God’s Messengers
January 23, 2011
As we move into chapter 15 we are going to be looking past the kings who led . . .
PHONE RINGS — Oh, hold on a minute, I forgot to turn my phone off. Don’t you like that song. I’ve gotta take it. This is not really a good time to call me. You have a message. Okay, what is it? Keep the message short, the Bears are playing.
Okay, if you haven’t put your phones on silent, now would be a good time.
Actually, I’m just playing, but this is the point of chapter 15. God is trying to get a hold of Israel. The question is . . . will they pick up and answer, or will they just let the call go directly to voice mail.
And if they do pick up, will they listen? And if they listen, will they do what God tells them to do.
Chapter 14 of the Story starts us in a section of the OT which can be very confusing. This is due in part to the fact that the Bible is not written in chronological order.
Think about the Bible this way . . . the first 17 chapters are more historical in nature. Then we add 5 books called wisdom literature or poetry, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Job. Then the OT concludes with another 17 books called Prophetical books. These are the stories of the prophets as they called out to Israel and Judah during the times of the divided kingdom. Last week, I spoke about the kingdom dividing. You can see from the map, Israel or Samaria was the northern kingdom and Judah was the southern kingdom.
Today we’re looking at the northern kingdom of Israel after they were divided. There were 10 tribes in the north and 2 tribes in the southern kingdom.
The question for now is, WHY DID GOD CHOOSE TO DIVIDE THE NATION OF ISRAEL?
Remember the goal for the nation of Israel through, Abraham and Sarah was to show the world through their relationship with God, a God who is filled with power, love and grace; and a God who wants to be in relationship with all people. God doesn’t want anyone to perish without coming into a relationship with Him. That’s the goal from the start. God is going to do it through this tiny nation called Israel.
God is the One true God who is to guide the people to live distinctively different lifestyles than the rest of the world. This way people will see God through the way the people live. They are to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, spirit, mind and body; and to love one another. The secret of their success and prosperity is not found in anything they do, but is found in God.
It should cause those around them to want to get to know God. And this was God’s objective . . . to reveal His plan and Himself, not just to the Israelites, but to all people. And God promised One would be born who would provide the ultimate solution, so that we could come back into a relationship with Him. So the stakes are high, and it’s important for the people to reveal God and His plan.
As we’ve been journeying through the Story, we’ve learned that Israel stopped being fully devoted to God. They became complacent, overly comfortable, and trusted themselves more than God. They worshiped pagan gods and began to look like the other nations. As a result, they were no longer revealing the character, nature, and plan of God. Think about it, if God continued to bless them, it would’ve sent a wrong message to Israel and the surrounding nations about God’s character.
Let me put it to you this way. If Doug and I were to go out on the town every Friday night, and got arrested, and had our mug shots in the newspaper, then we showed up on Sunday and preached like nothing ever happened, it would send the wrong message about the church to the congregation and the community who desperately needs to know Jesus.
It would be necessary to remove us from our positions. Or, at least Doug, because he would be the one who put me up to it. So, in the same spirit, in order to purify the message and representation of the character of God, God divided the nation of Israel into two nations. It’s a dark time in the history of this once powerful nation.
Of the 38 kings who led the north and south over a period of 344 years, only 5 were considered to be good kings, kings who followed God, the rest were evil. Not one king in the north was considered good.
In the end, God didn’t have to use the 12 tribes of Israel to accomplish His upper story plan. God’s not obligated to use all of Israel to bring us the Messiah. He only had to fulfill His promise to Abraham and David. He told Abraham I promise to use your offspring to bless your people. And out of you will come the Messiah. And in the period of the kings, God promised David, that the Messiah would come from your tribe. And what tribe was David part of? Judah. The Messiah must come from the tribe of Judah. The tribes to the north didn’t include Judah.
Now the 10 tribes to the north still have an opportunity to be used by God. God loves them, but the choice is theirs. They must change their heart and minds and turn back to God so they too, can reveal the love and plan of God.
In the northern kingdom there were 19 kings over a period of 208 years. God gave them a chance to turn back to Him. He gave them 208 years to decide if they would listen to Him. And they never did.
This shows how patient God can be, He is long-suffering, He wanted them and wants us to be in relationship with Him. He wants us to experience His love and grace, His power and strength, but God never, never forces us into a relationship.
