Institutes of Theology | Session 3 - Judges–Chronicles

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We are looking at the Old Testament. And just to remind you, there are nine major movements of Old Testament history. There are Universal Dealings, the Patriarchal Period in the second part of Genesis, the Slavery in Egypt, the Exodus, most of the Pentateuch, Exodus through Deuteronomy, then the Conquest and Division of Canaan, followed by the Period of the Judges. And that's where we find ourselves, the Period of the Judges.

I want you to turn with me to Judges 2. And here is the summary. This is kind of where we left off last time. Here's the summary of that period. Judges 2 and verse 1.

Now, the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and He said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers. He said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; What is this you have done?’ Therefore, I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you, but they will become as thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’” When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

Now, look down at verse 8. “Then Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him.”

And then verse 10, “All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know Yahweh, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. And then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of Yahweh and served the Baals and forsook Yahweh.”

That's a powerful description of this period of time. It lasts from the death of Joshua in about 1390 to the beginning of the monarchy, when Saul comes to power in 1051. So over 300 years

During the period of the judges, there was no national leader, and there was no central government, and the result was each tribe formed its own government. They were often at war with each other, and so the characteristic of that period, Judges 17:6, “In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

There was widespread apostasy and degeneracy, which brought a cycle of judgment. Now, the book of Judges is intended to survey Israel's history from the death of Joshua to the days of Samuel, and, and here's the key, to serve as an apologetic to Israel of her need for a national ruler and leader, a king. Before Judges, you had national leaders in Moses and Joshua. After Judges, you're going to have kings. Here's an outline of Judges. You have the prologue, where there is a reason for the period of the Judges. We looked at the summary in Chapter 2. Then you have a selected history of the Judges, times of oppression and deliverance through Chapter 16. And then there's that really sordid end of Judges, an epilogue, in which you discover the religious apostasy of the nation through Micah and the Danites, and then the moral decay of the nation in the really horrific story of the Levites' concubine and the slaughter of Benjamin. All of those things serve to describe the time of the Judges. 

Now, why? What's happening? It's because of two tragic sins. We just read it. Because Israel failed to drive out and destroy the Canaanites, two tragic sins are going to dog them their entire existence as a nation. The first is intermarriage. Chapter 3, verses 5 to 6. Because they didn't drive them out, God didn't drive them out before them. It started with their disobedience, then God did not intervene to do what they should have done. And as a result, there came intermarriage, and that brought idolatry. As their families now, they intermarried into, drew them into idolatry. Now, what was that idolatry like? Remember, this is Canaan. This is the Canaanites, and the Canaanite religion consisted of a number of gods, but the three main gods were El, Asherah, and Baal. You can see them pictured there on the slide. El at the top, then Asherah, and then Baal. Those are ancient depictions of the gods of the Canaanites.

Their worship is called Baal worship after the primary god, or at least the one that got the most press, the god or lord of the storm and of the rain. It's because they were agricultural people, and so the god who could produce the wealth and crops mattered the most to them. Their places of worship were elaborate temples. They had no central sanctuary, but they could worship anywhere, but they came to set up their altars on hills, or what were called high places.

If you visit Israel today, well, you probably shouldn't go up to the north today, but if you were able to, in Dan, the far north of Israel, there is this place, which is an archaeological site. Those stones go back to the time of ancient Israel. This is the high place that Jeroboam built up in Dan. So there were these high places. The high places were originally located on or near the summit of hills to be closer to the gods. Later, they were built in valleys and towns. A pole or a pillar or some other symbol usually marked the site. Now, what you need to understand, and I don't want to get too graphic here, but you need to understand what God is really dealing with.

Their worship was sexually centered and was especially exhibitionist, because in Canaanite worship, Baal and Asherah were regarded as voyeur deities, whose own libidos were excited by viewing orgiastic rites or sacrificial acts of brutality and bloodletting. The raised platform, the high hill, was so the gods could watch better. This is the kind of thing that was going on in Israel during this time in its history. The prescribed worship included sacrifices, animal or grain offerings, prayer, religious prostitution. Ritual prostitution of both sexes was common. There was a homosexual guild in their temples. Why? Because Canaanite religion was grossly sensual and perverse. It's centered in sexual activity because that's how their gods were. In fact, in Canaanite religion, Baal impregnated Asherah in their myths, and rainfall attributed to Baal was thought to represent his semen falling to earth to fertilize and impregnate the earth. The cultic prostitutes were there to help the worshipers act out the drama. There was child sacrifice on occasion in Baal worship as well.

Now, this is me, but this is a picture of the high place, and that metal obviously wasn't there in the time that these were built. It's to represent based on the size of the stones, the archaeologists' sort of recollection and reconstruction of the size of the altars in these high places. This is from the time of Jeroboam. We'll get to him in a few minutes. 

So, what is the appeal, the inherent appeal of idolatry? Idolatry had then, and still has, two inherent appeals. The first is self-centered gratification. In the worship of these gods, there was violence and brutality, the sort of destruction of animals in a particularly gruesome way. Child sacrifice was a part of it. Obviously, there was sexual fulfillment, was a big part of the appeal. You get to worship God and satisfy your own flesh at the same time. And financial prosperity was huge as well because you had your fields, and you believed Baal was the god of the storm and brought the rain. And so, it was all about adding to your wealth. That's still the appeal of idolatry today. Self-centered gratification and secondly, self-rule.

Always, idolatry is connected to hard-hearted self-will. In fact, Jeremiah says to rely on idols is in reality to rely upon yourself rather than God. It's a creative bait and switch.  You know, instead of having to deal with God, I just have to deal with me because I've created this God who resembles me in some way. Those are the inherent appeals. Remember Romans 1. Idolatry is not people seeking God. They knew Him, they rejected Him as God, and then they made idols. That's how it works. Or as Paul says in Romans 3, there is none who seeks for God. Idolaters aren't seeking God. They are running from God.

So that's the idolatry that was going on in the land. Now, the cycle of judges runs like this. You have sin, and then you have suffering, then you have supplication. They pray and cry to God to relieve them, and then God graciously intervenes in salvation. In grace, God raises up local deliverers. Remember, these are not national, but local deliverers to protect individual cities or tribes from attack.

Here is a list of the judges. There will be a quiz on this at the end of the night. No, just kidding. I just want you to see a couple of things. First of all, I've highlighted the ones that were sort of the major players in this period of time, but I want you to notice the two number columns. You'll notice that as a general rule, the years of oppression grow as this period unfolds. But notice that the years of freedom diminish, decline. That's the period of the judges. Now, it's in that period of the judges, a book that is in the Hebrew scriptures tied to it happens, and that's the book of Ruth.

