January 3, 2021 - Kings and Kingdoms
Notes
Transcript
We're getting closer and closer to the finish line of this OT Survey series...
• 3 weeks ago we walked thru the Davidic Covenant.
• We've seen throughout the Old Testament, this Covenantal theme...
• ...where God binds Himself to His people through promise.
• And if you recall back to the Abrahamic Covenant, it was then where God took the curse of the Covenant upon Himself...
• ...saying, even if My people don't uphold the Covenant, I will...
• ...and by doing so, My people will receive the blessings of the Covenant...unconditionally.
• And we've seen this play out right?
• We've seen God continue to restore His people...His stiff-necked people...
• ...who continue to turn from Him.
• With the Davidic Covenant, we see God say that He will establish David's:
• House
• Kingdom
• Throne...forever.
• And so eternity is taking shape here...
• And what’s been building up to this point throughout the OT - is this -
The surety of the Davidic Covenant being fulfilled lies in the fact that God Himself will come and sit on the throne...
• BUT before Jesus comes as King...
• ...we see a history of kings who come and rule in Israel.
• With that said, today's sermon will be looking at the time period of 1 and 2 Kings…and the history that lies underneath all of it...
• 3 weeks ago we talked about Saul (the first the king of Israel) and David.
• Now, the accounts of Saul and David can be found in 1 and 2 Samuel...
• ...and what we saw, going from Judges, to 1 and 2 Samuel was a transition from:
SLIDE:
Theocracy - to - Monarchy
• See in the book of Judges, we saw what was basically a Theocracy, where God was the King.
• BUT THEN - We saw the people turn from God and ask for a king of their own...
• they wanted power like the other nations, so they wanted this change...
• ...and the change came.
• God allowed it.
• They went from a theocracy to a monarchy.
5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
NOW – Was this wrong?
· Was it wrong for the Israelites to ask for a KING?
· Now – we might think – not a big deal…
o They just wanted to have a different ruler over them…
· The Bible though – makes it clear that this WAS wrong!
· A COUPLE of things PLAY THEMSELVES OUT as Israel asks for a KING to rule over them..
SLIDE: Israel Asks for a King: Rejecting God as Their Ruler
Israel Asks for a King
Israel Asks for a King
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
· Remember – God had brought the people OUT OF BONDAGE – out of Egypt…
· He LEAD them through the wilderness
o God lead the people through Moses and Aaron…
o And through priests and judges – RAISED up to govern the people.
· And YET we remember – God was CONSTANTLY having to PROVE Himself to the Israelites…
· They continued to get to points where they - wouldn’t TRUST God!!
*Do you remember this slogan?
SLIDE:
We Are All Witnesses
Well – the Israelites could have Hash-tagged this out on ALL their social media!!
· They were EYE-WITNESSES to the 10 plagues!
· They had SEEN God humiliate and annihilate the “SO CALLED” Egyptian gods and goddesses of the time!
· They SAW God’s miraculous POWER – and yet…
o Out in the wilderness – (AFTER – I DON’T KNOW – the red sea miracle) - Thirst came…hunger came…
o And they didn’t BELIEVE that God would PROVIDE for them!!
o They didn’t TRUST God!
o INSTEAD – they cried to GO BACK into bondage!
· They were REJECTING God – at every turn
· “I can’t TRUST You!”
· I can’t TRUST You!
· I’m too HUNGRY
· I’m too THIRSTY!
· There was this CONTINUAL rejection of God playing out for the Israelites…
· AND WE – TODAY – have to be on guard
· SEE back in the time of the Wilderness – there was a clear path to know if you were FOLLOWING God…
o God turned water into blood
o Flooded the land with frogs, locusts, gnats..
o God parted the red sea…
o God showed Himself as a pillar of cloud at day…
o And a pillar of fire at night…
o It was pretty clear if you were FOLLOWING God…OR
o If you REJECTED Him..
