in other words it’s not like that was Yahweh. This is your God. That calf, that’s your God rather, and this was common, they were animals, powerful animals on which Yahweh was supposed to have stood in invisible form.

This is how even Baal was handled, the common conception of Baal was as a strong animal like a calf, and on the back of that supposedly is where Baal sat, in this case Yahweh. These golden calves were either images of deities or possibly some symbols of their presence, by the same way the Ark of the Covenant symbolized God’s presence in Jerusalem. So, from the beginning, it was, think of it, it was syncretism. It wasn’t full-blown disregard of Yahweh. He is simply being creative, bringing in the culture to make it work. Let’s worship God, but let’s do it in a way that’s comfortable for the people that they’re familiar with.

Sound similar to ideas that circulate today? In addition, he built temples to house the images and the altars. Many of the Levites left for Judah because he appointed priests for this what would become an apostate religion for the common people. By the way, a lot of the faithful Israelites would relocate from where their tribes had been to the south. You talk about the ten lost tribes. You hear that description. Well, understand that many of those from those ten tribes that were faithful to God eventually would move to the south because of the apostate religion in the north.

He created an annual feast one month after the feast of the tabernacles and substituted it for tabernacles. There is an important recurring phrase about Jeroboam, it’s this, it occurs, I have six times in my notes, I think there are more of them. This phrase, throughout the history of Israel’s kings, he walked in the way of Jeroboam and his sin which he made Israel sin. Of the eighteen kings that followed Jeroboam in the north, every one of them that followed him, followed his idolatrous path. It became truly apostate in every regard.

Now, I’m not going to go through the chart of the kings. I just want you to call your attention to the fact that any good study Bible, maybe you have a good study Bible in your lap. If you don’t you out to get one, MacArthur Study Bible or something like that where you can see a chart comparison of these two kingdoms. But again, if you keep in mind the big picture I showed you a moment ago, it helps clarify it. It helps keep it simple as you walk the chart of the kings, and their overlap throughout their history. As I said my plan is not to walk through those, just to remind you, and this will be available in the notes online.

Now, I want to bring you to what is really the greatest crisis of the divided monarchy. The greatest crisis came, listen carefully, when Ahab of Israel, he’s king in the north, when Ahab married a Sidonian or Phoenician, Sidonia is another name for Phoenicia, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, married a Sidonian princess named Jezebel. Ahab and Jezebel, infamous in the Old Testament. Jezebel, having come into the northern tribes, set out to eradicate entirely the worship of Yahweh in the northern kingdom and to institute the worship of her childhood and patron deity, Baal. This is the north, but the crisis didn’t stay in the north.

The crisis spread to the southern kingdom because Ahab and Jezebel conspired to marry their wicked daughter, a woman named Athaliah, to Jehoram, the son of Jehosaphat who was king in Judah. They want their daughter to marry into Judah’s line, into David’s line. This was a wicked thing.

Elijah pronounced a curse by letter on Jehoram for his sin in doing this, but it happened. In 2 Chronicles 22:4, “He did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab, for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.” Remember, his father was one of the righteous kings, but after his father died, he sought out bad counselors, really bad counselors. Ahab and all around him, and it was to his destruction.

Now think about this. Shockingly, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel in the north eventually becomes queen in the south, a position she held for six years. And during her time of control in Judah, Athaliah attempted the extermination of the Davidic line, and she almost succeeded. In God’s providence, there was one final survivor of David’s line, a young boy. And he was saved from her murderous plot. You can read about it in 2 Kings 11:1-3.

What I want you to understand is God is preserving His promise to David and His promise to us about the Messiah by preserving that one young boy, who, if Athaliah had killed, there would have been no son of David to set on the throne. So, Old Testament prophecy. God’s eternal plan to have Messiah to be one of David’s descendants came down to this one little boy. It was such a dark time in the nation’s history that Yahweh raised up two prophets, Elijah and Elisha. I love Elijah. In 1 Kings 17:1 we first meet him.