Ruth is written during that time period with the religious apostasy, the idolatry, the moral degeneracy. Ruth is written to encourage God's people to remain loyal to Him, even during times that everyone else is unfaithful. As well as to trace the genealogy of David, Ruth, we learn at the end of chapter 4, the Moabitess was his great grandmother. And then on the redemptive front, the book of Ruth shows the redeeming work of God, even during the darkest time of Israel's history. I love the book of Ruth. I preach through it. If you weren't here, haven't heard it, go listen. It's one of my favorite studies, because God uses the sin of a Jewish family who abandoned the land of Israel, moved to Moab, an idolatrous country, where they worship Moloch and sacrifice children. He uses their sin to reach into that country and save one of his own, Ruth, who ends up in the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. It's an amazing story of redemption.

 So, that brings us then to the transition to the monarchy. The transition from the period of the judges to the monarchy is recorded in 1 Samuel chapters 1 to 8. The last judge and the only national judge is a man named Samuel, who was also a priest and a prophet. Now, the book of 1 Samuel has three kinds of purposes. First of all, it has a political purpose, and that is to record the establishment of the monarchy. This is a new thing in Israel's history. Also, to serve as an apologetic from Samuel, both for his contemporaries and future generations, explaining the change in dynasties, from Benjamin and Saul to David and Judah. I mean, think about it. If you lived in that period of time, and you know Saul is king, his son is whom? Jonathan. Jonathan is going to be the next king. That's how kings work. But Jonathan doesn't end up king. David ends up king. Now, if you're not in the palace, you don't know what's going on, what's your immediate assumption? Been a little intrigue over there at the palace. Maybe David pulled off a coup.

What happened? And the Book of 1 Samuel explained then and explains now why the dynasties changed from Benjamin and Saul to David and Judah. Of course, it also records the rise of the prophetic office, and we'll talk more about that in a minute, along with the office of king.

Spiritually, I love the way Kaiser says it, God alone was the supreme king, and any government had to function under his authority. And then theologically, this book shows the need for and points to David's greatest son, the Lord Jesus, the only perfect king.

Now, an outline of Samuel that's very simple. You have Samuel in chapters 1 to 7. You have Saul, the first king, in 8 to 15, and you have David 16 to 31. Samuel was the national leader and judge who set Israel on the path of blessing. But when he grows old, the nation, not anxious to return to the times of the judges, demands a king. You've read this story. Now, it's important to understand, God had already planned to give Israel a king. This was God's plan. We know that because the Pentateuch indicated that in line with God's will, there would someday be a human king. There are even rules laid down in Deuteronomy 17 for what a king could and couldn't do. He had to make a copy of the Word of God and read it every day and so forth. Deuteronomy gives instruction for how those kings were to rule, not only that, but in other ways. And then, Yahweh commanded Samuel to give them a king. Read those texts and you'll see God said, give them a king. So that raises the question then, why was it sinful? Well, it was sinful for several reasons.

Number one, it was demanded prematurely without divine consultation. In other words, it wasn't because God wanted it, it's because they wanted it. It was desired for the wrong reason. They wanted to be like all the other nations. It was chosen with the wrong criteria. It's interesting, God says about Saul, even though God appointed Saul, He says, you chose him. What does He mean? He means, given the choice, this is the kind of man you would choose and the criteria you would use. So I've given you what you really want, what you're demanding. In essence, though, the demand for a king in this way was really a rejection of God Himself. 

Now, understand, we're going to look at the kings, understand how this worked. Yahweh is still king in Israel. Remember, He has a throne room in the tabernacle and later in the temple, the Holy of Holies. He's in the middle of his people. But He mediates his rule through human kings, just like He did through Moses and then through Joshua, who were not kings. But human kings were not autonomous. They couldn't do whatever they wanted under God's rule. They sat under the law of God. By the way, this is a very important thing for us to remember. This was God's way. Supreme rulers were to be under the law. There was to be law that determined their behavior. And God demanded, as I said in Deuteronomy 17, that they make a copy, their own copy of the Scripture, and that they read it every day. By the way, there's a great argument for spending time in the Word of God every day. That's one of many I've given to our men in the past. The kings were accountable to the spiritual leader that God had appointed, i.e. the prophet. In other words, there was a division of power in Israel, even among the human leaders that God placed there.

Now, I want you to think about for a moment the monarchy in Israel. Let me just set you set a sort of historical context. Kind of play along with me here for a moment. In 1776, America began as a country. Now, for 248 years, we have existed as a collection of confederated states with a unified central government. But I just want you to step back for a moment. As bad as things are right now, I want you to step back and imagine what the political climate would be today if instead of a central government, each of the 50 states was fully autonomous. Larger states would, of course, throw their weight around. They would dominate the smaller, less populated states. There'd be constant bickering, shifting alliances, infighting. There'd be armed conflicts between the border residents of some states. There'd likely be intrusions at various times by Canada and Mexico and other foreign countries, each trying to insert itself and take advantage of the lack of a unified government. And imagine if that had gone on not since 1776, but since 1724. In other words, imagine what our lives today would be like if what I just described had happened for the past 300 years. That's exactly what happened in the history of the nation of Israel.

Now, we come to the end of that long, dark night. We come out of the period of the judges and into the monarchy. For 300 years, there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The last judge and the only national judge is a man named Samuel. And Samuel 9 introduces us to the 7th great movement in Old Testament history, and that is the Monarchy.

Now, the monarchy lasted from 1051, when Saul became king, to 586 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar took and destroyed Jerusalem. It's recorded, this period of time, it's recorded in 1 Samuel 9 through 2 Kings 25. So basically, 1 Samuel 9, the rest of 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and then 1 and 2 Chronicles. Now, what makes a monarchy ruled by kings distinct from other forms of government? It's the succession, right? The succession of a son. When a king dies, the son that he has chosen succeeds him. So in this case, Yahweh is still king in Israel, but to this point, He has mediated his rule through individuals, personally selected. With the monarchy, He is now going to mediate his rule through family succession. There are 2 distinct periods in the monarchy. The first of them is the United Monarchy. This is when the king of Israel ruled all 12 of the tribes. Then there is the Divided Monarchy, when the 12 tribes were divided into 2 separate kingdoms with 2 separate kings.

Let's begin with the United Monarchy. Consists of 3 kings from 2 dynasties. It only lasts for 120 years. Think about that. The entire nation of Israel was only ruled by 1 king, the whole nation, for 120 years in its history. Each king rules for 40 years.  The first of those was Saul. Saul reigned from 1051 to 1011. He was, as you know, from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the people's choice, so God told Samuel to make him king. And he began well. You can read the story. There are some really admirable things early in his life. There are some that aren't, but because of two specific acts of rebellion and disobedience against God, God determined to replace Saul. There were two of them. 

The first was the sacrifice at Gilgal, when he wanted to appear great with the people, and he basically intruded into an office that wasn't his, the office of the priest. And then the other was the sparing of the Amalekites. When God said, kill them all, kill everything related to them, he spared some of the livestock and the king because he wanted them as trophies. He wanted them to enrich himself. And in response to that, God rejected his dynasty, his house, in favor of a man after his own heart. Here's what we read in 1 Samuel 13:13. 

Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which He commanded you. For now Yahweh would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. Yahweh has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart. And Yahweh has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

One of the most sobering verses in the Old Testament, guys, is when Samuel says to Saul, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offering and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than to sacrifice, and to hearken, to heed, to listen, and do than the fat of rams.” It's a great reminder to us. What matters in terms of God and our relationship is our obedience to Him. That matters more than our emotional singing or whatever it is. Whatever it is, you fill in the blank. Obedience.

Now, here's what I want you to go with this. Saul, after this is told him, Saul knows that it's God's will to replace him because of his disobedience. He refused to accept that, and he became insanely jealous the first time he perceived a threat to his throne and dynasty. And of course, that meant he began to distrust David, a great warrior. He was one of his great generals who began to receive the accolades. He became convinced that David would be his replacement, according to chapter 20, verse 31. Sadly, that distrust grew to contempt, and contempt became a settled, murderous rage. Saul's first attempts to kill David were in the privacy of the palace. Twice, he tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. Then Saul reconsidered the potential ramifications of that and set out to kill David by stealth. 

Samuel records a number of Saul's attempts to kill David. But Samuel, remember, part of his purpose is in apologetic, right? To prove to people outside the palace that David is not a usurper. He didn't pull off a coup. Instead, David's defenders sought to protect his life from Saul are some of Saul's closest family and relatives and confidants. Michel, Saul's daughter and David's wife, stands against her father. Samuel and the Lord defend David. Jonathan, the heir to the throne under Saul, defends David and his integrity. And Ahimelech, the high priest, also defends David. By recording these incidents, the prophet makes it clear, those in a position to know David and know his motives, those in authority, even those in Saul's family, defended him and proclaimed his innocence.

After these episodes, of course, you know what happens. David becomes a fugitive on the run for several years, and the rest of 1 Samuel, from 1 Samuel 21 through 1 Samuel 31. Saul was fully aware that God had chosen David as the next king of Israel. His jealousy moved him to try to frustrate God's clear plan by killing the successor that God Himself had chosen. And 1 Samuel 21 to 26 document the years that Saul basically abandoned his job as king and instead directed all his energy and resources in the kingdom in a futile attempt to find David and to kill him. 

Now remember that part of the purpose of 1 Samuel was an apologetic for the change in dynasties from Saul to David. The writer wants us to know that David did not obtain the throne of Israel by stealth. There was no coup. He didn't manipulate. He didn't intimidate his way to power. In fact, what happens when opportunity knocks? He doesn't answer. It underscores David's integrity and his patience to wait on God's timing. He did nothing to remove Saul from power. In fact, he respected him as God's man and sought to preserve his life. 

Now think about these circumstances from David's perspective. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. You know, my father-in-law used to say, when you read the Bible, read it with a sanctified imagination. Imagine if you were David. Imagine you have been anointed the next king of Israel. You're in the court. You're married to the king's daughter. You're faithful to him. You're loyal to him. And suddenly, he's trying to kill you. He's chasing you across the country. His whole life had been turned upside down. He was once the favorite of the people, a leader of the army, the king's son-in-law, applauded on every hand. But he becomes a fugitive and an outlaw, hunted by the king. 

Now, faced with that, David had two choices. He could either leave Israel and live outside the land. But of course, if he does that, it's certainly risky because he had served as a leader of Israel's army. David had killed his what? 10,000s. So if he was recognized, he would undoubtedly be captured and killed.  He could also remain in the country, gather some men to help protect him, stay out in sparsely populated areas where it's difficult for Saul to follow, and just bide his time, waiting for things to happen. First Samuel 21-31 shows David tried both plans at various times.

But what I want you to see is what motivated David, especially when he left the country, was actually a lack of confidence in God. First Samuel 27, verse 1. You can see it. First Samuel 27:1. We catch David talking to himself. And he says, Now, I will perish one day by the hand of Saul.” David feared he would not continue to escape Saul's attempts on his life. So he says, “There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.” What's wrong with David's thinking here? He's been anointed by Samuel, God's prophet. God has said, “You are the next king of Israel.” I just want you to see, I love that the Holy Spirit lets us have these moments. Obviously, there are darker moments in David's life, but here's a moment when none of that's happened, and he's struggling with his trust in God. God is patient and gracious.  God had promised David he would be Israel's next king. In chapter 16, Samuel told him that. In chapter 23, Jonathan told him that. In chapter 24, Saul told him that. Even though David goes to the land of Israel's enemies, God is still patient, he's still gracious, and He does something remarkable. He not only preserves David, He prospers him. And even more remarkable, I think, is that God uses this time to accomplish two amazing things, to defeat his enemies by the hand of David, and to build support for David in Israel. God's providence is an amazing thing. And that brings us, then, to the kingship of David.

David rules as king over a united nation from 1011 to 971 BC. As you know, David is from the tribe of Judah. He united the nation, made Jerusalem the capital, and God made a covenant with him in which God promised never to do to his house or his dynasty what He had done to Saul's. And in the end, promised that Messiah would come from his line. Under David, Israel became the mightiest nation in the Eastern Mediterranean at that time. 

Now, his life as king begins in 2 Samuel. But it's not a bed of roses. All right? In the first four chapters and half of chapter 5, you have David's difficult rise to the throne. We'll talk about that in a moment. Then you have David's glorious reign in Jerusalem. That's from the middle of chapter 5 through chapter 9. But sadly, in chapters 10 to 20, you have David's weak and sinful latter days. And then chapters 21 to 24, reflections on David's reign. 

I want you to just think for a moment with me, though. We can learn a lot from David and how he responded. Consider a brief timeline of David's life. He's chosen by God to be Israel's second king and probably anointed by the prophet Samuel when he was about 15 years old. He began serving in the court as a musician, occasionally returning home to shepherd's sheep. So, kind of back and forth. In his late teens, he defeats Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Shortly after that, Saul begins to seek his life. We don't know exactly how long that lasted, but we know Saul died when David was about 22 years of age. And so for at least three years, maybe four or five years, David fled for his life from Saul. Then Saul was killed. And while David was genuinely grieved for Saul, he returned to Israel and of course was quickly anointed king over Judah, the tribe of Judah. Wisely, he then sought through diplomacy to extend his rule over the rest of Israel. But they refused to accept him. And a tragic, lengthy civil war broke out among the very nation that he loved. For seven and a half years, think about this, for seven and a half years, David ruled as king. He had been told he had ruled as king, but he only ruled over one of Israel's twelve tribes for seven and a half years. That's how his rule began. It wasn't until David was thirty that he became king of all Israel, according to 2 Samuel 5:4. 

Think about it. For 15 years, he patiently waited on God. And remarkably, in David's life, there isn't one hint of anger or bitterness or impatience. Men, his story is an incredible lesson for us, in patience and waiting for God to act. How often do we wonder what God's doing, because it seems like we're just spinning our wheels. It seems like we're going nowhere. I had a period like that in my own life, when I wondered if God had gifted me to teach because I was in the wilderness, if you will, for a number of years. God often takes us through those times, and He takes us through those times to help us learn to depend on Him, to trust in Him, to remind us that He is God and we're not. So mimic David in this. Be patient for God to act in your life. He doesn't do things like we want it, overnight. David had to wait for 15 long years after he was anointed the next king of the nation.

