Old Testament – Page 3 – Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 34 ~ Aug. 17-23
Jeremiah 35-50, Psalm 74, 79, 2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chronicles 36, Habakkuk
Idolatry: No Turning Back

Background:
Israel is gone, carried off into captivity by Assyria. Judah has managed to hang on a little longer, due in part to Hezekiah’s and Josiah’s godliness, but, now, Nebuchadnezzar has beseiged and overthrown the last of Judah’s fortified cities, slaughtered the king and the nobles, and carried nearly all the citizens off to a 70 year exile in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar left a small remnant of the poorest of the poor to continue living in Judah to work the land, and set up Gedaliah as governor over them. Gedaliah was subsequently assasinated by the Ammonites, and the remnant decided -against God’s clear instruction through Jeremiah- to go to Egypt, and to force Jeremiah to go with them. This is where we now find them in chapter 44.

Jeremiah 44

God takes sin seriously.
As usual, Israel’s (here, Judah’s) main sin was idolatry, a clear violation of the first and second Commandments. That’s not something God just sweeps under the rug as an “oopsie”. In verse 3, He calls it evil. Verse 4, “this abomination that I hate.” In verse 6, God reminds them of His wrath and anger poured out becaue of idolatry. And think back over the scope of Israel’s history: the plagues, the pestilence, the snakes, the natural disasters, being conquered by enemies, and so on.

The vehemence with which God responds to idolatry shows us that He doesn’t take it, or any other sin, lightly. If there’s one major takeaway from the Old Testament, it’s that sin has a price tag, and somebody’s got to pay it.

Why does God respond so harshly to sin? (1 John 4:8)
1. Because God is love (1 John). When we read that the penalty for sin is an eternity in Hell, we really have no idea what we’re talking about. We know Hell is bad, but that’s about the extent of it. God can see Hell. He knows precisely what it’s like, and He loves us so much that He doesn’t want a single person to go there. So much, in fact, that He was willing to go to the farthest extreme of sending His Son to provide us the way out of Hell and into Heaven.

2. Believers are God’s walking billboard to the world. When we share the gospel and walk in godliness, we can attract people to a saving relationship with Christ. But when we sin unrepentantly, and/or in what the world would consider to be a “big” way (adultery, embezzlement, drunkenness, etc.) we can turn people off to God. God wants to prevent us from doing that because He loves and wants to save those people just as much as he loves and wanted to save us.

3. Sin hurts people in the here and now. God doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want us to be victimized by other people’s sin and He doesn’t want us to hurt other people.

God pursues His people relentlessly, but not endlessly. (Romans 1:18-32, 2 Corinthians 6:2)
Take a look at verses 4-5:

“Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.”

Again, think back over all the ways and times God has tried to bring His people back to Himself. Hundreds of years, dozens of prophets, painful circumstances. Time after time as Israel rebelled against Him, God mercifully and patiently offered them opportunities to turn back to Him. He didn’t throw them away or give up on them. And here, even though He is about to destroy this remnant, it is not God who has thrown in the towel. It is the people who have relentlessly demanded His wrath. God could not have been more clear to His people in this chapter about what would happen to them if they continued to rebel, and still they said, “we will not listen to you, but we will do everything we have vowed” (16-17). So he gave them what they wanted- the freedom to reject Him forever.

God is the same way today. He pursues people relentlessly, but not endlessly. Romans 1 makes this clear. Three times in this passage, he says, “God gave them up…” culminating in verse 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.”

This is why there is such a danger in people putting off salvation, thinking they can get around to it on their death bed. If people reject God long enough, He will eventually give them what they want and stop pursuing them. The Bible says (2 Cor.) today is the day of salvation.

The goal of God’s pursuit and discipline is restoration. (Jeremiah 42:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:20)
Even here at the end of God’s patience, God’s desire is still to restore His people to a right relationship with Him. Just two chapters ago, He told the people that if they would only obey Him and stay in Judah instead of going to Egypt, He would have mercy on them. The same loving Lord who says in 2 Corinthians, “be reconciled to God,” has always desired that His people walk in right relationship with Him, and He uses whatever means and measures He has to in order to turn His people back to Himself.

