|
A Walk
Through the Bible |
Last week we began a journey through the books of the Bible. We saw the creation of the world, the fall of man, and the beginning of God's plan of redemption. We saw God call Abraham to be the father of a chosen people, promising him that through one of his descendants the world would be redeemed. We saw that one family prosper despite hardships to become a vast multitude in Egypt. In His time, God delivered that multitude from slavery to Egypt by awesome mighty miracles by His hand, and through the faithful leadership of Moses. We saw God Himself going before the people as they marched through the desert to His promised land, a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night. We saw God's enduring love and faithfulness as He carried His people through the wilderness. Today we're going to pick up the story of the tribes of Israel, from just before they cross the Jordan River and enter Canaan, the Promised Land, and we'll see them take the land, and rise to become a mighty kingdom. Today we continue: |
|
A
Walk Through the Bible |
|
Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and for your word. Thank you for the awesome lessons from history that you have preserved for so long, so you can teach us today. Lord help us to receive the message you have for us today, help us to marvel at your mighty power, and help us to learn from the mistakes of the people of Israel, so that we would not fall into sin and unbelief. Open our hearts to believe. In Jesus' name, for Your honor and glory. Amen.
I Just Want
To Praise You
I just want to praise
you
You Have Been
So Good to Me
When I Run To You
I'm beginning to
see Your love for Me, my Jesus |
|
Last week we saw the frailty and unbelief common to all men. |
|
When the people of Israel reached the Promised Land, they saw that they faced an enemy bigger than they were, and they forgot all that God had done for them. After all the signs, all the wonders, all of the outstanding miracles, all of the visible powerful evidence that almighty God was going before them into the new land, the people were terrified, and they rebelled against God and Moses. After all the proof that God was before them and would protect them, they lost all hope and cried and wailed and tore their clothing and were sure that God led them from Egypt just so that the giants could kill them. It amazes me that they would react that way, but don't we all do that? Even though God has a perfect track record in getting us out of trouble, we still feel hopeless when a new problem suddenly arises. We need to trust God. He is faithful, and can not let us down, because He loves us. |
|
Because of their unbelief, God caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. |
|
He needed to teach the people to trust Him, one day at a time. The whole generation that rebelled died in the wilderness of unbelief and mistrust of the God that saved them, and their children, who saw God's faithfulness in feeding them and protecting them for forty years, went into the Promised Land, subdued it, received their inheritance, and grew to be a mighty nation. We pick up the history of Israel today, just before they cross the Jordan River and Enter Canaan, the Promised Land. |
|
The sixth book of the Bible is Joshua. |
|
Joshua documents the crossing of the Jordan river and the capture of the land by the Israelites. Just before Moses died at the end of Deuteronomy, God appointed Moses' right-hand man Joshua leader of the Israelite people, and commanded him to lead them across the Jordan and into the promised land. His mission was to destroy the immoral, pagan nations that were living there in Canaan, take over the land, and partition it out to each of the tribes of Israel as their inheritance. God wanted to destroy the immoral nations in Canaan because of their sin, and so they would not tempt the Israelites to join them in their immorality and idolatry. The book of Joshua covers about 25 years of Israel's history, from approximately 1400-1375 BC, and is divided in three parts: the conquest of the land, the division of the land among the tribes of Israel and Joshua's Farewell message to the people and his death. Jewish tradition attributes Joshua as the author of the book, with the exception of the last chapter which describes Joshua's death and burial. The best scholarship dates the book sometime around 1375BC, shortly after Joshua's death. Joshua is an exciting book, demonstrating the power and faithfulness of God to fulfill His promises. It also demonstrates His sovereignty over man and the world. |
|
There are three great miracles recorded in Joshua. |
|