A couple of strategic events occur in 2 Samuel 5. One of them is David becomes king over all Israel. I mentioned that a moment ago. And the other is that David chooses his capital city. After seven-and-a-half years of rule in Hebron, the leaders from all the tribes and large armies come together. They came to Hebron, formally requesting David to be the king of the nation. And David agrees, and he selects Jerusalem as his capital city.

Now, why Jerusalem? Here is a relief map of the land of Israel. And you can see that it's in the central highlands. You see that that ridge, that the highland ridge down through the middle of the country is elevated. And Jerusalem is there. In fact, it has, I forget the exact elevation, over 3,000 feet, and it has cool nights, and it's a very pleasant place to live. But it is part of the highlands. It existed long before David. It, remember, existed in the time of Abraham, because there we meet a man named Melchizedek, who was the king of Salem, the precursor to the city of Jerusalem. Okay? So it's been there a long time. 

Here's how the city developed. You can see this from the back. Hopefully you can. If you look at the dark brown circle, that's the city of David. That's likely the size of the original capital city of David that was Jerusalem here in the period we're studying. Then you see the lighter brown. That is likely what the expansion under Solomon, David's son, looked like. And it's on one ridge that you can see there going through that area next to the Kidron Valley. Then if you'll notice the light green, that's when Hezekiah expanded it. And then the dark green is under Nehemiah, the reconstruction under Nehemiah, just before the intertestamental period. And then finally, the black line represents the likely location of the wall during the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. So you can kind of see how the city of Jerusalem expanded over time.

When David chose it, it was only about 12 acres. That's about the size of that portion that he made his capital city. It was on the border between Judah and Israel. It's the great water supply, the spring of Gihon, flowing spring in the Kidron Valley. It was surrounded on three sides by natural defenses. So it was an ideal place for Him to establish his capital city. Once he makes that his capital city, you see then David's glorious reign in Jerusalem.

In chapter 6, he brings the ark to Jerusalem. The ark, as we've already seen, represented the earthly throne of Israel's God. And by bringing it to Jerusalem, David was publicly acknowledging that God was king, and he was under God ruling the nation. And so that was a big statement by David, that he sat as king under King Yahweh.

And God promised David an eternal dynasty. I mentioned this last Sunday. I've just documented here on the slide. You can see how, as the Old Testament goes on, the identification of the Messiah funnels down narrower and narrower until it can only be certain people. You can see at the beginning, it's the future seed of the woman. A unique human male will come. Then we learn that male will come from the godly line of Seth. Then the line of Shem. Then that he'll be a descendant in the line of Shem of Abraham. And then through Isaac, through Jacob, then through the tribe of Judah, one of the 12 tribes. And then under David, we learn that he'll be in King David's family in Judah. And of course, Matthew 1, Luke 1 record that this promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So, that's the high point of David.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. You also have David's failures. His weaknesses and failures and the results of those are described in 2 Samuel 10 to 20. There are two chief sins that are marked out against David. One of them, of course, is his sin with Bathsheba. His adultery, his murder of her husband Uriah. The other, in chapter 24, is the census. And frankly, it's unclear. There's a lot of debate about exactly what the sin was. You hear things like pride, ambition, dependence on Israel's army rather than God, an intended additional tax burden. That's why he wanted to count them. Or the conscription of labor. Again, can't be absolutely sure. What we do know is that it was contrary to what he understood he should do, either in his heart or what God had deliberately prescribed. The major issue during these years is Absalom's revolt. His son Absalom described in chapters 12 through 19. 

You know, for all of David's problems though, remember why he was chosen. Go back to why Saul and his dynasty were rejected. You remember? Because you didn't obey the voice of the Lord, I'm going to seek and put on the throne a man after my own heart. Wouldn't you love for God to say it about you? You're a man after my own heart. How can you know? How can you identify a man after God's own heart? I want you to turn, I don't have a lot of time to do this, but I want you to turn to 1 Samuel. This is one of my favorite chapters. 1 Samuel 17. In chapter 16, we're told God is going to displace Saul, and he's going to choose a man after his own heart. Chapter 17 is the story of David and Goliath. 

Now, sadly, a lot of people misunderstand the story of David and Goliath. You know, it's about defeating the giants in your life. Come on. It's not about defeating the giants in your life. It's about identifying a man after God's own heart. How do you know what he's like? You read this chapter, and it's interesting. You know, when a narrator is putting a story like this together, when the writer of Scripture is putting the story together, there were a lot of things he could have said. But watch the dialogue as this chapter unfolds. You see what motivates people. Saul offers, you know, a cush life as on the king's payroll, and he thinks that's going to motivate somebody to fight Goliath. So what do you think motivated Saul? What he offered to motivate others. He thought that would do it. You have David's oldest brother saying, I know why you're here. You're just here because you, you know, you love this sort of thing. It's all about your pleasure, your own enjoyment. 

But I want you to see what really makes for a man after God's own heart. Look at 1 Samuel 17. And turn over to verse 45. Let's go to 44. 1 Samuel 17:44. 

The Philistine said to David [Goliath says], “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.” [Intimidation.] David said to the Philistines, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day, Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you, and I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth.” [Now watch it. Here it is.] “That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is Yahweh's, and He will give you into our hands.” 

You see what motivated David? What drove him was the glory of God. That was his passion. How dare you, even when he talks about Goliath before he goes to fight him, remember? He's like, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 

You know what it is to be a man after God's own heart? It's to have a heart like that, that cares less about your personal safety and your personal peace and your personal prosperity and more about the glory of God and His name and His reputation. That's a man after God's own heart, because what is God's own heart? For His own glory. So, that's the lesson, I think, from the life of David that you cannot miss. Yes, he failed, he sinned, he showed feet of clay, but he also showed the heart of a lion, and that's why he's the king, David the king, because he cared not about his personal safety, not about his personal peace, not about his personal prosperity, which are all motives in that chapter. He cared about the glory of God. May God give us a heart like that.

And now we come to the books of the kings. First and Second Kings. The author is some say Jeremiah. I think that's pretty unlikely. A contemporary of Jeremiah, some say. I think really it is a series of court prophets that are recorded throughout the book. Second Chronicles 9, 12, 13, all mention these prophets who I think served contemporaneously with these kings. And we'll talk about why in a moment. But let's look at the purpose of First and Second Kings. It is written during the exile. It's written between Jehoiachin's release from prison, Second Kings 25, it's mentioned there, and the decree to return to the land from the exile, which is not mentioned. So that means these books were written during the exile. Why? Why would these books about the horrific nature of the rules of the kings be written during the exile to the people of God exiled in Babylon? It was to remind them of their consistent violation of the Mosaic Covenant. Again and again, you see what happened. To show them then that the exile was consistent with the Covenant. God had said this would happen if you disobeyed, and of course, ultimately to encourage repentance, which is what happened. So, the purpose, then, of First and Second Kings are those. Now, an outline of First and Second Kings.