Women have the power to influence our families, communities, and nation for evil or for godliness. (1 Peter 3:1-2)
The worship of “the queen of Heaven” (Ishtar, an Assyrian/Babylonian goddess, the wife of Baal or Molech) started with the women of Judah (15,19). They then influenced their husbands to participate in, or at least approve of, this idolatry. The women, and the husbands they had corrupted, stood in Jeremiah’s face and said, “We will not listen to you. We will keep on with our idolatry.”

Why? Because the women had the false notion that the reason they lately “lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine” (18) was becase they had stopped sacrificing to her. (Of course, the truth was that they were experiencing these things at the hand of God because they had been sacrificing to her.(23))

Several months ago, when we studied biblical womanhood, we discussed the line from My Big, Fat Greek Wedding where the mother tells her daughter, “The man may be the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn him any way she wants.” First Peter puts it this way:

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Every day, we have opportunities to be like the women of Judah and turn our families and our communities away from Christ and towards idolatry. Let’s not be like those women, but, instead, women who, by our godly character, our respectful and pure conduct, and our submission to our husbands, turn the world upside down for Christ.

Idolatry, Old Testament, Sunday School

Jeremiah and His Message ~ Sunday School Lesson ~ 8-10-14

August 10, 2014April 5, 2019 Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 32 ~ Aug. 3-9
2 Chronicles 32-35, Nahum, 2 Kings 22-23, Zephaniah, Jeremiah 1-9
Jeremiah and His Message

Background:

Hezekiah to Josiah (2 Kings 21:11)
As you will recall, Judah had had a good king in Hezekiah. He had done his best to do away with idol worship and re-institute the proper worship of Yahweh. But outward reforms cannot change individual hearts, and idolatry was already so entrenched in Judah that when Hezekiah died, the people quickly turned back to their old ways under Hezekiah’s son Manasseh.

Manasseh reigned for 55 years and did more evil than the pagan nations God had originally told Israel to annihilate from the Promised Land. (2 Kings) He was followed by Amon, who was equally evil and reigned two years. By the time Josiah took the throne, the people had been under pagan rule for nearly 60 years. Since Josiah’s reforms (removing idolatry and idol worship paraphernalia) did not begin for another 18 years, the people were actually involved in the practice of idolatry for 75 years.

Jeremiah and Josiah (Jeremiah 1:2)
Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry began in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign (1:2). Josiah did not begin his reforms until the 18th year of his reign, meaning, he was likely influenced by Jeremiah’s preaching for five years preceding the reforms. In fact, it is probable that Jeremiah’s preaching, at least in part, led to Josiah’s reforms.

Jeremiah’s Message
Jeremiah was one of the final prophets God would send to warn Judah about her sin. In fact the first 45 chapters of Jeremiah can generally be summed up as: “Turn from idolatry and back to the Lord to avoid judgment and exile.”

Second Verse, Same as the First
As we read both the major and minor prophets of the pre-exilic era, their messages can sometimes feel very repetitive. To a great extent, they are. There are two reasons for this.

1. God had one, very simple message for His people: repent and turn back to Me. He didn’t have a long list of demands or complicated instructions, just “repent and return.” Even with varied object lessons, there are only so many ways a prophet can say that before you start feeling like you’ve heard it before. God wanted to drive this point home.

2. We need to keep in mind that the book of Jeremiah (and some of the other prophetic books) was not, at the time, a book for people to sit down and read from beginning to end. Jeremiah is a collection of sermons (and some writings) given in various places to various audiences over a period of about fifty years. Today, we’re looking at a representative sample of Jeremiah- chapter 7.

Jeremiah 7:1-28

7:1 (Matthew 4:9)–
Notice where God told Jeremiah to preach this sermon: in the gate of the temple. Think about it. These people are supposedly coming in to worship God, and here God is (speaking through Jeremiah), at the entrance to His own house, speaking directly to them about what He wants from them. Do they listen? Obey? No, they walk blithely past Him into His house and do things their way.