And these miracles made the nations tremble before God and His chosen people. The first of these is the parting of the Jordan River so that the Israelites can cross over into the Promised Land. To exalt Joshua before the people and to let them know that God was with Joshua as He led them, God caused the Jordan river to stop flowing as the Ark of the Covenant reached the river. The water piled up in a great heap on one side and the people crossed the river on dry ground. In Joshua 5:1 it says that the hearts of the Amorite kings "melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites." The second great miracle was the destruction of Jericho. God commanded Joshua to have the people walk around the city once per day for six days, then walk around it seven times on the seventh day. Then the priests were to blow their trumpets and the people were to shout and God would knock the walls down. They did so and the walls came down. Can you imagine the sound of 600,000 people shouting at once? The third great miracle is in my opinion the greatest one in the Bible. It's in Joshua 10, and it's a two-part miracle. As Joshua and the Israelites were fighting the Five Kings of the Amorites, God stoned the fleeing armies to death with hailstones. What an amazing thing to see - huge hailstones raining down and hitting ONLY the enemies of Israel. More people die from the hail than by the sword! That was part 1. Part 2 is even more amazing:
|
|
Joshua's strategy was to divide and conquer. |
|
First, he attacked the center of the land, Jericho and the surrounding area, and then launched rapid attacks into the North and South to gain a foothold in the land and weaken the enemy's position, setting them up for numerous attacks over the next six years. Within 7 years most of the land was subdued, with only a few pockets of Canaanites left, and many of those pockets were subject to whatever tribe controlled that area of the land. When most of the land was conquered, it was divided among the tribes, with each tribe charged with finishing the conquest of their territory. Not all of the pagan nations were defeated in Joshua's lifetime, and these people would become a lasting temptation for the Israelites to fall into idolatry and false religions. This fall into idolatry is a theme we'll see played out again and again throughout the Old Testament. Near the end of his life, Joshua exhorts the people to continue serving the Lord, who brought them in the land. In 24:15 he affirms his position:
|
|
The seventh book of the Bible is called Judges. |
|
Judges covers about 300 years of Israel's history following the death of Joshua. During this period of time Israel was governed by Judges, various men who rose up to save Israel in each generation from the oppression of their many enemies - the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Ammonites, Amelekites, Philistines, and Canaanites - the same peoples that God commanded Israel to destroy earlier. After each oppression was ended, the judge was Israel's leader and settled disputes until his or her death. God was their king, and He appointed judges to settle disputes and lead the armies into battle. The author of Judges is unknown, although Jewish tradition indicates the Prophet Samuel or one of his contemporaries as the most probable author. Judges is the story of six major oppressions against the Israelites, and fourteen men and women of God who came to the rescue and preserved the nation. It's an honest account that pulls no punches. Judges shows the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of people involved, their pride, arrogance, ignorance, insecurity, and cruelty, along with their kindness, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It's another exciting book. |
|
Two themes appear over and over in Judges. |
|
The first is stated in 2:18-19
The second theme that weaves through the book is stated in the words "In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit." (Judges 17:6) This phrase appears four times in Judges, and usually just before an account of a horrible atrocity or a description of practices that are a weird mixture of paganism and worship of the Lord. In Chapter 19 a man gives his concubine to a mob that gang rapes her and she dies. After the assault, he cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends them to the 12 tribes to make a statement calling for action against the immorality of one city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, and that tribe is nearly wiped out completely because of the crime. Nowhere are the man's actions questioned, even though what he did was also pretty horrible. |
|
Judges contains some of the most gory accounts in the scriptures. |
|
A woman drops a millstone on Abimilech's head, crushing it. A woman named Jael drives a tent stake through Sisera's temple, nailing his head into the ground. Ehud stabs a fat king in the belly with a 1 1/2-foot long sword so that the fat closed over the handle, leaving him dead in the bathroom. Sampson has his eyes gouged out and is made fun of before thousands of jeering spectators before he commits suicide with the Lord's help pulling down the whole stadium on his head, taking the crowd with him. |
|
History isn't pretty sometimes. But God is faithful. |
|
