Article 2016-10 - Israel’s Demise
Chapter 25: Israel’s Demise
Introduction
When Israel’s mighty kingdom split after Solomon’s rule, things went from bad to worse in both states. An idolatrous leadership produced an idolatrous people and this led to its demise. Continuous disobedience to God ruined the state and led its people into exile. Although in Judah occasional revivals took place, these did not make up for consistent disobedience during most other eras. Although the promises to David rested on Judah, it was eventually judged like the northern tribes of Israel.
Scripture reference
Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites … sacrificing to the calves he had made (1 Kings 12:31,32)
So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God (2 Kings 17:18,19)
The story
After Israel’s split, a two hundred year period began, in which the northern ten tribes, went from bad to worse. Jeroboam led Israel into gross idolatry and that pattern remained until Hosea, the 20th king, was defeated by the Assyrians. Then the northern kingdom ceased to exist. Only Judah remained. All of Israel’s kings were bad: none of them served the Lord and all continued the idolatry that Jeroboam had started and the people followed them. None of Israel’s kings can be seen as a missionary of God. The only missionaries Israel knew in these centuries were about ten prophets. It was their mission to get Israel back on track: parting with idols, repenting and serving God instead. They were only partially successful; after a while Israel invariably returned to its idols.
Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Hosea (not the same as the king) and Amos were the best known prophets who ministered to the ten tribes. They were the missionaries of that era. They spoke God’s word clearly and boldly, performed miracles and had their fair share of persecution. They were sent on missions, but we must not confuse their ministry with outreach to Gentile nations. By studying the stories of their lives and ministries we learn much about missionary character, approach, perseverance, their humanity and how they sometimes feared persecution from kings and people.
Only Jonah received a cross-cultural missions mandate. We look at his life and ministry in the next chapter. The generation of Nineveh that Jonah preached to repented, but the results did not last. Half a century later their next generation defeated Israel’s northern kingdom and exiled its people. Only Judah remained for another 135 years, until it was defeated and exiled by the Babylonians. Part of them returned after 70 years.
Scripture reference
But they [the Judeans] mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. He brought up … the king of the Babylonians … They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem … He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant … until the seventy years were completed (2 Chron. 36:15-17,19-21).
The story, continued
Judah’s history was not better than Israel’s. Judah often had to be warned against idolatry as well. Judah also had twenty kings, seven of whom are called ‘good’. The last two were Hezekiah and Josiah, sometimes called ‘revival-kings’. They played a significant role in reforming Judah’s temple service, and destroyed the high places that people used for idol sacrifices. During Judah’s era 18 named and some unnamed prophets preached God’s word. Among them were Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk.
Comment
First Israel, then Judah ceased to be God’s example nation to the surrounding peoples. Instead God’s people followed their bad, godless examples. Judah, holding the promises that had been made to David, was judged with equal strictness as Israel was. God has no favorites. Obedience to His statutes is demanded from everybody. The ones that obey will be rewarded, the ones that don’t will be judged. The same applies to today’s Church.
Discussion & dialogue
- Discuss with your study group the difference between ‘maintenance ministry’ and ‘outreach ministry’. Which would you consider as missionary and which as pastoral?
- Which six of the ten themes reoccur in this chapter, and how? (Answer is in the Teacher’s Guide)