Why? Because they didn’t want an actual relationship with God. They wanted to wallow in the sin of their idol worship while still getting all the benefits (agricultural blessings, protection from enemies, etc.) they thought God would continue to provide if they went through the outward motions of sacrifices and going to the temple. This blending of idolatry with the worship of God is called syncretism.

Syncretism is alive and well today. There have been churches that have held Christian-Islamic worship services, churches that teach yoga (a Hindu worship practice), even when we join ourselves or our churches to “Christian” churches whose doctrines aren’t biblical, we are guilty of syncretism.

Let’s not forget what Jesus told Satan in the wilderness when Satan tempted Jesus to worship him:

You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ (Matt 4)

After all Jesus did for us to save us from our sin, it is the ultimate understatement to say that He ALONE is worthy of all our worship, love, and devotion.

7:2-10 (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
“Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.” That’s it. That’s all there was to it. It might not have been what they wanted to do, but it wasn’t impossible, and it was what God desired.

God urged the people not to trust in the empty words and false beliefs they wanted to believe and had convinced themselves were true–namely, that since the “temple of the Lord” was in their midst and they were still attending and making sacrifices, God’s favor still rested on them– but to believe and act on what HE was actually telling them: repent and return.

God exhorts us to do the same thing. We are not to be people who “will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Tim.) We are to believe and practice what His word says -not what we desire to be true- even if it’s difficult.

11-20
Ever since God had brought Israel out of Egypt nearly a thousand years earlier, He had been warning them of the consequences of idolatry. Here the time of His patience is almost at a close, and He will soon be carrying out those consequences. God even tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people. He knows they will not repent.

In a similar way, throughout our lifetimes, God persistently calls to each of us sinners to come to Him in repentance and faith in Christ. He graciously and patiently calls to us again and again, but, if, by the time we die, we have refused to surrender to Him, He will execute judgment on us.

How much better to turn to Christ early and experience the sweet fellowship that comes from being forgiven for our sin and reconciled to God. Jeremiah saw this and wanted this for his people, but they would not have it. We see in chapter 9 how grieved he was about this.

21-26
“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh”- The burnt offerings were completely consumed by fire. Parts of the sacrifices (or peace offerings) were eaten by the one offering them. What God is basically saying here is, “Take what you would have offered as a burnt offering and turn it into a sacrifice and go ahead and eat both of them. You might as well just eat them, because I’m not going to accept them.”

God again takes the people back to the Exodus and reminds them that when He initially brought them out, and all during their wilderness wanderings, there was no sacrificial system. All He asked of them was to obey Him and walk in His ways. That was His priority. That was what came first: their love for Him and obedience to Him. The sacrificial system came later. Sacrifices were to be a natural outward expression of the people’s inward love for God.

It is no different for Christians. God is not interested in mere outward behavior, service, or religious practices. He wants our hearts. Our outward actions are to reflect the love for Christ that is already present in our hearts.

27-28
Unfortunately, even though Jeremiah faithfully preached God’s word, the people would not listen. Did this mean Jeremiah was a failure or that God was disappointed in him? No. He did exactly what God told him to do, and that’s what God judges His servants by, not the results.

We will experience the same thing at some point if we faithfully preach the gospel to people and stand on God’s word. People will reject the gospel, preferring to live in sin. People who call themselves Christians will reject the truth of God’s word no matter how clear it is or how nicely we present it to them. Does this mean we are failures or that God is disappointed in us? No. God considers us faithful if we believe, obey, and share the gospel. The results are up to Him.

Old Testament, Sunday School

Hezekiah: Who Are You Going to Believe? ~ Sunday School Lesson ~ 8-3-14

August 3, 2014April 5, 2019 Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 31 ~ July 27- Aug. 2
Isaiah 44-66, 2 Kings 18:9-21:26, Psalm 46, 80, 135
Hezekiah: Who Are You Going to Believe?

