2015-10-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Holy Spirit has commanded me to look back in history for it’s lessons and then to be applied to the task of writing about personal covenant renewal. In the last two weeks, we looked at God’s Book of Life and books of death, as they will apply to our fate in the future. Then, we looked at how God compared His judgments on unrepentant cities of ancient times compared to more recent ones, We saw how He judged Sodom and Gomorrah and more recent ones, like Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Korizin [GN 19: 23-25; MT 11: 20-24]. We also saw God’s judgment of 19 evil kings of the divided kingdom of Israel [divided from the kingdom of Judah to its south], especially King Ahab and his evil wife, Jezabel [2 K 15: 17-22]. This line of unrepentant sinners led to God allowing the Assyrian Captivity, which began in 722 BC and lasted 160 years. A mixture of good and evil kings in Judah led to God allowing the Babylonian Captivity of that kingdom, which began in 586 BC and lasted 70 years. These dyasporas [losses of nationhood and scattering of the people] were God’s way of demanding they become obedient to Him and that Israel is reunited into one country under Him once more. DT 8: 3b, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word from the mouth of the Lord.”
The story of King Ahaz of the divided kingdom of Judah [divided, against God’s will in 931 BC] from the northern kingdom of Israel, is an example of the disobedience to God. Ahaz, son of Jotham, ruled Judah from 735-716 BC and was a contemporary of Micah [prophet who lived in Judah and wrote from 738-698 BC], King Pekah [King in Israel from 752-732 BC], Rezin, king of Aram [aka Syria, from 792-732 BC], and King Tigaleth-Pileser III [744-727 BC] of Assyria. Ahaz was twenty when he took the throne of Judah. Rezin was king of Aram, but was a tributary king to Assyria’s Tigaleth-Pileser III until he was executed in 732 BC. Ahaz, unlike his father, David, didn’t obey the Lord. He followed the detestable ways of the northern kings, even to the point of sacrificing his son in the fire [2 K 16:3]. Pekah and Rezin wanted to march on and overcome Ahaz to gain another ally in their anti-Assyrian political policy. But when they tried, they failed. However, they recovered Elath for Aram at that time, and Edomites moved into Elath. During this fracas, Ahaz (in the tradition of making foolish allegiances) pledged himself as Assyria’s vassal and appealed for Tigaleth-Pileser III’s help against Pekah and Rezin. That is how the Assyrians took Damascus [Rezin’s territory], both putting Rezin to death and deporting its inhabitants to Kir. Ahaz and Tigaleth-Pileser III met in Damascus afterward, and Uriah, the priest of Judah, was asked to sketch the altar there. Ahaz would later have its replica built by Uriah and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem. As it was used for sacrifices, it was an affront to God of high order and done in deference to the king of Syria. It was also an insult that Judah under Ahaz paid a tribute to Assyria.
PRAYER: O Lord, is it any wonder that You felt the need to punish both Israel and Judah after such activity as described above? Foolish alliances, greed for land, wealth, and power, idolatry, cruelty, division of Your people into two kingdoms, and overall unwillingness to know and obey Your will are powerful sins committed by people from the past. All these things are sufficient motivation for You to punish Your people, the Israelites, by captivity and dyaspora. And yet, all through these 170 years for Israel and 70 years for Judah, You were a Watchman for Your people, never refusing to abandon or love those who love You, never totally destroying them. We must learn to look at Your big picture, Your eternal one, and from the mistakes made in the past. We must pledge to obey You faithfully, and look to You for direction. We offer You our love, devotion, loyalty, glory, thanks and praise in the holy/mighty name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: One more story from Israel’s past has other lessons in it for us. It is the story Israel’s king Hoshea, Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V, and Judah’s king, Hezekiah. These kings were contemporaries of the prophet, Hosea. But that’s the story for next week. The task before us also demands not only learning lessons from past history, but a careful and guilt-free examination of our own lives. At my age, I’ve had plenty of time to sin and to need to reform my personal covenant relationship with God. When I first decided to leave traditional Judaism, I was met with opposition from relatives by my first marriage, disrespect, questioning of my ability to make good decisions, and an undercurrent of persecution and exclusion. It was a time of transition that could be described as “being in the belly of the beast without knowing when hardship would end.” Such are the problems of anyone making this kind of extraordinary change in his life. As my readers already know, it wasn’t done in one step either. For 12 years, I was a member of a church that mainstream Christians consider a cult. But even through all of this, God did what He has always done all my life---kept me in His sight; refused to abandon me. Then, He awakened me to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His only Son: Whom He sacrificed on the cross, so that we who believe in Him can have everlasting life [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. A most remarkable truth is that He will do this for anyone, if he will look to Him for the truth with a open heart and a contrite spirit. Praise and thanks be to Him forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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