Wow! The journey on God’s Route 66 has been quite exciting so far. We have witnessed the creation of the world, got acquainted with the patriarchs, saw the hardships endured by the Israelites in the wilderness, watched as God delivered the Israelites into the Promised Land and witnessed a nation rise to prominence on the world stage. We have taken in so many sights but hang on; the roughest part of the road is directly ahead. This stretch of road will be littered with potholes of pride and idolatry. The pavement will begin to disintegrate under the weight of immorality. What causes a nation to fall? The answer is a force known as erosion. Roads, nations, businesses or marriages just don’t self destruct over night; it takes years of steady, thoughtless decay. The problem is people rarely notice that everything is falling apart until it’s too late. The period of Jewish history that we will look at today is very tragic as God’s people turn away from Him.
I. What causes a nation to collapse?
A. The collapse of the Roman Empire illustrates this process of national erosion.
1. Edward Gibbon in his work the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” identified five factors that lead to the nations ultimate disintegration.
2. An undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis for human society.
3. Higher and higher taxes and spending public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
4. A mad craze for pleasure, with pastimes becoming every year more exciting, brutal and immoral.
5. Building great armaments, although the real enemy was within and the decay of individual responsibility.
6. Decay of religion, faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and losing power to guide the people.
B. Like Rome it was not military might that ultimately conquered Israel it was a similar course of internal collapse.
1. The people of Israel failed to heed the warnings of Moses and Joshua leading to them slowly turning their backs on God.
2. They grew comfortable and complacent in the land which led to them forgetting the source of their blessings.
3. Like with Rome, Israel’s collapse did not happen overnight.
II. Making sense out of this complicated portion of Jewish History.
A. The beginning of Israel’s monarchy.
1. Saul’s forty-year reign initiated the monarchy period in Israel.
2. When Saul died the crown will be passed to David who will lead Israel for forty years also.
3. When David died the crown will pass to his son Solomon who will reign forty years as well.
4. Solomon’s son Rehoboam will come to the throne and try to rule with an iron fist leading to the northern ten tribes revolting and breaking free under the leadership of Jeroboam.
5. The northern kingdom known as Israel will last for 209 years being ruled by twenty different kings and ultimately being conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC.
6. The southern kingdom known as Judah will last for 345 years being ruled also by twenty different kings and ultimately being conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
B. There three keys to decoding this complicated portion of Jewish history.
1. The country was ripped apart by civil war so the writer of Kings and Chronicles have the huge task of tracing the history of two different nations.
2. We need to know the different names given to these two different kingdoms. The northern kingdom will be known as Israel, Ephraim, and Samaria. The southern kingdom will be known as Judah and Jerusalem.
3. We need to keep on hand a list of the different kings and their reigns.
4. It is also helpful to keep track of the different prophets and where there ministries fit into this portion of Jewish history.
III. A brief survey of this era of Jewish History.
A. Signs of erosion during the period of the United Kingdom.
1. The narrative of Kings begins about 970 B.C. with the accession of Solomon.
2. God highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel. He bestowed on Solomon royal majesty which neither Saul nor David had possessed
3. The Queen of Sheba expressed her amazement when she said what she had heard concerning his words and wisdom had proved to be true. While she had been unconvinced prior to making her journey to Jerusalem, she now was of the opinion that the wisdom and prosperity of Solomon far exceeded any report which had come to her ears.
4. In Deuteronomy 17:14–20 God stipulated three things that the future kings of Israel were not to do and Solomon managed to violate every one. They were not to multiply
a. horses unto themselves
b. wives
c. wealth
5. No amount of wisdom or wealth could cover the effects that sin had on Solomon’s heart.
B. The factors that contributed to the decline of the kingdom.
1. Spiritual decline due to the growing amount of idolatry.
2. The extreme economic burden put on the people by Solomon and Rehoboam due to overworking and overtaxing the people.
3. The increasing political competition with Jeroboam who later will be chosen king by the people of Israel.
4. The moral and personal failures in Solomon’s family due to the disregard for God’s covenant.
C. The divided kingdom will ultimately lead to the fall of both Israel and Judah.
1. Jeroboam’s first concern as king of Israel was to find a suitable capital. First he fortified, Shechem, the most prominent city in the north.
2. A parade of idolatrous kings will ultimately lead to the destruction of the northern kingdom.
3. 2 Kings 17 details the Assyrians conquering Israel during the reign of Hoshea.
4. Judah miraculously withstood the Assyrian invasion thanks in part to the spiritual leadership of Hezekiah.
5. Subsequent generations will once again turn their hearts from God and participate in idolatry which will ultimately lead to the fall of Judah.
6. Jeremiah chapter 52 describes the horrors associated with the fall of Judah. The survivors will be carried off into exile in Babylon where they will remain for seventy years.
D. An overview of the people’s exile in Babylon.
1. The people find themselves in a strange land trying to make the best of the situation as they yearned for an opportunity to return home.
2. It is during this period of time that Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel and several of the Psalms were written.
3. By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:1-4—NIV)
4. As we bring this segment of our journey to a close the Jews are full of sorrow bearing the full weight of the consequences for their sin.
5. 2 Chronicles 36 shows us that Cyrus king of the Persians will allow the Jews to return to Palestine and these great times will be described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
IV. What we can learn from this segment of our journey.
A. Enjoying the blessings of obedience is rewarding but requires a great bit of responsibility on our part.
1. We must daily pursue a lifestyle that is characterized by worship and obedience.
2. We must work daily to nurture our relationship with God through time spent in His Word, prayer and service.
3. As the Israelites found out, a life that is anything less than totally obedient to God is unacceptable.
4. To live an obedient lifestyle requires a great deal of effort on our part, so do not be fooled into thinking that it is easy.
B. Enduring the consequences of sin is quite painful but does not have to be permanent.
1. A wise man once said, “If you can learn from your mistakes, there is no end to what you can learn.”
2. During those times that we our enduring the painful consequences of our sin we should find ourselves growing as God slowly restores us.
3. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11—NIV)
4. The cross reminds us of God’s desire to restore us through His grace. This is the same truth that the Jews will discover.
In 1912 the "unsinkable" Titanic was launched in Liverpool, England. So haughty was the hoopla surrounding the Titanic’s safety and structural integrity that it caused dismay among some of the God fearing public. Such pride it was felt was tempting God to show man his folly. And while it’s certainly not our place 90 years later to say that what happened when ship met iceberg was God’s answer to the pride of the ship’s builders and promoters, we do know for certain that their pride was misplaced and the "unsinkable ship" took 1500 lives with it to the bottom of the ocean.
Many Christians were distressed at the haughtiness of the advertising of the Titanic’s invulnerability. This was particularly true of one God-fearing woman, whose family was unexpectedly transferred onto the gigantic liner for its maiden voyage. After reading the shipbuilders’ claims, Mrs. Hart believed—and so stated—"This is flying in the face of God!" The woman’s daughter, Eva Hart, 7 at the time of the voyage, recalls that her family was saved from tragedy because of Mrs. Hart’s spiritual convictions. Throughout the voyage, Mrs. Hart stayed awake at night waiting for disaster to strike, and thus was able to move her family to an upper deck almost immediately after the ship collided with an unseen iceberg. Because of her vigilance, the family did not join the 1,500 others who died that night.