2 Kings 18:1-8
This first part of the chapter sets the stage for everything we subsequently learn about and from Hezekiah. Even though he had a despicable, idolatrous example for a father (King Ahaz), Hezekiah somehow turned out to be a godly man and king. Could it have been the way his mother raised and taught him? Possibly. (The Zechariah mentioned in v. 2, is not the prophet in the book of the same name.) It could also have been one of the priests or Levites brought in to train him as part of his childhood education. Scripture doesn’t tell us specifically, but we should never discount the importance of a godly mother or teachers, and we should strive to take hold of every opportunity we have to impact children’s lives for Christ.

At any rate, Hezekiah was off to a good start. Notice that this passage talks much more about Hezekiah’s relationship with the Lord than his actions for the Lord. It says, “he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (3), “he trusted in the Lord,” (5). He held fast to the Lord, did not depart from the Lord, and kept the Lord’s commandments (6). “And the Lord was with him.” (7)

His actions followed his faith: he tore down idol worship paraphernalia, rebelled against the king of Assyria, and struck down the Philistines.

9-12
This passage continues to set the stage by reminding us that during the first few years of Hezekiah’s reign in Judah, the king of Assyria captured Samaria (capital of Israel) and carried Israel away to Assyria because they had rebelled against God.

13-16 (2 Chronicles 20:12)
Sennacherib (king of Assyria after Shalmaneser, who had captured Israel) wasn’t wild about Hezkiah rebelling against him, so he attacked Judah and captured all the stronghold cities except Jerusalem (the capital), which was next on the hit list.

What was godly, faithful Hezekiah’s response. Did he pray? Seek out Isaiah or another prophet or priest for godly counsel? No. Here, Hezekiah showed us an example of what we are not to do. Before, we read that Hezekiah did what was right in God’s eyes. Here, he simply reacted to his circumstances in the way that was right in his own eyes, the way that was most expedient and practical. It was exactly what his father and others before him had done when they became vassals of Assyria or other kings. Instead of following in their footsteps, he would have done better to pray as his predecessor Jehoshaphat did:

“O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chron.)

What determines our response?
When we face an impossible situation like Hezekiah did, we have two options: we can let our circumstances dictate our response, or we can let God’s word dictate our response. Hezekiah didn’t consult God’s word. So, since he didn’t know what God would have him do in this situation, his only remaining option was to let circumstances dictate his response.

17- 37 (Isaiah 30:7, 10:5-6)
What happened? The 11 tons of silver and 1 ton of gold that Hezekiah sent Sennacherib, king of Assyria weren’t good enough for him. So Senaccherib sent his goon squad over to make Judah an offer it couldn’t refuse.

The Rabshakeh (commander) did his best to demoralize and talk Hezekiah’s men into surrendering. Notice that he didn’t really have to lie to them very much. Much of what he said was actually true:

Egypt was weak and would be of no help in fighting off Assyria (21,24). In fact, Isaiah had already told them this (Is. 30).

Even if Assyria herself supplied Judah with horses for battle, Judah was still too weak to defeat even the weakest of Assyria’s troops, so Egypt certainly wouldn’t be of any help. (23-24)

Whether the Rabshakeh knew it, or was just boasting and stumbled on the truth, Assyria was to be God’s arm of wrath against his people (25). Judah knew this because Isaiah had already told them (Is. 10)

From man’s point of view, and in his own flesh, Hezekiah would lose this battle and the people would be carried off to captivity in Assyria (29-32).

The false gods of the other nations had not been able to save them from Assyria (33-35).

But the truth was mixed with falsehood and fallible human wisdom:

The Rabshakeh didn’t know that the places of idol worship that Hezekiah had torn down were to false gods, not the true God. (22)

God might have been against Judah, but he wasn’t with Assyria (25).

The Lord is trustworthy and able to defeat any enemy (30, 32b, 35).

Hezekiah’s officials delivered the message to him. Would he believe the Rabshakeh? Would he react the way he did last time?