God sent prophet after prophet to call them back to a relationship with Him. But the people always found another excuse, another reason to say no and they suffered miserably because of it. These prophets heard from God and told the kings and people what the message from God was. The kings didn’t want to hear from God, they were too lost.
Now in chapter 15 we encounter a number of dynamic stories. I think of the story of Elijah. If you don’t know his story, it’s great. Elijah comes up against the evil King Ahab and his wife, the cruel Queen Jezebel. She’s an ancient ‘cruella devil.’ And if you’ve never pieced it together, you can take away that accent and her name was cruel devil. That was Jezebel.
So, Elijah came up against them and 450 prophets who worshiped Baal, a pagan god. He challenged them to a contest about who worshiped the true god. It was during a 3 ½ year drought. The prophets of Baal tried to get their offering to burn without matches. Nothing happened. Elijah took buckets of water and poured it over his offering. Making it even harder for a fire to start, and you know what happened, fire came from heaven and lit that offering. Can you imagine that happening before your very eyes? We think we would turn to God, but would we? Did they? You know it, nope.
There are a number of great stories in chapter 15. I want to tell you the story about Hosea. His story is on pages 177-179 in your copies of the Story. God raised up the prophet Hosea near the end of the 208 years. The kingdom is enjoying some prosperity. And when times are good, we don’t often tune into God. We’re having too good of a time to listen to God’s message. We’re more prone to listen to God’s message during times of depression and recession. That’s what Hosea was running up against.
God not only asked Hosea to give his words to the people, but asked Hosea to give his life as a message. The first 3 chapters of Hosea contains his personal story. God came to Hosea and made an unusual and wild request. God told Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. After they got married, she continued in her line of work. She would leave Hosea for periods of time. She thought she was being supported by her lovers. What she didn’t know was that Hosea is really the one who’s funding her to live her promiscuous lifestyle. That’s pretty amazing. After some time passes, God tells Hosea to go to Gomer and show her his love. That’s a huge request. Put yourself in his shoes. He’s got to be angry and humiliated. Go and confront her, yes, but show her your love . . . I don’t think so.
Hosea obeys the Lord. The story tells us that Hosea pays her fee. Gomer enters into the room to meet her next customer and there she finds Hosea. And Hosea tells her, “I love you and I want you to come back home.” Think of being put in that situation. This is a relationship which mirrored God’s relationship to Israel. They had a covenant, a marriage. And just as Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea, so were the people unfaithful to God. And for years God blessed them and funded them and they never sought God, but lived in sin and unfaithfulness.
God came to Israel and told them, “I love you and I want you to come back home.” A sample of this comes from Hosea 4, 5 and 14. Listen to these words from Hosea-
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land. (4:1)
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery; they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed. (4:2)
4 “Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.
A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;
they do not acknowledge the LORD. (5:4)
1 Return, Israel, to the LORD your God.
Your sins have been your downfall!
2 Take words with you and return to the LORD.
Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously,
that we may offer the fruit of our lips. (14:1-2)
Hosea is faithful in delivering that message. Did they listen? 208 years and they don’t listen. Of all the prophets to the northern kingdom, only one is successful. His name was Jonah. Jonah prophesied to the nation of Assyria, enemies of Israel. They’re the nation who would ultimately come and destroy Israel. Yet, Jonah went to Nineveh, in Assyria and they repented and were saved. While Israel refused to listen. Isn’t that ironic, the people who didn’t know God, fell on their faces and repented; while the people who supposedly knew God, refused to follow God.
That’s the message of chapter 15. And there’s a very strong application for every one of us. God is still speaking today. The question is, will you pick up the phone and take the call, or will you send God to voice mail. And if you answer the phone will you really listen and then will you trust Him to follow Him, and take action. God has given His word to you.
God has given us His Holy Spirit. The Spirit is trying to move you into that relationship with God. And if you’ve accepted Christ, then that same Spirit is within you, bringing you wisdom, comfort, instruction and to teach and convict you. He’s also given us as a community to live life together. That our lives would depict the love of God.
So, God is calling. And what is He saying to you today? Maybe He’s telling you to do something, or to stop doing something. Maybe He’s telling you to go somewhere, or He’s telling you to stop going somewhere. Maybe He’s telling you to start or join something; maybe He’s telling you to give up already. Or maybe He’s telling you to keep charging forward on something.
PHONE RINGS — Oops, I forgot to turn my phone to vibrate.
It’s God! It’s for you. What do I tell Him? Will you take the call? Will you listen and follow Him, and will you love Him?
