GALATIANS # 8
HISTORY
An overview (7)
7/26/10

As recorded throughout the Old Testament, God continued to guide and counsel His chosen people, revealing more and more information about Himself and the coming Messiah. The events that were unfolding were showing more and more clearly the inevitable destruction, the hopeless condition we humans are in if left to our own devices.

In the New Testament book of Hebrews the writer says (Hebrews 1:1 ( KJV )) God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, …line upon line , precept upon precept…

After settling in the Promised Land, they continued in their ways, repeatedly turning away from God, bringing disastrous consequences upon themselves. Through it all God’s patience never failed, He never wavered…He never broke His covenants, in spite of the repeated failures of His chosen people.

As things went along, and the people would begin to fall away, God raised up Prophets who gave very specific instruction and warnings to the people and the leaders - they often ignored, resented, or rebelled against these messengers and they suffered accordingly. Much of this was recorded in writing for our use as well. God also inspired men to write Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, songs of praise and wise advice, all of which document and reveal more and more of Himself and His plan of salvation for us.(2Tim 3: 16; John 5: 31 – 39) It was a rocky relationship between men and God – God was faithful but man frequently “wavers”, disobedient and rebellious, always with disastrous results. However, there was always a “remnant” who remained faithful.

God brought the Israelites out of Egypt in 1275 B.C., The Israelites entered the Promised Land in the year 1234 B.C. under God’s guidance the kingdom grew, but due to their disobedience the kingdom never fully encompassed the land promised by God. Israel reached its peak during the reign of Solomon (965 – 926 B.C.). during his reign, to complete his grandiose construction program, Solomon had implemented forced labor – almost slavery. Qne of his key men (Jeroboam) rebelled against this and fled to Egypt.

After Solomon’s death, things rapidly fell apart. His son, Rehoboam, was appointed king - he was a completely incompetent leader; cruel, selfish, vain, arrogant….
1 Kings 12
And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;)
That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,
Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.
And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed.
And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?
And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.
But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:
And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter?
And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day.
And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him;
And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.
But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.
So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.
And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying,
Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel.
And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

As we see here, the mocking of God’s teaching (last week Isaiah 28) was only one of a long series of astonishingly rebellious activities that had begun with the death of Solomon. Upon Solomon’s death, the ensuing power struggle led to the splitting of the country: Judea in the south and Israel in the north. the king of the newly formed Israel, for political power purposes, immediately set up gold calves to worship – both countries went downhill from there!
The nation was divided in 926 BC: the drunken confrontation we looked at last week took place , about 200 years later, shortly before the complete destruction of Israel.

By 700 BC the nation of Israel no longer existed:

2 Kings 17: 1 – 24 1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. 2And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. 3Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. 4And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. 5Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. 13Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 14Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. 19Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 21For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. 22For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day

God is very patient but also is completely just, these people had two hundred years of men of God warning them, advising them begging them, to obey God – they mocked Him – the punishment was completely just…As we read in Numbers 15: 22 – 31, with the coming of the law, if you knowingly disobey, judgment and punishment is inevitable – if not done “presumptuously” sacrifices will atone for the sins.

As God reveals more and more of Himself the consequences increase: Luke 12:47-48 ( KJV )
And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

The nation of Judah continued it’s spiral downward, it’s leaders disregarding and resisting God’s guidance, finally, in 585 B. C., Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, burned the temple: Judah ceased to exist, it became a province of the Babylonian empire.

In 539 B. C. the Persians conquer the Babylonians and Cyrus fulfills the prophecy given in 545 – 538 B.C.(Isaiah 40: 1 – 5; 44: 28; 45: 6), in 444 B. C., he allows the Israelites in Babylon to return and rebuild Jerusalem some, but only a small number do and the nation of Judah begins re-emerging. They are not allowed to re-establish the monarchy; it becomes a theocracy led by the high priest, still a subject state of the Persians.

The book considered by most scholars to be the last of the Old Testament, Malachi, is written about this time. This book ends with a promise of the coming of “Elijah”…John the Baptist (Matt. 3: 3; John 1: 23; etc) the forerunner of the Messiah…

The Old Testament begins with the promise of a Messiah (Gn. 3: 16) and ends declaring and anticipating the coming of Emmanuel (Malachi 3). A little later Jesus said:

Title : The Holy Bible, King James Version
Edition : Third
Copyright : Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1998, Parsons Technology, Inc.

John 5:31-47 ( KJV )
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

425 B.C., Judah enters an obscure period: the 400 year “silent” period between the Old and New Testament.




DISCUSSION
1. Where is the first reference to Christ?
2. Where, in the O. T., is the last reference to Christ?
3. What is the purpose of the Old Testament?
4. How is this accomplished?
5. What happened after Solomon died?
6. Who was Cyrus?
7. Why was he significant?
8. What became of the Israelites who didn’t return to Jerusalem?