19:1-7
Hooray for Hezekiah! This time, he responded the right way. The first thing he did was to grieve before God and head to His house to pray (1). The second thing he did was to send his staff to Isaiah to seek God’s word. (2-4).

And what was God’s word? Do not be afraid; this dude’s going down. (6-7)

8-13
The Rabshakeh left and went back home only to find Sennacherib fighting with one kingdom and under impending attack from another. So, just to let Hezekiah know he hadn’t forgotten about him, Sennacherib sent another threatening message: “I may be busy right now, but I’m still coming for you. And don’t forget– none of the gods of these other countries saved them and your God isn’t going to save you.”

Hezekiah had a choice to make. Who was he going to believe, the Rabshakeh or God? The Rabshakeh had said a lot of stuff that was true. He even said that God had sent him. It would have made sense to listen to him, do what he said, and surrender.

14-34
But that’s not what Hezekiah did. He again turned to the Lord in prayer. While he was praying, Isaiah heard from the Lord, who reiterated and expanded on his earlier promise: God would defeat Assyria in this battle, and would even give Hezekiah a sign that confirmed His word.

35-37 Even though it seemed reasonable to believe Sennacherib, and even though he had talked about God sending him, Hezekiah chose to believe God’s word. He believed God’s word even though the situation seemed impossible. Even though he was scared. Even though it didn’t make sense.

Who are we going to believe?
God calls us to do the same thing as believers. We encounter a lot of situations these days in which people say things that seem to be reasonable, might even be true, and tell us they come to us in the name of the Lord:

“Pastors” and “theologians” who tell us that evolution or homosexuality or abortion or female pastors/teachers (of men) are OK with God, or that the Bible isn’t infallible.

Christians who tell us about trips to Heaven they have taken or “God told me ______” even when it conflicts with Scripture.

But no matter how strong the evidence might appear to be or how convincing the argument, it all comes down to this question:

Who are we going to believe?

Are we going to believe fallible, sinful human beings, or are we going to believe God’s word, even when it’s hard, even when we don’t fully understand it?

For Christians, SCRIPTURE ALONE is our final authority for what to believe, think, and do. It doesn’t matter what we (or someone else) have personally experienced, what our feelings or opinions are, what science says, what conventional wisdom says, or what political correctness says. God’s word stands, and let the chips fall where they may.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. Psalm 18:30

Idolatry, Old Testament, Sunday School

An Overview of Hosea ~ Sunday School Lesson ~ 7-27-14

July 27, 2014April 5, 2019 Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 30 ~ July 20-26
Hosea, Isaiah 28-43, Psalm 76
An Overview of Hosea

Hosea 1
Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. God used his family life as a picture of what he was prophesying. Hosea married a woman, Gomer, who would later prove unfaithful to him. God also had Hosea give his children names that reflected God’s message to Israel: Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People. But the real story of the book of Hosea is not Hosea or his family, but the love, reluctant wrath, and forgiveness of God towards His unfaithful people.

2:8
Everything Israel gave away -as sacrifices to idols, as tribute to foreign potentates, as bribes for foreign armies to come to her aid- everything had been given to her by God.

4:17
When sinners persist in their sin long enough, God finally gives them over to what they want. (Rom. 1:18ff). Often sinners think the harshest thing God could do would be to try to stop them from participating in the sin that they love, but His wrath is most poured out when He gives them exactly what they want.

5:6, 15; 7:13-14
Seek the Lord while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6). God was calling Israel to seek Him before He gave them over to a hard heart and a reprobate mind. The Lord is always found by those with a soft heart whose desire is to repent and love Him, but He turns a deaf ear to those who continue in rebellion until it starts raining, only to beat on the door of the ark because they don’t want to die in the flood.

God is not interested in the worldly sorrow that is only grieved over the consequences of sin. That soul still has its eyes firmly fixed on self and how self is affected. The truly repentant heart has her eyes fixed on God and how her sin affects Him.

6:4,6
God doesn’t desire empty rituals, lip service, or going through the motions. He wants worship from the heart.