· Back then you had – God LITERALLY on display…(pillar of cloud) – and their ACTIONS
· TODAY – we have God’s WORD – and our ACTIONS…
The Israelites wanted a NEW KING!
- And in doing so – they REJECTED God…
- Where have I done the same?
· We’ve seen that in Israel’s REQUEST for a KING – they REJECTED God…
What we see as a warning for us is this: REJECTING God always leads to something….
· And it’s this…
SLIDE: Israel Asks for a King: Leads to Misplaced Worship
Israel Asks for a King
Israel Asks for a King
Back to our text
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.
· We can see here that the FORSAKING of God – lead to the SERVING (Worship) of OTHER gods…
· Now put THIS truth into the CONTEXT of their OWN history…
· The Israelites were in BONDAGE – in Egypt…for 400 years
o And God DECIDES to MOVE…
o To FREE them – but not just FREE them…
o God PROVES and REVEALS the Egyptian gods and goddesses to BE what they TRULY are – FAKE – PHONY – FALSE GODS
· And yet – Here in our text today – we have Israel CHOOSING to worship FALSE gods…
· Their hearts were FAR from God…
· And yet – that’s what the REJECTION of God will do!
· It will ALWAYS lead to – MISPLACED Worship!
Each and every ONE of us has experienced WORSHIPING at the altar of:
· Money
· Sex
· Lust
· Control
· Anxiety
· Comfort
And it’s WHEN WE DO – that we display a MISPLACED Worship!!
· And the Bible uses STRONG language to describe this misplaced worship!
11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
· We see this same language again:
· God says – These people FORSOOK ME…Rejected Me…
· AND – they hewed out cisterns for themselves…that can hold NO WATER…
God is the FOUNTAIN of LIVING WATER…
· Israel rejected God and sought OTHER things…
· As John Piper says - They had LOST THEIR taste for God...
· And HOW does this verse DESCRIBE this act....?
My people committed 2 EVILS!!
AND it tells us the reality that these OTHER things.....are nothing more than broken cisterns...
We try to satisfy ourselves with ANYTHING but God, and yet these other things can HOLD NO WATER....
· They WON'T satisfy! (**HUNGER)
- And so for us – today – we ask…
SLIDE:
What broken cisterns do I hold today?
- What temporary pleasure am I holding onto today…
*I think we ALL can admit that there are areas of our lives that we have REJECTED God in…and we try to KEEP Him at a distance in those areas…
· Finances – how I spend my money
· The language I use – how I speak to others
· Forms of entertainment
· Books I read or the Movies I watch
· Are there areas of my life where I have – ASKED for ANOTHER king…
Important questions for us…
· And so as we focus in on this timeframe in the Old Testament story…
· We come to 1 and 2 Kings…
…which contain nearly 400 years of Israelite history.
400 years of GOD handing over to the Israelites what THEY WANTED…a new king
• Chronologically we're still moving forward (as we read thru 1 and 2 Kings).
SOLOMON
• Now 1st Kings begins with the death of King David...around 970 B.C.
• Who takes over?
• David's son Solomon...who was conceived in David's sinful affair with Bathsheba.
• He ruled Israel during its Golden Age...and so Solomon was blessed by God.
23 Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.
• This wisdom brought Solomon an expanded kingdom and popularity...
• What was the result of that?
• Let's just say he was popular with the ladies...
• 700 foreign wives, and 300 concubines.
• Can you say - Reality TV show?
• If he went on a date, every night, with 1 of the women in his life...
• ...it would take him 2 years, 9 months, and 27 days before he would see the first wife again. (lot of birthdays to remember)
• So Solomon's rule started out well,
• In his 4th year as king he began building the Temple...
• BUT...
• In his old age his many wives ended up turning his heart away for the Lord to other gods.
6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done.
• And so we see that even the wisest of men, are still.....men.
• He turns from the Lord...
• ...and this sets Israel on a trajectory of idolatry, a breaking of the Covenant, and God's judgment.