With the Lord's help, the few accomplish the impossible. Shamar kills 600 men with an oxgoad. Sampson kills 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. Gideon, with an army of 300 men hand picked by God, some water jugs, trumpets, and torches, wipes out the entire Midianite army - more men than could be counted. Another testimony of God's faithfulness is in the remnant of the tribe of Benjamin that remained after the other tribes almost destroyed it completely. They preserve a small portion of the men, and find wives for them by arranging for them to kidnap virgins from another tribe, and so all 12 tribes remain more or less intact. From the tribe of Benjamin would later come the first king of Israel, Saul, and later still the author of half the New Testament, the Apostle Paul. |
|
After Judges comes the Book of Ruth. |
|
Ruth is a short 4-chapter story that has been called the "Romance of Redemption." The central theme of the book is the concept of the "Kinsman Redeemer," a statute of the Law of God that allows for a close family member to recover a piece of property that was sold to pay a debt, or was otherwise lost, in order to keep the inhertiance of the tribes of Israel intact. At the heart of the matter was preserving the family line of a deceased family member who had left a wife but no children to inherit the land and possessions of the father. To qualify as a Kinsman Redeemer, the person must be a near relative, he must be able to redeem it - buy it back or whatever, and he must be willing to do so. In the act of redemption, the property of the dead goes to the redeemer, along with the dead man's wife, if he has one. |
|
In the book of Revelation, Jesus is portrayed as our Kinsman Redeemer. |
|
He redeems this world that we have lost through Adam's sin to the devil. He is a close relative being Man. He is able to redeem it, because He is without sin and could pay the price for all of us. As He is also God, has all power and authority. He is willing to redeem it, demonstrating it by the cross. The world is His inheritance, and we are His bride. |
|
The book of Ruth takes place during the time of the Judges, and concerns King David's Great Grandmother. |
|
Hence the book's placement between Judges and 1 Samuel, which centers around David's life before becoming King. Starting with the Book of Ruth, the rest of the Old Testament centers around the family line of David, through which God's promised redeemer of mankind, Jesus, would be born. The author of Ruth is unknown, although tradition credits Samuel as the author. Since the book mentions King David, it must have been completed sometime after Samuel anointed David as king, around 990BC. During the time of the Judges, a great famine struck Israel, so a woman named Naomi and her husband and two sons left Israel and went to Moab to live. Naomi's son's took Moabite wives, one of which is Ruth. Later Naomi's husband and both sons die, leaving her in dire straits financially. She decides to let her daughters in-law go back to their respective families, since they had no children to carry on the family name, and she would go back to her homeland in Israel. |
|
The name "Ruth" means "friendship." |
|
This word exemplifies Ruth's life. When Naomi decides to go back to Israel, Ruth pledges her life to stay with Naomi and to take care of her:
So they went back to Israel. Ruth took care of Naomi, gleaning grain in a field behind the harvesters, as was provided in the Law of Moses to take care of the poor. By divine direction, the field she chose belonged to Boaz, who just happened to be a near kinsman to Naomi, who was wealthy, and could be her Kinsman Redeemer and could restore her place, assuming he would also take Ruth as his wife. When Naomi realizes this she instructs Ruth to ask Boaz to redeem her. She does so by uncovering his feet as he lay sleeping at the threshing floor after a night of winnowing barley, and laying at his feet. When he awoke during the night and found her at his feet, she asked him to "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer." (Ruth 3:9) Boaz is deeply flattered and wants to do it, but there was another Kinsman Redeemer closer to Naomi who could do it, and therefore had precedence ahead of him. Boaz went to the other kinsman, and asked him if he would redeem the land of Naomi's family. When Boaz told him that Ruth came with the package, he declined so not to endanger his personal estate. So Boaz married Ruth, Naomi was restored to financial security, and everybody lived happily ever after. |
|
After Ruth comes 1 Samuel. |
|
The Book of 1 Samuel covers the end of the period of the Judges, the beginning of the Kingdom of Israel, and the life and trials of David before taking the throne as King. Samuel was the last Judge of Israel, and one of the first Prophets mentioned in the Bible. His role of Prophet is key in the book, and Samuel is held in higher honor even Saul, the first king of Israel. The book of 1Samuel has three main themes. The first is the end of the Period of the Judges and the birth and importance of Samuel. The second is the anointing and early reign of King Saul, until he disobeys God, which leads to the third theme, the life and exploits of David. The Author(s) of 1 Samuel are unknown, although tradition attributes the early parts of the book, until his death, to the prophet Samuel. The rest of 1 Samuel is thought to have been written by Abiathar the Priest, Nathan the Prophet, and Gad the Seer sometime during David's reign. |
