Chapter Sixteen the week of May 6

The Beginning of the End

The northern and southern kingdoms of Israel (including Samaria) and Judah had drifted apart. Prophets had been sent by God to draw them back to Himself and ultimately together. But the call fell on deaf ears. Each of the kings outdid their own father in evil.

PP 220-1  While the details show one king finally succumbed to a foreign invader, the facts show Israel had long ago left the only True God, the One Who had brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. God had assured them through Samuel that having an earthly king would preclude them from trusting the Heavenly King. So Israel went into new bondage in Assyria, 722 BC, with most people never returning to the Promised Land. The ten northern tribes became lost. Just consider God’s broken heart that the state of affairs had come to this.

PP 221-4  The field commander from Assyria challenged the leaders of Judah that their fighting was all for naught. The power of Assyria would wipe out Judah as they had Israel. King Hezekiah was taunted at his own palace. Instead of recoiling, Hezekiah sought God through prayer and asked the prophet Isaiah what God had revealed. God put a boundary around Jerusalem and killed 185,000 of the enemy warriors. We are also told God gave Hezekiah fifteen extra years of living during his illness. How have you responded when God has ‘spared’ you, like He spared Hezekiah from devastation and illness?

PP 224-8   The prophet Isaiah spoke powerfully into Judah, with visions of God’s holiness in inapproachable light. God was Almighty and Awesome and would have His way, even with belligerent and defiant people. Even if Judah fought against God’s ways, they would lose. Why do we see God as persistently for us when things are good, but fail to remember He is Holy and against our sin, when He disciplines us like a Father?

Yet God’s compassion was legion; He would never forsake His own, any more than a mother would forsake her own child. This love would go beyond Judah so that all would know that the Lord is their Savior and Redeemer. So the failure of Israel and Judah led to many other entering God’s kingdom.

PP 228-30  This God compassion was a portend of things to come. Isaiah 9, 11, 52 & 53 described Someone as a wounded healer…the Messiah Who lives the Life but is punished while He serves. He would be an offering for sin (atonement), as our iniquity would be laid on Him (substitutionary sacrifice); He was cut off from life (killed) but would see the light of life and be satisfied (resurrection). He would justify many (declare righteous), and bear their iniquities. How can anyone read this detailed description and not recognize the marked resemblance to Jesus of Nazareth?

So the northern kingdom is fallen and the people are permanently exiled. In a little over a century, the southern kingdom will unfortunately follow them in abandonment of the Living God.