Weeks 16 & 17 The Fall of the Kingdom

2 Chron 36:15 &16

15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

A wise man once said that a good preacher would do well to approach each week's message with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.  I've always found that to be good advice.  The task of the preacher is to help folks apply God's Word to the everyday situations of life in our time.  That challenge has never been needed more than today and yet today... I struggle to find the words.

With all that has gone on  in our world this week, frankly I struggle to know where to start.  We've wept with families of those victims who were slain while they were worshiping in Charleston.  We've seen terrorist attacks in France.  In our country, politics has overtaken common sense as the discussion has shifted from mental illness to hate to gun control to an antique flag that flies over a state house in South Carolina.  We've been told that "southern pride" is no longer acceptable... but "gay pride" is to be celebrated.  Indeed, just today the Supreme Court of the United States made official what has been a steady but seismic shift in our culture over the last several decades... redefining the meaning of marriage and making of mockery of God's design & desire for his creation.  I am disappointed in my country today.

Interspersed between my daily doses of news, I've been digging again into the story of Israel.  As I read thru chapters 16 & 17, "The Beginning of the End" and "The Kingdom's Fall"... it is summed up pretty well in the text above from 2 Chronicles.  After the kingdom divided (itself a national tragedy) one bad king after another occupied the thrones of both kingdoms and led their respective nations steadily farther and farther away from the Lord.  In chapter 16 we saw that God finally allowed the pagan empire of Assyria and their idol-worshiping king, Shalmanesar, to come against and destroy Israel... wiping it off the map and out of history.  This week, ch. 17, the same thing is happening to Judah- though God must've given them some additional time only because of a few good kings who did lead the people righteously.  Josiah was one of those (there were only five.)  When Josiah became king they cleaned out the closets at the Temple and somebody found -lo & behold-  a copy of the OT Law.  Most scholars believe that what they found was the book of Deuteronomy.  It had been so long since anybody had read it... this was quite a find!  Josiah led the people to reclaim God's Word and it sparked a great revival in the land!  But his reforms and the subsequent resurgence of faithfulness was short-lived.  His son and others resumed their previous practices and again led the nation into despair.

And it wasn't like they hadn't been warned!  No, that's the worse part!  God has sent one messenger after another to warn the people.  "You continue down this path, God will not contend with you forever!"  But they refused to listen.  They mocked God's messengers.  They hated their words-- probably called them "intolerant" or "hateful" or "judgmental" or something like that.  They scoffed and ridiculed them... until God had had enough.  And in a series of raids that culminated in 586 BC, God allowed (directed?) the pagan nation of Babylon and their crazy evil king, Nebuchadnezzar, to lay siege to Judah and burn the capital of Jerusalem to the ground... including the Temple of the LORD.  As one of God's messengers, Jeremiah, watched it burn... Nebuchadnezzar hauled Judah's once privileged residents into captivity where they would spend the next seventy years as exiles in a foreign land.  No wonder Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet.  You would have wept, too, if you'd seen the things he saw.

God had had enough.  And he acted.  He acted in judgment.  It doesn't sound very kind until you read "the rest of the story" and realize that God was indeed demonstrating great grace & mercy as he was preparing his people for the sending of the Messiah... and making a way for them to return not just to their homeland but to Him!  That's all that God wants... his people to return to him... in the kind of relationship unmarred by sin that he had with them in the beginning.  But first they must realize that they are lost without him and that they need him more than anything else.

I've never been one of those "hellfire & brimstone" preachers or prognosticators of "doom & gloom" but I just can't help but notice more than a few similarities between their time and ours.  It makes me wonder how long God will contend with us today until he acts in judgment.  I for one am praying, "Lord come quickly" for I know the world God has in store for us is far grander than the one we are currently experiencing.  I find solace in the fact that "this world is not my home" and that my true citizenship resides in heaven where "we anxiously await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." (cf. Phil 3:20)

Week 15 God's Messengers

I am excited about the lesson this week because on Sunday my friend and former student, Jared Mills will be preaching it!  Yes, its a bit of a reprieve for me AND for the church!  You don't have to listen to me... but don't get too comfortable... "I'll be baaack!"

Jared is one of my favorite former students.  Not only was he an excellent Bible student, deserving of the top Bible award his Senior year at Riverside Christian Academy, but he continued his zeal for the Word in his studies at Freed-Hardeman where he is a Senior Bible major.  He and his fiancee, Katie, are to be married on July 4th and are quite busy planning on a wedding these days.  To know Jared is to love him!  And you will know him, too, when you see him.  He is the grandson of our Dan & Priscilla Mills and has a slew (sp?) of family at Washington Street.  He is excited about bringing us a lesson from "The Story" and will be focusing on the prophetic ministries of Elijah and Elisha from chapter 15.

It's a difficult time for God's people.  The nation has been splintered in two: the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Over the course of 208 years the combined kingdoms had something like 38 different kings and only five of them were of any count.  Many of them were bad and most of them were really bad!  No doubt they probably deserved to be wiped off of the planet by God, but He had promised many years before that He wouldn't do that again.  God is patient with them, but continues to warn them that the path they are on will lead them to destruction.  He does not wait idly by, however, and sends them one prophet after another.  My favorite is Elijah who gets into something of a spitting match against the pagan gods of Assyria.  They are no match for God!

This week as you read through chapter 15, "God's Messengers" pay close attention to the warnings the prophets gave Israel... warnings that went unheeded.  What warnings does the Word give us today about the way WE are heading?

Week Fourteen: A Kingdom Torn in Two

So, I've been conflicted with this week's episode of The Story.  One one level it is the story of a king who succeeds to the throne before he is ready, makes a series of really bad decisions which affects his nation, and then sees the nation his father and grandfather had built torn apart.  One another level it is the story of God bringing about what He had foretold years before... that because of Solomon's unfaithfulness, the kingdom would be torn from him.  The story from each of these two different points of view is a tragic one.  I've struggled to find something redemptive in it... something encouraging to latch on to... something I can emphasize from the pulpit to inspire hope... or optimism... or something!  Instead, all I've found is... well, REALITY.

The story is full of reality.  Fathers don't always set the best example for their sons.  Sometimes their examples lead their children to make poor decisions themselves.  Dysfunction has a way of perpetuating itself.  People make bad decisions.  Those bad decisions impact others.  Families are torn apart.  Nations are divided.   Sin has consequences.

The reality is... when a people turn away from the Lord as Israel did, there are harsh real-world consequences, and not even necessarily because God is mad, but because when we try and fill our need for God with false gods, our lives and the lives of those around us  are torn to pieces.  That's the nature of sin.  It's what sin does.

If there's one silver lining at all in this part of the story, it is the knowledge that God is still there... He is still the primary player... and He is still working (albeit in strange ways) to bring about His will and His plan.  The nation, divided and torn asunder, will get worse before it gets better (sorry for that spoiler on next week's episode)... but eventually it will get better!  God is working towards the right time and the right circumstances to send forth His Son who will provide the means for the whole nation-- in fact for ever nation-- to be redeemed.  So, as bad as it is... and as bad as it will get... we haven't gotten to the end, yet!  That's good to remember when reading the Old Testament.  In fact, it's good to remember when reading today's newspaper!  As bad as it is.  As bad as it seems to be getting... and it seems to be getting worse... God's still not done yet!  There will be a day when Messiah will return and He'll set the world to rights!  Sin will be done away with.  Dysfunction will be rectified.  All that is bad and disappointing in the world will be redeemed and glorified in the light of His presence!