|
By the end of the period of the Judges, Israel's moral and religious state had degenerated greatly. |
|
Some of the priests were, "wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord. (1 Samuel 1:12) They took advantage of their office, taking the best part of the sarcifices for their food, desecrating them, and "they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting." (1 Samuel 1:22) Their appointed service was just a job to them. God gave the people a wake-up by means of the Philistines. They attacked Israel, killed the wicked priests and captured the Ark of the Covenant. After a plague of hemorrhoids, the Philistines decided to give it back to Israel. Then God called Samuel and raised him up as a prophet before Israel. He led the people to get rid of their idols and return to God. He led the armies of Israel against the Philistines and subdued them. The Philistines did not invade Israel again as long as Samuel lived. When Samuel was old, the people asked him to anoint a king to rule over them, as his sons did not follow the Lord and Israel wanted to be like the other nations. God told Samuel to anoint Saul of Benjamin as King, and Saul began his reign. At first Saul followed the Lord and was successful, but eventually his pride got in the way and he disobeyed God's commandment to completely destroy the Amalekites, and God rejected him as king. God sent Samuel to anoint David, that he would be the next king of Israel, after Saul died. |
|
David loved God, and God lifted David up. |
|
When the Philistines attacked Israel again, Israel went to meet them. The Philistines' champion Goliath went out every day to taunt them, offering to go one on one with Israel's champion - whoever won would win the war. Saul and the rest of the Army were terrified of Goliath so they didn't go out to fight him. When young David saw the Philistine taunting the army and defying his God he convinced the king to let him go out to fight the Philistine. Armed only with a sling, five rocks, (Goliath had four brothers) and the Lord, he sunk a rock deep in Goliath's forehead and the giant fell flat on his face, dead. David grabbed Goliath's sword and cut off his head and presented it to the king. Then the Israelite army attacked the fleeing Philistines and won the battle. While the king was happy that Israel won the battle, he was miffed when the women started singing David's praises above his own, and his jealousy caused him to try to kill David over and over. Sometimes, when the spirit hit him, he threw spears at David while he played the harp for him, but David ducked them. Saul put David at the head of an army so he'd get killed, but the Lord was with him and he kept winning the battles. Saul told David that he could marry his daughter Michal if he would give him 100 Philistine foreskins, figuring that in that pursuit the Philistines would kill him. David brought back 200 and became his son-in-law. When Saul started pursuing David himself, David fled to the desert, eventually gathering an army of 600 men who went with him. |
|
Over and over, Saul's army pursued David. |
|
And over and over God delivered Saul into David's hands. David respected the King, as God's anointed, and would not do him any harm. Whenever David made it clear to Saul that he spared his life, Saul repented of his sin and departed. But soon after he would chase him again. Weary of being chased, David and his army went and lived with the Philistines in Ziklag. David made friends with Achish, the king of Gath, one of the Philistine capitals and Achish is happy to have David with the Philistines. While pretending to be Achish's servant, David secretly raided and destroyed several Philistine cities without anyone noticing. Eventually Achish asked David and his men to join the Philistines to attack Saul's army, but other Philistine kings reject David, figuring he'd change sides during the battle. David left the Philistines and found his town Ziklag burned and his wives kidnapped. His army pursues the Amalekites who destroyed his town and his army defeats them. Meanwhile, the Philistines routed King Saul's army, and as they came closer and closer, surrounding him, He fell on his sword to kill himself. When the Philistines found Saul's body, they cut off his head and hung it in their temple, and nailed his body to the wall of Beth Shan. The people of Jabesh Gilead sneaked in and removed the bodies of Saul and his sons, burned them and buried the bones. |
|
2 Samuel chronicles the period of David's reign. |
|