In First Kings, you have the final part of the united monarchy under Solomon, the first 11 chapters of First Kings. And then, you have chapter 12 through 22, the kingdom divided, and you have many kings. Second Kings really is dealing with the fall of these two divided kingdoms. You have Israel, the North, falling in chapters 1 to 17. And then, you have Judah falling, the Southern Kingdom, in chapters 18 to 25. So, let's begin, then, to look at the last part of the united monarchy, and that's the reign of Solomon from the year 971 to 931. By the way, it's really convenient. They all ruled for 40 years, Saul, David, and Solomon. So, it's kind of the math is easy if you remember when one starts.

Solomon's name means peace or peaceable. You can recognize Shalom there. He is the tenth son of David and the second son of Bathsheba. You remember the first one died and he's the second. David grew up as a shepherd. Solomon grew up in the palace among the powerful and the influential. His story begins in 1 Kings 1, and it begins with the defeat of an attempted coup by Adonijah. And from his deathbed, David charges Solomon to loyalty to the Mosaic Covenant. And then in 1 Kings 2, you have Solomon consolidating his power by following his dad's specific orders of who was a threat, who was a risk, and taking care of that, those who were not going to be loyal. And then in chapter 3 of 1 Kings, you have that familiar story where he offers sacrifices to God. God responds with the offer to ask whatever you want, and Solomon wisely asks for wisdom to rule. And God approved that request, and along with it, also gave Him riches and honor. In 1 Kings 4, Solomon's rule and reign is pictured as the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham. Here's 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.” This is the zenith of the monarchy in Israel.

In chapters 5 through 9, Solomon focuses his energies on two great building projects, his own palace and the temple. But by far, the key passage in this part of Kings is 1 Kings 8. Because when the temple is completed, the ark of God is brought into the temple from the tabernacle. The glory cloud fills the temple, chapter 8, verses 10 and 11. And then after a brief speech, Solomon offers a prayer, a prayer of dedication of the temple. And this prayer is very important, not only in 1 Kings, but in the rest of Old Testament history. Most of his prayer is a request that when the people of Israel sin, find themselves in all kinds of different trials as a result, that God will hear their prayers and will forgive them. But near the end of his prayer, it reaches a crescendo. Deuteronomy 28 had promised the curse of exile in the face of continued rebellion. Solomon anticipated that reality, and he asked God in that circumstance to hear and to forgive. Look at 1 Kings 8, verse 46. This is part of Solomon's prayer. He says, and this is at the dedication of the temple.

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 [exile]. If they give 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 we committed iniquity, we've 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've chosen, 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. Forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against you. Make them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive, that they may have compassion on them, for they're your people, that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people, Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to you. 

Now, remember, this book was written during the exile to those who were in Babylonian captivity. This chapter says Solomon prayed that. God heard that prayer and agreed to Solomon's prayer, chapter 9, verses 1 to 6. But I want you to see God's warning.

Look at 1 Kings 9 verse 6.

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, from the house which I have consecrated for my name, and I will cast out of my sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all the peoples, and this house will become a heap of ruins.

And everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss, and say, why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house? And they will say, because they forsook Yahweh, their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh has brought all this adversity on them.

So that becomes absolutely strategic in the rest of Old Testament history. We'll get there in just a moment. 

Now, the rest of Solomon's reign, the achievements of his reign are all connected to God's blessing tied to his own faithfulness. You see in chapters 9, verse 10 through chapter 10, you see the building, the sacrifices, the merchant fleet that he built, the wisdom, the riches, the reputation that he had. And his reign was also a period of the golden literary age of Israel. There was history and music and psalms and wisdom literature. We're going to see some of that, if not tonight, the first time, the next time we get together.

But sadly, there eventually came a great decline. And that's because of Solomon's sin. Recorded in 1 Kings 11, verses 1 to 13. Solomon had started well, but his temptation came through international relations. He had a number of international treaties. And it was common in that day to seal those alliances with marriages, although it was forbidden in Deuteronomy 17 for Israel's kingdom to multiply wives. But it was common, so Solomon excused it, he justified it. Another reminder, guys, not to justify our sin. And those marriages became much more for Solomon than formalities. The foreign women that he married in those international treaties won his heart. And then turned his heart to other gods. Look at 1 Kings 11. 1 Kings 11 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 as God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcham, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh fully as David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. [That's the Mount of Olives!] And for Molech, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 

This is Solomon's sin. For his sin, the kingdom would be taken away. God promised to remove it because of his unfaithfulness. Now, God gave him plenty of chances. God confronted Solomon. God spoke to him twice, according to 1 Kings 9 and 10. So it wasn't like God just threw this on him out of the blue. He spoke and warned him. In addition, God raised up people in David's life or in Solomon's life to bring pressure on him. I've listed them here, in order to bring him to repentance. And the good news is, I believe the Scripture leads us to conclude that Solomon eventually did repent. In his old age, he departed from the Lord, but before his death, I think he repented. 

I think when you look at the books, I think in Song of Solomon, you see him as a young man with writing about the joy of married love after his first marriage, kind of hard to get that excited after number 700. So, I think that was probably number one. In middle age, you see the proverbs. In old age, you see him writing Ecclesiastes. I think that description of old age in chapter 12, I think that's autobiographical. I think he's beginning to experience those very symptoms. Likely after his repentance for sin, somewhere around 950 to 9, probably closer to 931, is he truly repents. And where does he land? I love the way Ecclesiastes ends. This is our hope that God works in repentance. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is 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.

Solomon, I believe, did repent, but he never destroyed the temples which he had built for his wives, and those become a stumbling block. Solomon's death marks the end of the United Monarchy. So one king ruled over Israel for only 120 years of its history, 40 years under Saul, 40 years under David, 40 years under Solomon. And under their rule, not only was the central government established, but it was strengthened, and Israel's border extended. The United Monarchy, those 120 years, men, were really the high point of Israel's history. But on Solomon's death, her glory days ended, and we began the period of the divided monarchy, recorded in 1 Kings 12 through the end of 2 Kings.

Now, it was divided, but the question is, by whom? The ultimate answer is by God. By God. Because of Solomon's sin of accommodating and facilitating idolatry in Israel by catering to his foreign wives, God determined to take most of the kingdom away from the descendants of Solomon. If you look at 1 Kings 11, verses 29 to 35, that's the key part of it. You'll see that God says, I'm going to snatch a good portion of the nation of Israel from the descendants of Solomon. They are not going to be king over all of it. How did God accomplish that? He accomplished it through the sin of Solomon's son, Rehoboam. 

After Solomon's death, the people approached his son, Rehoboam, with a request. They said, look, you know, Solomon has done a lot. We've built a lot, but we need a break. We need some relief from the labor, the taxes, all of that. Rehoboam asked for three days to consider their request, and during those three days, he sought advice about how to maintain control over his father's kingdom. He asked the elders of Israel for their counsel, and they told him, it's true, you need to do that. Give the people some tax relief, scale back significantly on the forced labor for various building projects. And then he asked his peers, and his peers said, you need to assert your authority. You need to flex your muscles. Tell them that if Solomon beat you with whips, I'll beat you with scorpions. Well, you know the story. He followed the advice of his peers, and 1 Kings 12:15 says, “So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from Yahweh, that He might establish his word, which Yahweh spoke to Ahijah, to Jeroboam the son of Nebat,” back in 1 Kings 11:26-40.” So God is the one who divided the kingdom. 

As a result of God's decision, accomplished through the sin of Rehoboam, the 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 even created their own apostate religion. And worship centers. So after 931, men, there were two kingdoms. You see them here in the two colors. There was the northern kingdom, which is most often called Israel, after this point. And you have the southern kingdom, which is called Judah. 

So what's the story of these two kingdoms? Here's a summary. This is the divided kingdom in summary. In the north, you have the peoples called Israel, sometimes called Ephraim, because one of the tribes up there was Ephraim. In the south, it's called Judah. There were two tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin, but Judah was the bigger, and so it was called by the name Judah. In the north, you had ten tribes. In the north, there were nine different dynasties. Why? Because they're always killing each other off. So you have nine different dynasties. In the south, you have one dynasty, the descendants of David. In the north, you had 19 kings. In the south, you had 19 kings and one queen. In the north, not a single good king. In the south, you had eight good kings, including five of them that were really reformers, that really sought to turn things around. The first king of the north was Jeroboam. The first king of the south was Rehoboam, Solomon's son. The north was destroyed in 722 BC by Assyria. The southern kingdom was destroyed in 586 by Babylon. So that's the north and the south, this period of the divided monarchy. When you have two tribes in the south called Judah, and you have ten tribes in the north called Israel. 

Now, when Jeroboam became king in the north, he reasoned that if his people in those northern ten tribes were always going south to Jerusalem for worship, then the two nations would ultimately be reunited, and he would lose his authority. And so, he established substitute worship, substitute worship, and two worship centers, Dan in the northern part of his kingdom, and Bethel in the south. Here you can see it on a map. Again, you see the purple represents Israel, the northern kingdom where Jeroboam ruled, and you can see Dan in the north, and then you can see Bethel in the south. And so, he made those two worship centers, so it would be easy, you can get there easily, you don't have to go down to Jerusalem, you don't have to go all that way, just stop, stop at Bethel, or go up to Dan, whatever is closest to you. 

Now, he erected gold images of calves in the high places. This is one of them. This is the high place of Jeroboam. This is some of the original architecture from the high place that he built and the place of worship he built in the north at Dan. His intent was still to worship Yahweh at this point. It's not like a replacement god, but to worship Yahweh in a new way. Kind of a seeker-sensitive approach to worship. You don't need to travel as far. You're going to get to do some things you enjoy. It was an effort to keep the northern ten tribes from going to Jerusalem and thereby consolidating his own rule. Now, when you think about this, the calves, you hear about the golden calves, the golden calves probably didn't represent Yahweh, but rather they represented animals on which Yahweh stood in invisible form. That was kind of a common Canaanite way to view Baal. They didn't think the calf pictured Baal. They thought the calf was like this image of power on which the invisible god Baal stood. And so that's kind of the idea here. These golden calves were either images of Canaanite deities or possibly symbols of their presence in the same way that the Ark of the Covenant symbolized God's presence. They built houses of worship to house the images and the altars.

Many of the Levites left Israel for Judah during this time period because he appointed priests from the common people. Also, keep in mind that we talk about the ten tribes and the two southern tribes. The truth is a lot of faithful Israelites in the north probably moved south during this time to avoid the false pagan worship in the north. So you have a lot of things going on in this time. Jeroboam also created an annual feast substituting it for tabernacles, setting its date just a month earlier. 

Now, from this point forward in Old Testament history, you have this important, recurring phrase. This particular king, whoever it is, walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin with which he made Israel sin.

In other words they just kept on doing following the pattern Jeroboam had set. Of the 18 kings that followed Jeroboam, in the north, every single one of them followed his sinful idolatrous path. Now here's another part of the quiz: the Kings of the Divided Kingdom a test later—no, I just want you to see this; it's in your notes; I mean it'll be on the slide so you'll have it in your notes, comparing the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel when they ruled, so you can sort of look and see how they fall. There's the first chart there's a second chart and third chart and finally—no there's there two more that one and that one—so you have all those slides that lay out comparing the timeline of who was on the throne where at a given point as you read the scripture. So that's just for convenience. I'm not going to go through that. 

But I do want to bring you to one key moment in the Divided Monarchy. It was the greatest crisis of the Divided Monarchy.  It came when Ahab of Israel—he's in the north—Ahab of Israel married a Sidonian, a Phoenician princess. Phoenicia, you remember, is off the coast, kind of Lebanon, that area up there. He married this Phoenician princess named Jezebel. And Jezebel was a worshipper of Baal. And she set out to eradicate the worship of Yahweh in the northern kingdom among the ten tribes, and to institute the worship of her childhood and patron deity, Baal.

But the crisis also spread to the southern kingdom because Ahab and Jezebel conspired to marry their wicked daughter, Athaliah, to the king of the south, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, a good king in Judah. Elijah was having none of it. He pronounced a curse by letter on Jehoram for this sin, but it happened. And Jehoram and Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, together, they had a son named Ahaziah. And Ahaziah ruled Judah after Jehoram died. And this is the description, 2 Chronicles 22:4, “He did evil in the sight of Yahweh like the house of Ahab, for they were his counselors after the death of his father to his destruction.” Shockingly, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel in the north, eventually becomes queen of Judah, a position she held for 6 years. During the time of her control in Judah, Athaliah attempted the extermination of the Davidic line, and then she almost succeeded. It came down to one young child, the last heir of David. Remember what God had promised David? One of your sons will sit on the throne forever as Messiah. Came down to one last son. And that son was saved by God's providence from her murderous plot. You can read about it in 2 Kings 11:1-3. Understand that Old Testament prophecy and God's eternal plan to have the Messiah be one of David's descendants came down to one little boy. That's how dark the times were. 

It was such a dark time that God raised up two amazing prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Look at 1 Kings 17. This is one of my favorite passages in all the Bible. 1 Kings 17. And look at verse 1. This is the first time we meet Elijah in Scripture. “Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there will be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’” Now don't forget the context. Jezebel has set out to erase the worship of Yahweh from the land. Four hundred prophets of Baal are on the government payroll. And in that religious context, Elijah shows up in the palace, the palace of Ahab and Jezebel. And when his name was announced, I can promise you that a hush came over the throne room, and you could have heard a pin drop. Why? Because Elijah's name in Hebrew is Eliyahu. My God is Yahweh. 

Thirty percent of First and Second 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? Its prophets ministered throughout the monarchy in a specific office. I don't know if you realize this or not, but when you read the Kings and when you read the Chronicles, there are three key figures, political figures in the nation. There's the king, there's the priest, priest plural, but also usually the high priest, and then there's the prophet. Now, when you think about prophets, Samuel was the first prophet. He began, according to 1 Samuel 10:5, the school of the prophets, and the primary role of the prophet in Israel was to serve as God's mouthpiece to keep the kings and the priests in line. God's mouthpiece. Keep them accountable to the word of Yahweh.

In fact, the word prophecy is not a translation, but a transliteration of the Greek word for prophet, which is prophetes. Prophetes comes from two Greek words, pro meaning before, and pheme meaning to speak. So, prophecy means to speak before, or to speak for another. That's why more than 3,800 times the Old Testament writers introduced their messages with statements like this.

“The word of Yahweh came to,” “The mouth of Yahweh is spoken,” “Yahweh says,” “the Lord spoke,” “Hear the word of the Lord.” A true prophet was one who didn't speak out of his own heart but was an appointed speaker for a divine superior. And what he said carried the weight of the superior he represented. In short, the prophet was solely and only God's messenger. Jeremiah 1:4-10. In that context, he says to Jeremiah, God does, “I have put my words in your mouth.” That's what it means to be a prophet. Put it another way, the prophet speaks a message from God. Prophecy, then, is revelation from God. It's not explaining existing revelation. It's new truth. A prophet is one who brings truth from God, one who brings divine revelation. Typically, that revelation took two distinct forms. Predictive revelation and moral or ethical revelation. In other words, when a prophet is speaking new revelation from God, sometimes he's foretelling the future. Other times, he is foretelling the message they need to hear and confronting their sin. 

Now, the reason this comes about is because God had prophesied through Moses this would happen. Moses predicted in Deuteronomy that future prophets like him would come, and in Deuteronomy, he lays down three criteria for discerning a true prophet from the false. This is really important, guys, because this not only affects the Old Testament, the New Testament, it comes into play even today. How do you recognize a true prophet? Moses says, let me tell you. First of all, look at Deuteronomy, chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Moses was a prophet. He was the great prophet, and he said, there are going to be other prophets to come. And here's how you recognize a true prophet. Deuteronomy 18 verse 20. “But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, ‘How do we know? How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’” Verse 22, “When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.” And we just saw a moment ago, he shall die. In other words, the first way to discern a true prophet is his predictions always come true.

You know, you have people running around in the charismatic movement today saying they're prophets' second tier. You know, kind of like Clarence, and it's a wonderful life. You know, angels' second class. There are no second-class prophets. If he's not right 100% of the time, he's not a true prophet and he doesn't speak for God. Why? Because God never gets it wrong. That's the first criteria.

Second criteria, look at Deuteronomy 13 verse one. 

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes true [in other words, this guy can work miracles], concerning which he spoke to you, saying, let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet nor that dreamer of dreams, for Yahweh your God is testing you to find out if you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, you shall follow Yahweh your God and fear Him, and you shall keep his commandments, listen to his voice, serve Him and cling to Him, but that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he is counseled rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk. You shall purge the evil from among you. 

Second criterion for a true prophet is his message, is always in complete doctrinal agreement with previous revelation. That's what he says. He says if he tells you something, if he does a miracle, and a miracle actually happens, but he tells you to believe something contrary to what I've already revealed, then he's a false prophet. So, when a charismatic pastor stands in his pulpit and says, Jesus, you know, I have the ability to, you know, we have the ability to make prophecies and all of that, and Jesus isn't God during his life on earth. You're not dealing with a true prophet.

The third criterion for discerning a true prophet comes here in Deuteronomy 13. It's implied, and in Exodus 4, with Moses, we learned that God doesn't always do this, but sometimes a true prophet is authenticated by miracles. Moses was given that ability. Other prophets were Elijah and Elisha. 

The true prophet's word was immediately accepted. Even when people hated him, they recognized he was a prophet, that he met these criteria, that he was speaking for God. R. Laird Harris writes this, “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, of course, were rebuked for their sins and encouraged through the prophets.” So the prophets then spoke God's revelation, but they also wrote it down.

This is the way the Old Testament was constructed. Moses wrote, you remember, on a scroll. He was on the mountain. God gave him the revelation. God said, write it down. He writes everything God told him in the scroll. That's what we have in the Pentateuch, in the first five books of the Old Testament.

Joshua then added to the scroll the account of Moses' death and the following events. We learn. That was very surprising in light of the command not to add to the word of God in Deuteronomy. That's because this was God's plan. And then there are a series of prophets who add to the scroll. A chain of verses through the Old Testament show us the tradition of a series of writing prophets in Israel. For example, 1 Chronicles 29:29, “Now the Acts of King David from the first to the last are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer, in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and the chronicles of Gad the seer.” A number of other passages. These constitute a list of the chain of writing prophets from before David to virtually the end of the Kingdom of Judah.

Then, of course, you have an addition. You have what we call the major and the minor prophets from Isaiah through Malachi. All of these books fit into the flow of Old Testament history. You understand that? The prophets, when you think about Isaiah through Malachi, all of them fit into these books we're studying right now. They happened during the same time frame. Bible scholars break them down, the prophets, by their relationship timewise to the 70-year Babylonian captivity. So you have, first of all, prophets who prophesied before the exile. That's pre-exilic, before the first phase of the exile in 606 BC. 

Now, what I'm giving you here is a list, and you can go back and look through this. This is a list of the pre-exilic prophets, who they prophesied to, and the numbers next to their names, I'm not confused. The numbers represent the likely order chronologically in which they were written. Okay? So you have Obadiah, who writes to Edom. You have Jonah and Nahum, who write and confront Assyria. You have Amos and Hosea, who confront Israel in the north. And then you have a bunch of prophets who speak to Judah in the south. That's before the exile. Now, why? Why are so many of the prophets before the captivity? There are two reasons. One, it's a kind of gracious warning, right? God is saying, this is coming. This is coming. You better get right with me. But it's also a kind of apologetic. Because in the ancient world, the idea was, if my army came and defeated your army, then my God is bigger and stronger than your God. But by telling his people and putting it in writing before it happened, God was saying, uh-uh, not the story. I'm not weaker than the gods of Babylon or the gods of Assyria. I said this was going to happen, and I'll tell you why it was going to happen. And so it's an apologetic. Both a warning of grace and an apologetic. Those are the pre-exilic prophets.

Then you have those who prophesied during the exile, the exilic prophets, from 606 BC to 536, just before they returned to the land of Israel. This is to the Jews in Babylonian exile. You have Daniel and Ezekiel. And then after the exile, post-exilic, from 536 to the end of the Old Testament, 404 BC, these are prophesying to the Jewish remnant who returned from Babylon to the land of Israel. And you have Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Isn't it wonderful they come last, so you know. They're after the exile. They come the three last ones. Now, all the writing prophets ministered during the time of kings, First and Second Kings, except Ezekiel and Daniel. They were during the exile in Babylon. And Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who were after the Babylonian exile in Palestine.

So remember, the primary role of a prophet is to serve as God's mouthpiece to keep the kings and the priests accountable to the word of Yahweh. And so when the prophet confronts the king, there's been some deviation from the divine standard. Under Rehoboam, and then Ahab and Jezebel, the worship of Yahweh is almost extinct. So the 14 chapters telling the stories of Elijah and Elisha are clear evidence of just how bad those times were, the corruption of those times. Now keep in mind that both Elijah and Elisha minister in the north to the northern 10 tribes. But the people largely ignored most of the prophets, and so God determined that He would send his people into exile. Why exile? And the answer is idolatry. 

That idolatry began not really with David. There's very little record of idolatry during the reign of David, but after his death, its influence grew dramatically as we've seen a moment ago under Solomon and his foreign wives. Upon Solomon's death, the kingdom is divided. The northern ten tribes, Rehoboam [Jeroboam] set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, and in the southern kingdom, Judah, under Solomon's son, Rehoboam, it was no better. Let me show you how bad things had gotten.

Turn with me to 2 Kings 23. 2 Kings 23 and look at verse 4. This is documenting the reforms under the righteous redeemed king Josiah. But I want you to see how bad it had gotten by the time of Josiah. Verse 4, 2 Kings 23:4. 

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 Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the hosts of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried away 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 city 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 hosts of heaven. He brought out the Asherah from the house of Yahweh outside Jerusalem to the Brook Kidron, and burned it in 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 Yahweh, where the women were weaving hangings rather for the Asherah.

And on and on it goes. That's how bad the idolatry got. How grossly the worship of the Canaanite gods had permeated Israel's worship. All of the prophets of Israel spoke against them again and again and again. There's some references in the slide. You can look at that later. In the end, it was Israel's idolatry that led to its downfall at God's hands.

The northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. Why? Turn to 2 Kings 17. 2 Kings 17, look at verse 7.

Now, this came about, the fall of Israel, because the sons of Israel had sinned against Yahweh, their God, and brought them from Egypt. They walked in the customs of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out before them, the customs of the kings. The sons of Israel did things secretly, which were not right against Yahweh, their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places [Remember what we talked about those being?] in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city, they set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree. And there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did, which the Lord had carried away to exile before them. And they did evil things, provoking Yahweh. They served their idols when He said, don't do this.

And on it goes. He sent his servants, the end of verse 13, the prophets. “However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in Yahweh, their god. They rejected his statutes.” “They followed vanity, became vain.” Verse 16, “They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh, their god, made for themselves idols and calves and Asherah,” and all of that. They served Baal. And if that wasn't enough, verse 17, “They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire.” In other words, they sacrificed their children and practiced divination and enchantments. “They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight. None was left except the tribe of Judah.” That's the northern kingdom in 722 BC with the Assyrians. 

The southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC, and again, the primary reason given was her idolatry. Look at 2 Kings 21verse 10.

Yahweh spoke to his servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh has done all these abominations [he's made Judah sin with his idols] I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem [verse 12] in Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem, the land of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them in the hand of their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil because they've done evil in my sight, provoking Me to anger.”

Go over to chapter 23, verse 26.

Now the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. Yahweh said, “I will remove Judah also from my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen, and the temple which I said, my name shall be there.”

It was only after 70 years in Babylonian captivity that Israel was permanently broken of her desire for Baal. And to this day. But God proved his graciousness again and again. 

I think there really is no sign of God's graciousness that's more powerful than two of the worst kings. I mentioned Manasseh on Sunday, and he repented, and God saved him, redeemed him. But another king, we really don't know the end state of his soul. All we know is that he was, he repented enough for God to withhold the judgment in his time. Turn to 2 Kings. I want to show you a lesson from the life of Ahab.

(I love this picture. You know, I love this, this is one of those demotivational posters. I don't know if you've seen them or not. But: “Mistakes. It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”)

Let's look at the life of Ahab. When you think about Ahab's life, 1 Kings 21:25 says 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 I want you to notice what happens. Turn to 1 Kings, 1 Kings, and look at chapter 21.1 Kings 21, and in verses 20 to 24, you have God's prophecy by Elijah, against Ahab. 

Ahab said to Elijah [verse 20], have you found me, O my enemy? [And the answer is] I found you, because you've sold yourself to do evil on the side of Yahweh. Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free in Israel, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, like the house of Baisha, the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation which would provoke Me to anger [in other words, I'm going to wipe you out] because you've made Israel sin. And of Jezebel, the Lord said, “The dogs will eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel. The one belonging to Ahab who dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and the one who dies in the field, the birds of heaven will eat.” 

So, how does Ahab respond to all of this? Look at verse 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.” How does God respond to this wicked, wicked man? Look at verse 28. “And the word of Yahweh 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, the point for the exiles in Babylon is God's grace. It is—when you read this history. Now, remember, these books were written while they were in exile. They read them; they heard them for the first time while they were in Babylonian exile. And they read this story. And when they heard it for the first time, the point was for them just as it is for us, and that is regardless of your spiritual condition, regardless of your past rebellion, if you will repent and turn from your sin to God, God will hear your prayer. That was the message to them. And as a people, they did. And next time, we're going to look at their return under the grace of God to the land. They got what they deserved, but God heard their cry and was gracious. Just as it is with us. 

You know, this morning, in my own time in the Word, my own time in the Word, I was studying Psalm 32, David's Psalm of forgiveness, that glorious Psalm of justification. God doesn't impute guilt to us. And that Psalm rehearses God's graciousness. When we simply turn, I love that Old Testament word, the Hebrew word, when we turn, when we turn from our rebellious way, when we turn from our sin, and we simply say to ourselves, as David said to himself, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh. What I love about that is it doesn't say, once I say it to God, He will forgive me. It says, when I say, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, He forgave the guilt of my sin. I think that's a reminder that God is eager and ready to forgive, just like with the Prodigal Son. You know, the Prodigal Son in the pig pen comes to himself and says, I'm going to go and seek my father's forgiveness. And the father is watching for him and runs to meet him and to receive him. That's a picture of God when you and I turn from our sin. And what more graphic picture than Ahab? The worst. And he humbles himself and he cries out to God, and God says, I've heard his prayer. That's a powerful lesson of grace. I hope you will celebrate the forgiveness that as a believer you enjoy because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on our behalf.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for our time together tonight. Thank you for the powerful lessons primarily about yourself in what we studied. That you are a great God. You are a gracious God. That you are a patient God. And that you are ever and always faithful. That your steadfast love surrounds those who know and love you and on whom you have set your love. 

Father, thank you for the lessons about yourself. Thank you for the lessons about the dangers around us of idolatry in our own world. Lord, protect our souls from idols. Whether it's the idol of pride and reputation, or the idol of prosperity, or the idol of personal peace, or the idol of lust, the idol of sexual gratification.

Father, help us to slay the idols in our lives and make us men after your own heart. Men who are consumed, not by any of those things, but who truly live like David, to make your name known, and to live in such a way that others may see that there is a God. A God who is the Creator and the Redeemer. Through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.