11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
• And so in the people's rebellion, they began to set up other temples to worship other gods...
And this goes back to what we JUST walked through!!
· The REJECTION of God – Will always lead to – MISPLACED WORSHIP!
· And the RESULT of this is something that can IMPACT us TODAY…
SLIDE: The Rejection of God: Misplaced Worship and a Loss of God’s Favor
The Rejection of God
The Rejection of God
• This HAD a tremendous impact on Israel and can obviously have the same ON US…TODAY
Regarding us today - the Bible is filled with instances of God “GIVING people OVER to their sin”… REMOVING His favor!
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Men abandon God - so God abandons men… DIRECTLY and INDIRECTLY...
DIRECTLY...
God “gives men over” by bringing a DIRECT judgment on man...
The flood of Noah’s day...
Sodom and Gomorrah were DIRECT judgments...
God displaying His wrath directly!
INDIRECTLY...
God “gives men over to their sin” by simply REMOVING His restraining - protective hand...
Allowing sin to take its INEVITABLE course...
Sin degrades man, debases the image of God in which he is made,
and strips him of dignity, peace of mind, and a clear conscience.
Sin destroys personal relationships, marriages, families, cities, and nations
It also destroys churches.
So INDIRECTLY - God will remove His hand - and let SIN - DO ITS THING
This is exactly what happened to ISRAEL...
GOD Removed His favor....He removed His protective hand...
• Regarding ISRAEL - The kingdom broke in half...
SLIDE:
The Northern Kingdom: 10 Tribes (Israel)
The Southern Kingdom: 2 Tribes (Judah)
• with 10 tribes forming the Northern Kingdom...collectively called Israel
• ...and 2 tribes (Benjamin and Judah), forming the Southern Kingdom, collectively called - Judah.
• For the first time since Jacob gave the blessing to his 12 sons...
• ...the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel were no longer one people.
• And the deterioration of Israel that we saw in Judges, is heightened now as we make our way thru 1 and 2 Kings.
• God's chosen people had rejected God.
· NOW – before we close out today – let’s look at some background on each of these Kingdoms…
· REMEMBER – the people of God ASKED for this…
…Starting with the Northern Kingdom
NORTHERN KINGDOM
• The first King of the Northern Kingdom was a guy named Jeroboam.
• Now, to give you can idea of who this guy was...
• ...he had become troubled that the worship of the Lord was centered in the Temple located in Jerusalem, which was in the South...
• So what does he do??
• To keep his people from travelling there and developing sympathy for the South, he set up 2 golden calves for the people to worship in the North.
• This is the first King in a long line of kings in the North...
• And in case you think it gets better...
• There were 19 kings in the Northern Kingdom...
• ...how many of them do you think followed the Lord??
• '0' - none.
• It was not said that 1 king followed the Lord.
• And as a result of this, we're going to see prophets rise up and speak for God...
• ...at a time when everything and everyone is going against God.
• Kind of - gives you more perspective to what Isaiah was really doing right?
• King after King, in the North, followed the example of the first King Jeroboam and left in their wake...
• ...violence
• ...idolatry
• ...and deceitfulness
• And it lead their nation to ruin.
• In 722 B.C., the Northern Kingdom collapsed, when Assyria defeated it and took its people into exile.
• As a little sidebar, listen to this:
24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.
• What is this about?
• The Assyrians began to populate Israel with people from the other nations that Assyria had conquered.
• And so the descendants of that new "mixed" group of people would later be called....Samaritans.
• So - RECAP - who defeated the Northern kingdom? -- Assyria - - - When? 722 B.C.
• NOW - Should the people of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had been surprised by this?
• No...
• Why?
13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
• So we see the mercy of God here being extended to these people, yet again, and yet what?
14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.
16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.
• These people can't help but destroy themselves right?
• The problem for us is -
• We're NO DIFFERENT!
• These people can't help but destroy themselves.
