Good Tuesday to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
With Christmas weekend approaching, we’re going to pause our journey through the life and times of Samuel, leaving the Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel in the home of Abinadab, in the town of Kiriath Jearim, as we saw yesterday in 1 Samuel 7:1,2.
For the next few days, from this very same area in Israel, let’s roll time forward and journey toward Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. Moving from the days of Samuel forward about 300 years, we come again to a time of great turmoil throughout the land. Israel had turned far away from God, as they had in Samuel’s time. This time it was not the Philistines of Samuel’s day, but rather the armies of the great empire of Assyria with its capital Nineveh, which were ravaging the world and attacking the northern kingdom of Israel.
The record of 2 Kings 17 describes these terrible times in this way: “The king of Assyria invaded the entire land of Israel, marched against the city of Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. The Assyrians captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.” (2 Kings 17) The year was 722bc and the devastation by the Assyrians was widespread in the entire region. Cities and towns were destroyed, fields of crops burned, thousands of people killed or taken captive back to Assyria. Only the small southern Kingdom of Judah, with the city of Jerusalem, remained of what had once been the great nation of Israel under Kings David and Solomon.
But God wanted His people then and us today to understand that this was not about the superior military force of the Assyrian army, this was about God’s judgment upon His people for their rejection of God; their abandonment of His Covenant morals and lifestyle guidelines; their replacement of holy worship of holy God with idolatry; and even their blatant immorality.
God summarized it this way in 2 Kings 17: “All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God… They worshipped other gods and followed the practices of the wicked nations the LORD had driven out before them… The LORD warned Israel and Judah through His prophets… but they would not listen. They rejected God’s decrees and covenants… they followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless… they forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves idols…They bowed down to all the starry hosts and they worshiped Baal. They even sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD… So, the LORD removed Israel from His presence… The LORD rejected the people of Israel and gave them into the hands of plunderers… So, the people of Israel were taken into exile in Assyria.”
The entire 17th chapter of 2 Kings is the detailed and sometimes graphic account of this final destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel including the areas visited by tourists in modern times like Nazareth, Tiberias, Capernaum, Caesarea Philippi and the entire region of the Galilee.
Into these desperate times Isaiah, the prophet was one of many voices God raised up to speak God’s truth of warning but also God’s hope. Isaiah had warned them: “The LORD your God will bring on you Israel a time unlike any in the past – He will bring the king of Assyria.” (Isaiah 7:17) Isaiah had written with conviction: “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead, on behalf of the living? If they do not speak according to the law and the Testimony of God, they have no light. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and looking upward they will curse their king and their God. Then they will look around and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” (Isaiah 8:19-22) That horrific prediction by Isaiah is exactly what happened throughout the northern kingdom of Israel for several generations as God’s justice was served on His rebellious people.
But then, sometime later, Isaiah took up his stylus again and was moved by God to write about HOPE that would happen as a result of what we call Christmas! “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, God humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future God will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by way of the Sea, along the Jordan – the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned… For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called ‘Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’…” (Isaiah 9:1,2,6)
The region of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali is the region surrounding the Sea of Galilee to the north and west. This area is where Jesus was raised, called His disciples, did many of His miracles, preached many of His sermons and spent most of His time. Jewish readers of Isaiah would remember it was in the days of Joshua, when the Land of God’s Promise was divided among the tribes of Israel, that the tribe of Zebulun and Naphtali took possession of this northern region of Israel to be their homeland. (Joshua 19)
Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, not only was Isaiah proclaiming that this God sent Messiah would bring the HOPE of God’s Presence to this region terribly devastated by war, Messiah would bring the LIGHT of God’s Truth. Do you remember Jesus said “I am the light of the world, whoever follows ME will not walk in darkness… If you hold to My teachings, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:12, 32,32) Isaiah was challenging his readers to understand much of their peril, the disasters which had overcome them and ravaged their land was due to their rejection of God and God’s truth and their embrace of artificial, man-made philosophy and untruth.
Rejection of God’s truth always ensnares a person in the ravages of deceit which leads them into enslavement in despair and results in deep darkness of their heart and mind, their soul. In that place of despair the darkness leads us to make self destructive choices which too often damage those we love around us. We don’t need to look far to see the clear evidence of this in broken marriages and dysfunctional families, addiction to all types of chemicals and behavior that are destroying us, as well as attitudes and behavior that is destructive to everyone we touch.
But Isaiah was proclaiming that instead of God turning His back on the human race, God was actually going to come here and live among us, showing us how to restore the broken and awaken hope in the despair all around us! That is Christmas isn’t it my friends? The coming of God into our world which had refused and rejected Him! Are you and I voices of HOPE today, like Isaiah was in his day? Today we celebrate that God did not give up on His plan for humanity despite our failure, and Isaiah’s hopeful promise gives us good reason to be joyful this week, with Christmas coming! Here’s a song to help us celebrate the truth of God’s refusal to give up on us!
Today’s Scriptures are Isaiah 7,8; 2 Kings 17.
Choose below to read or listen.
Isaiah 7
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Isaiah 8
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2 Kings 17
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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