Originally, 1 &2 Samuel were one longer book. They were split into two in the second century BC when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into the Greek language. This Greek Old Testament is called the Septuagint, referring to the 70 Rabbis who translated the scriptures. 2 Samuel was completed sometime during the latter part of David's reign. The author, as mentioned before, is unknown, but the traditional view is that parts were written by Abiather the Priest, Nathan the Prophet, and Gad the seer, all of whom were in David's court. 2 Samuel continues the story immediately after Saul's death. An Amalekite came to David from Saul's camp and notified him of Saul's death. He told David that he found Saul after he fell on his sword but he wasn't dead yet. Saul begged the man to kill him before the Philistines came, so he did, and brought David Saul's crown and arm band. David was enraged because the Amalekite had killed God's anointed King of Israel, so he had the man killed on the spot. It's ironic justice that God used a passing Amalekite to kill Saul, since it was Saul's reluctance to destroy the Amalekites that caused God to reject him as king. Immediately, David took up a lament for Saul and his son Johnathan, David's best friend. After a while, he inquired of the Lord and the Lord said go to Hebron there he was anointed King over Judah. Saul's son Ish-Bosheth was anointed king over the rest of the tribes of Israel and war broke out between Israel and Judah for seven years. Eventually, David prevailed, and all Israel was united under King David and Jerusalem became the capital city. |
|
In chapter 7, God promised David that his family would reign forever over God's people. |
|
His line would rule indefinitely, and specifically, one great king would be born to his family who would personally live forever and establish a kingdom of endless duration. We know that King as Jesus, who is coming again soon to fulfill these promises. The temporal line of succession of David's family was contingent on them keeping the ways of the Lord, as David did. The Eternal Kingdom to come was unconditional, it would come, because God is faithful. In 2 Samuel 7:16 God promised David (through the prophet Nathan):
David won great victories against the Philistines, Moabites, Amonites, Aramians, Zobahites, Edomites, and the Amalekites, increasing Israel's territory greatly. Practically overnight, Israel became the most powerful single kingdom on earth at that time. |
|
One great and amazing thing about the Bible is that it is honest in it's portrayal of the hearts of the people involved. |
|
David was a great king, "a man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:16), but he was human too, and he stumbled sometimes. In chapter 11, David stumbles, then trips up, then falls, and his fall caused serious damage to his family and his kingdom. David committed adultery with Bathsheba while her husband was fighting in David's army. When he discovered she was pregnant because of the adultery, he arranged to have her husband come home for the weekend, hoping he would sleep with her so that he would think the child was his. Her husband, Uriah the Hittite, was a loyal soldier. He refused to go home and lie with his wife when his buddies had to sleep in the open fields at war. So David got him drunk to loosen his scuples, but it didn't work either. Finally, David sent Uriah back to the war with a letter to his commanding officer ordering him to put Uriah in the front of the battle and have his men retreat from him so the enemy will kill him. So Uriah died, and David was accountable for his blood. After a period of mourning, Bathsheeba became David's wife. Because of his sin with Bathsheba, In 12:10-12, God decreed through Nathan the Prophet:
|
|
The road for David got very rocky from there. |
|
His family tore it self apart. The son Bathsheba bore to David died. His son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar, Tamar's brother, Absalom, kills Amnon and flees Judah. Eventually Absalom returns and conspires to usurp the throne from David. In Hebron he anoints himself king and David flees Jeruselem in fear of Civil War. Absalom returned and in 16:22 fulfilled Nathan's prophecy:
Eventually David's forces routed Absalom's army, and as Absalom fled through the woods on his horse, he somehow got his head stuck in a tree, and while he was dangling, Joab, the commander of David's army plunged three javelins through Absolam's heart. After more fighting, more rebellion, and more hard-fought victories, the book ends with a song of praise to God, a psalm of prophecy, a short narrative of the exploits of David's Mighty Men, and a plague by God against Israel. God ended the plague when David bought the threshing floor of Araunah as a place to offer sacrifices to God. This threshing floor is now called the Temple Mount, and would be the site where David's son, King Solomon would build the Temple of the Lord. |
|
Next week we'll find out what happened after David. |
|
We'll see Israel enter a "Golden Age" and then fracture into civil war, be divided into two kingdoms, fall into idolatry, and be taken into captivity by the Assyrians and Babylonians. After 70 years of captivity the people of Judah return and rebuild Jeruselem and the temple and the nation is reborn.
Let's pray: |
| Rev.Michael Packard Copyright 1999 Practically Righteous Ministries - All Rights Reserved |