• Even in the darkness they can't see their need for the Light.
They hold BROKEN CISTERNS and they don’t even CARE!
Listen to Spurgeon here:
"It is an awful thought, that the trail of the serpent is on the whole earth; that the poison is in the fountain of every heart, that the stream of blood in all our veins is corrupt; that we are all condemned. But careless sinner, learn that thy salvation now hangs in God's hands. You have sinned against Him, and if He wills to damn you, damned you are. You cannot resist His will or thwart His purpose. You deserve His wrath, and if He chooses to pour the full shower of that wrath on your head, you can do nothing to avert it. If on the other hand, He chooses to save you, He is able to save you to the uttermost."
• These Israelites would have done well to heed this last phrase of Spurgeon:
"Does it not make you tremble to think that your eternal destiny now hangs upon the will of Him whom you have angered and incensed?"
• This was Israel, the Northern Kingdom, fallen to Assyria in 722 B.C. - - and taken into exile.
NOW - -
SOUTHERN KINGDOM
• The Southern Kingdom...Different story, same ending.
• The Southern Kings were a mix of faithful and unfaithful.
• 19 Kings and 1 Queen ruled over a span of approximately 350 years.
• Of these 20 Kings, 8 followed the Lord.
• Here's a list of the names of those who followed the Lord:
SLIDE:
• Asa
• Jehosophat
• Joash
• Amaziah
• Uzziah
• Jotham
• Hekekiah
• Josiah
• I show this for no other reason than to show you...real people, who really lived in a time when things were really bad.
• They followed the Lord.
• And we begin to see that - Covenant loyalty is the measure of success or downfall for a king.
• These 8 followed the Lord.
• But even so, the sins of the people were prevalent, and 2nd Kings ends with the Fall and Captivity of Judah (Southern Kingdom) in 586 B.C.
• And so if we step back for a minute, and look big picture:
• we see God Himself, in the Exodus, remove His people from the bondage of the Egyptians...
• ...leading them to the promised land.
• And from that time up until this point, we see those same people...
• doing everything they can to forsake that land, walk away from their Savior, and back [into] bondage.
• Well, God says - ok, out of the land you go.
• And so while the Kings of Judah had their high points, they all ultimately prompted a longing for the "perfect" Davidic King who was yet to come.
This KINGSHIP experiment by the people would have gotten a final grade of - F
The people of God - The DISTINCT people of God - LOOKED out at the other nations...
They saw that the other nations worshipped FALSE GODS…and God’s people - the Israelites...
DESIRED - what THEY HAD!!
Mankind is so blinded to what TRULY lies ahead beyond the grave..
That we can completely miss the fact that we CLING to - Broken Cisterns that can hold NO WATER...
SUMMARY:
We’ve SEEN a SHATTERED Kingdom… and how did it get to be so?
Israel Asked For A New King
Misplaced Worship
A Loss of God’s Favor
LORD’S TABLE
This brings us to the Lord’s Table…a time for each of us to reflect on our lives, to examine ourselves spiritually, and to remember the cost of our faith. We were bought with a price, and these elements remind us of this.
For those of you who are followers of Jesus - the question we asked today was:
What broken cisterns do I hold onto today?
Examine yourselves...
Shine the light of Christ on all the broken cisterns you cling to… (love of money, lust, anger, anxiety)
For the rest who haven’t bowed the knee to Jesus...
The Good news of Jesus is that He provides ALL that is required to spend eternity with Him...
It’s HIS righteousness that we need
It’s HIS forgiveness that we need
It takes us - dying to ourselves and trusting in Jesus ALONE for our salvation!
Cry out to Him in faith - and receive the gift of eternal life...
BUT- IF you haven’t done that and WON’T do that - ...you should not partake in this...
The Bible says to not take this lightly. Scripture says – “ whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
Take time now and examine yourself before the Lord.
22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
“do this…in remembrance of me.”
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Amen