8:2, 5-6
God will not allow syncretism (the melding of unbiblical worship with biblical worship). He requires, not that He be first in our affections, but that He be ONLY in our affections.
It did no good for Israel to claim that she knew the Lord (2) because she was a) worshiping other gods besides the Lord, b) calling an idol (the golden calves) “God,” and c) not worshiping God in the way He had commanded. None of these were acceptable in God’s sight then, and because He is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), it is still not acceptable to Him today.

That’s why false teachers are so dangerous. People like Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, and TD Jakes may not be fashioning golden calves and calling them “Jesus,” but they are fashioning false gods with unbiblical words and ideas and calling them “Jesus.” This is what Matthew 7:21-23 is talking about when it says:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

9:1
Just as Gomer has betrayed and forsaken Hosea, Israel has betrayed the Lord. She has loved adultery and the fleeting pleasures (Hebrews 11:25) that go with it instead of the true and lasting treasure that comes from loyalty to the Lord (Revelation 11:18).

10:5-6
The golden calf Israel worshiped would be used to pay off Assyria in tribute. God is sovereign. He will ultimately destroy everything that is raised up against Him. Idols, ideas, individuals.

11:1-4
God is not a cruel taskmaster. He led and cared for Israel with “cords of kindness” and “bands of love” as a parent leads a toddler. They didn’t have to live in fear of Him if they were walking with Him. Not so with other gods. With other gods, they could never be certain where they stood. Had they offered enough? Pleased it enough? Would it bless them with fertility or rain for their crops?

With God, on the other hand, His love for Israel came first. It wasn’t a reaction to whether or not their actions pleased Him. His love for them was there even before they knew Him (1 John 4:15-19). It was because He loved them that He lovingly spelled out everything He wanted Israel to do in worship, in daily life, and in their hearts. He also went into great detail about the things they could expect from Him, and He kept His promises time and again. They didn’t have to wonder how He felt towards them or what He required of them or whether He would come through for them. They could know.

11:8-9
It grieved God to destroy Israel as he had destroyed Admah and Zeboiim with Sodom and Gomorrah. God is not a God who delights in executing His wrath, but, rather, does so with a broken heart and only as a last resort.

“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” Ezekiel 18:23

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

13:4-6
When Israel was in Egypt and in the wilderness where she had nothing to depend on but God, she was loyal to Him, but once prosperity came, she left Him, just as Gomer left Hosea for something she thought was better.

It is often only when people have no other choice but to turn to Christ that they do so, but when they don’t “need” anything, they turn away from Him. This is why Jesus said “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24).

By stripping away everything Israel had and sending her into exile, God was bringing Israel full circle to the neediness she had started out with in Egypt in order to bring her back to Himself.

14:1-9
God’s desire is, and always has been, for His people to repent and be reconciled to Him, and enjoy a loving, father-child relationship with Him. We see this in His post-Eden relationship with Adam and Eve, in His blessing of the earth after the Flood, in His bringing Israel out of Egypt, in bringing Israel out of exile, and in the most important way of all, in saving us out of our sin that we might be permanently reconciled to Him through the precious blood of Christ, to love Him and serve Him forever.

I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.

Idolatry, Old Testament, Sunday School, Worship

Israel Is Exiled ~ Sunday School Lesson ~ 7-20-14

July 20, 2014April 5, 2019 Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 29 ~ July 13-19
2 Chronicles 27-31, Isaiah 9-27, Micah, 2 Kings 16-18:8, Psalm 48
Israel is Exiled

2 Kings 17:1-20
Second Kings 17 is sort of the “Cliff Notes” version of Israel’s era of the kings. We have read about each king of Israel, all of whom “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Second Kings 17 sums up the effect these evil kings had on Israel’s relationship with God and the consequences for their idolatry.

Israel’s Sin
The sin that brought God’s judgment upon Israel was idolatry. Israel participated in idolatry in two different ways, usually at the same time:

They worshiped false gods instead of the true God. (12,16-17)
As Israel got to know her pagan neighbors, she began to worship some of their false gods such as Ashera, Baal, Molech, and the stars and planets. This was expressly forbidden by God in the 10 Commandments and throughout the Old Testament. While other nations often worshiped many gods, Israel was to be holy and set apart to the one true God and serve only Him.