Now remember the context. My father-in-law said when you read the Bible, read it with a sanctified imagination. It’s important to do that here. Because remember now, it’s during the time of Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel has set out to destroy Yahweh worship in the north. She wants Baal, her patron and childhood deity, to be everything in the north. And so, that’s what happened. There are in fact, 400 prophets of Baal on the government payroll. That’s the religious context.

And Elijah shows up out of nowhere in the palace. He’s not known, never been known. He just shows up. And when Elijah’s name is announced, I can guarantee you that a hush fell over the court, and there were gasps that could be heard. Why? Because he was announced to Ahab. “Here is ali Yahweh. My God is Yahweh.” You can see he comes in like a thundercloud into Ahab and Jezebel’s little fantasy world. My God is Yahweh. Thirty percent of 1 and 2 Kings is occupied with the ministries of these two great prophets.

Why is so much space and emphasis given to the prophets Elijah and Elisha? I just want to give you context here. We talk some about the kings. Let’s talk about the prophets. Prophets ministered throughout the monarchy in a specific office. The key figures in the structure of the nation throughout the period of the monarchy, there were three of them. There was the king, there were the priests and there were the prophets. Samuel was the first prophet, and he began a school of prophets according to 1 Samuel 10:5.

What was the role of a prophet? Why would you need a prophet if there were kings? The prophet’s role was to keep the king honest. The prophet’s role was to make sure the king abided by the law of God, that he didn’t usurp authority that wasn’t his. And so, the prophets show up to confront the kings. They’re a mouthpiece for God to keep the kings and priests accountable to the word of Yahweh.

You know, our theory and political philosophy in America with a balance of power. That’s not original with us. It’s exactly what existed in Old Testament Israel. The word prophecy, by the way, is actually (I’m getting behind here). The word prophecy is actually a transliteration of the Greek word for prophet. It’s not a translation, it’s a transliteration. The Greek word is “prophetase”. And the word prophetase comes from the two Greek words, “pro” which means “before” and “phame” which means “to speak”. So, prophet or prophecy simply means “to speak before”, or “to speak for another”.

That’s why more than 3800 times the Old Testament writers introduced their messages with statements like, “the word of the Lord came to, the mouth of the word of the Lord has spoken, the Lord says, thus says the Lord, hear the word of the Lord.” A true prophet was one who did not speak out of his own heart, but rather, he was an appointed speaker for God. And what he said carried God’s authority.

In short, the prophet was only God’s messenger. Jeremiah 1, I have put my words in your mouth. To put it another way, the prophet speaks from God. Prophecy then is a revelation from God. It’s not explaining existing revelation. It is new truth. A prophet is one who brings new truth from God, one who gives divine revelation. And typically, that revelation took two distinct forms. Sometimes it was predictive revelation, talking about what would happen in the future, but often, more times than not, it was moral or ethical revelation, confronting the sins of God’s people.

Now, people in Old Testament Israel knew to expect this because Moses predicted all the way back in his life in Deuteronomy that there would be future prophets like him that would come. And he laid down three criteria for discerning a true prophet from a false. And I’m not going to take the time to take you back to each of these passages.

But in Deuteronomy 18:21-22 we’re told that a true prophet’s prediction always come true. If a prophet is right 99% of the time, and he is only wrong 1% of the time, he is a false prophet. By the way, that has a lot to say about the modern charismatic prophecy movement. You read the passage. God couldn’t be clearer about a true prophet.

Secondly, Moses says in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 that even if a person claims to be a prophet, claims to be a messenger from God, comes along and performs a miracle, and it appears to be a genuine miracle, don’t listen to him if what he says is contrary to previous revelation. Did you hear that? Even if he works a miracle, don’t believe him if what he says is contrary to what God has already revealed.

And thirdly, Moses seemed to indicate (this one was not as clearly set forth) but Moses, in his experience with God, seems to indicate that God would often indicate the true prophet by empowering him to work miracles. You see this in Moses’ case because God talked about the nature of a prophet. In Exodus 4:1-5, 27-31 as well as Exodus 8. He is often, but not always authenticated by miracles.

Now, here’s what I want you to understand. In the Old Testament, when a man came along who met these criteria, his word was accepted as the word of God, even if he was hated and even during his lifetime. There was no question. As Larid Harris says,

Kings were humbled by their messages. Battles were won or lost at their word. The temple was not built by David but by his son Solomon and rebuilt by Zerubbabel all at the word of the Lord through the prophet. And the people who were rebuked for their sins are encouraged through the message of the prophets.

So, the prophets then spoke God’s revelation, but the prophets also wrote it down. This is how the Old Testament was constructed. It started with Moses. Go back and look at Deuteronomy 31. You discover that Moses wrote on a scroll. And then Moses deposited that scroll in the Ark, and he dies.

Joshua then takes that scroll, and he added to the scroll the account of Moses’ death and the following events, Joshua 24:26. And there are just a series of prophets who are recognized as prophets, who meet the criteria, who add to the scroll. There is a chain of verses that show a tradition of a series of writing prophets in Israel. Here is one example, 1 Chronicles 29:29, “Now the acts of king David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer, in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the chronicles of Gad the seer….” And there are many other references where you have that similar kind of wording. These constitute a list of a chain of writing prophets from before David to virtually the end of the kingdom of Judah.

In addition to that, that’s where we have the history of Israel. In addition to that you have what we call the major and minor prophets. And, by the way, I hope you understand that doesn’t mean the major prophets are important and the minor prophets aren’t. No, we’re talking about length. The major prophets are the prophets whose writings demanded their own scroll. And the minor prophets are the short little writings that all could be put on a single scroll. So, the major and the minor prophets.

And all of those books, from Isaiah through Malachi fit into the flow of Old Testament history that we’re looking at. Bible scholars break them down by their relationship to the seventy-year Babylonian exile. They call those who wrote before the exile, before the Babylonian exile, pre-exilic, before 606 BC when Nebuchadnezzar first carries off (or 605) when he first carries off Daniel and others. And they wrote, the pre-exilic prophets wrote to a series of countries. Obadiah wrote to Edom.

By the way the numbers I have put here represent the approximate order in time in which they were written. I’ve just broken down a little differently. So, that’s why the numbers appear out of order. Those numbers actually represent the order in which they were likely written. But there were prophets, Obadiah wrote to Edom. Jonah and Nahum were written to Assyria. Amos and Hosea wrote to the north, to Israel. And many of the prophets wrote to Judah in the south, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk. These are all pre-exilic. They wrote before the exile.

Now, why so many of them before the exile? Well, very briefly, in Old Testament times countries had their own gods. And if your army was able to defeat another nation with its army, the mindset was, your god was stronger. God was not going to let the people around Israel think that. And so, He sends prophets before the exile to say, if you continue to sin, if you continue to rebel against Me, I am going to bring Assyria; I am going to bring Babylon; I will surrender you into exile. This isn’t about Me being weaker than the gods of Babylon. This is about your sin. And so, many of the prophets wrote before, both as a warning and as really God’s grace, calling them to repentance, but also as an apologetic so that no one would misunderstand and think that Yahweh was somehow weaker than the gods of the nations that led them into exile.

Then, you have those prophets that wrote during the exile. They’re called the exilic prophets. They wrote from 606, 605 to 536. And this was written to the Jews during the Babylonian exile. There were two of them, Daniel and Ezekiel.

And then after the exile, they’re called post-exilic. You get it. And from 536 to the end of Old Testament history, about 400 BC. These prophets wrote to the Jewish remnant who returned from Babylon to the land of Israel. And there’re three of them, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. It makes it really easy to remember. They’re the last three of the Old Testament.

Now, all the writing prophets, all that we just talked about ministered during the time of the kings, 1 and 2 Kings, except Ezekiel and Daniel who were during the exile in Babylon and these last three who wrote after the Babylonian exile. Remember again, the role of the prophet. The prophet was to confront the king.

So, the more deviation that the king has from God’s law, the higher the profile of the prophet. And so, what you have is, under Jeroboam and under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel, the worship of Yahweh is almost extinct. So, the fourteen chapters telling the story of Elijah and Elisha are clear evidence of the corruption of the times. And both of them, remember, ministered in the north. They ministered to the northern ten tribes. But of course, the people largely ignored the prophecy of God, all these that we have looked at. And so, God determined to send His people into exile.

Why did God allow the captivity of His people? The answer is idolatry. There is very little record of idolatry during the reign of David. But after his death, idolatry begins to grow dramatically. We just saw it with Solomon a moment ago. Unbelievable what happened under Solomon. And on his death the kingdom divided. And in the north Jeroboam set up those golden calves in Dan and Bethel. And in the southern kingdom under Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, it was no better. In fact, I want to show you one passage. Look at 2 Kings, 2 Kings 23. This passage actually describes how Josiah institutes his reforms, but it shows you how bad things had gotten. In Judah in the south David’s, descendants, 2 Kings 23:4 (-7)

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven. He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord….

You see the incredible patience of God. You read the Old Testament, and you read that account of the Babylonian captivity. And if you’re not careful, you might think, you can almost come to the conclusion that God is somehow unjust. No, absolutely not, God was perfectly just, and He was amazingly patient, longsuffering. It takes God a long time to get angry. All the prophets spoke against their idolatry. In the end it was their idolatry that led to their downfall at the hand of God.

The northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722. Why? Idolatry, read about it. In 2 Kings, in 2 Kings 17:7-18. The southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians in 586. Again, the primary reason is idolatry, 2 Kings 23:26 and 27. It was only after seventy years of Babylonian captivity that Israel was permanently broken of her desire for Baal worship.

But I don’t want to end there, because I want to end with two very positive points about this period of time. The first and most important point is this. You see in endless line of Israel’s kings who fail and fail and fail again the need for a perfectly righteous king, a descendant of David who will reign in righteousness and justice. You see the need for the Messiah.

But you also see God’s graciousness. And I want to show you God proved His graciousness again and again in the life of the people of Israel. Perhaps at no time so powerfully as during the darkest days of the monarchy, the reign of Ahab.

I want to give you a brief lesson from the life of Ahab. I love this motivational poster, actually it’s a demotivational poster. It shows a sinking ship. It says, mistakes, it could be that the purpose for your life is only to serve as a warning to others. Ahab, I think that’s true. But I think we also see something about who God is. A lesson from the life of Ahab. In 1 Kings 21:25 we read this, “Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him.” Yet, if you read 1 Kings 21:21-24, you read Yahweh’s pronouncement of judgment on Ahab through the prophet Elijah. But I want you to see Ahab’s response. Turn to 1 Kings 21:27.

It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently. [Here is a wicked man who hears God’s judgment coming on his life, and he humbles himself before God. How did God respond? Well, look at verses 28 and 29] Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son’s days.”

Now, think about the exiles reading this very passage. As they were in Babylon, they read this and they are reminded of this lesson, and it’s a lesson for us as well. And you can see it again and again in God’s nature.

Regardless of your spiritual condition, regardless of what you have become, regardless of how deep you have sunk, if you will humble yourself before God like Ahab did, and if you will go a step farther, like Ahab didn’t, and truly repent before the Lord, turn from your sin to God, God will hear your prayer. He will forgive and He even, in mercy and grace, will often restore. This is the nature of our God. He is and delights to be a redeemer.

Let’s pray together.

Father, thank you, thank you for the wonderful truths that we have seen together tonight. Lord, we see you. We see the need for Your Son, the need for a perfect king. And we see your grace. Lord, we see that You are longsuffering, slow to anger and quick to respond to those who humble themselves before You in repentance. Lord, help us to be like that.

I pray for those here tonight who maybe have walked their entire lives in rebellion against You. Like Ahab, they have set themselves against You. Help them to see, O God, that if they will truly humbly themselves before You and seek Your face, and turn from their wicked ways, that You will hear, and You will forgive.

Father, there are maybe believers here who have strayed from the path of righteousness to a pattern of sin. O God, help them to see Your righteousness, Your justice, the fact that You will bring not only your Word to bear on their lives, but you will bring Your discipline to bear on their lives, and may they turn, turn back to You and find You willing to respond. Father, we love the fact that You are a redeemer, that that is who You are, and that that is Your delight in and through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

In whose name we pray, Amen.