They worshiped the true God in false ways. (16, 1 Corinthians 14:40, 2 Corinthians 9:7, 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Timothy 2:12-14, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1 Corinthians 11:17-33)
You will recall the two golden calves Jeroboam had set up in the north and south for the people to worship. He wanted to keep the Israelites from traveling out of Israel into Judah to worship at the temple because he did not want the people to turn their loyalty back to the throne of David. So he took the worship and festivals God had set up for Himself and transferred them to these two calves. The calves were basically a stand in for God.

God was very specific about how, when, and where He was to be worshiped. When we studied Exodus and Leviticus, we saw hundreds of instructions about God’s house, the utensils, the men who served as priests and Levites, the offerings and sacrifices, cleansing rituals, and on and on. God requires that He be worshiped in certain ways. His ways. He did not leave it up to His people to worship Him freestyle.

Even today, God has given us specific instructions about worship that we are to obey. For example, He tells us that, in the church, all things are to be done decently and in order (1 Cor. 14), that we are to give our offerings cheerfully and not reluctantly or under compulsion (2 Cor. 9), that we are to discipline, not tolerate, unrepentant sin in the church (1 Cor. 5), that women are not to instruct or hold authority over men in the church (1 Tim. 2), the qualifications for pastors and elders (1 Tim. 3, Tit. 1), instructions about the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11), and so many more things. Although God has given us freedom in some areas of worship, as long as they do not violate any specific instructions He has given us (music style, order of service, what we wear to church, etc.), He has not turned us loose to worship Him in any way we please. We must be careful not to do this as the Israelites did.

God’s Patience (1 Peter 3:20, 2 Timothy 4:1, 2 Peter 3:9, Romans 2:4, 2 Corinthians 6:2)
After Solomon died, Israel and Judah split into two separate kingdoms. In the 209 years between Solomon and the exile (931-722 B.C.), Israel had twenty kings, all of whom participated in and promoted idol worship among the people of Israel. During that time period, God sent at least seven prophets (Ahijah, Jehu, Elijah, Micaiah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea) to warn Israel to turn back from her idolatry and the consequences if she would not. Two hundred and nine years. That’s a lot of chances God gave His people to repent and turn back to Him.

God has a track record of patience. First Peter 3:20 tells us “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” God stayed His hand of judgment for 120 years while Noah was building the ark, preaching repentance with every swing of the hammer. In His mercy, God was giving the people of Noah’s day a chance to repent and turn to Him before the flood, but none did, except Noah’s family.

In the same way, God has been patient with mankind for the last 2000+ years since He provided the way of salvation for us through Jesus.

Second Timothy 4:1 tells us that Christ will return to judge the living and the dead, but what’s taking Him so long?

Second Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

He wants everyone to turn to Him in repentance, but we are not to take advantage of His patience and continue in sin. Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

“For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2). In the same way that Israel should have repented immediately because they didn’t know how long God’s patience with them would last, we must turn to Him now instead of later because we do not know when He is coming back. And once He does, it will be too late for those who have not put their trust in Christ.

God’s Judgment (18-20)
God’s time of patience with the ungodly always comes to an end. It happened with Noah, and here we see it happening with Israel. God’s judgment fell upon Israel. He allowed them to be torn apart by enemy nations, and, finally, exiled from the Promised Land to Assyria. Judah held out for a while with a few good kings, but eventually, she followed in Israel’s footsteps and was exiled to Babylon in 605 B.C.

But even in exile, there were those few faithful Israelites and Judahites whom God saved: Daniel, Nehemiah, Esther, Ezra, and many others whose names we don’t know. Today, despite persecution and rampant sin in the visible church, God is still preserving a remnant of Christians who are faithful, whom He will preserve when He brings the final judgment upon the earth. Until that time, the words of Jesus are just as relevant today as when He said them 2000 years ago: