church history

As a family and as a covenant people, Israel is Yahweh’s chosen and Yahweh’s beloved. It is Yahweh’s possession and Yahweh’s treasure, separate and distinct from the rest of the world. It is chosen for its own sake, but also for Yahweh’s sake, and for the world’s sake because Yahweh’s intention is to reach out to the whole world through Israel.[1]

Self inflicted

The writer of the book of Judges saw the religion of Canaan as a more formidable force than its armies, and when Israel was tempted to adopt its values, disaster was the inevitable outcome:

‘Then the people of Israel sinned against Yahweh and began to serve the Baals. They stopped worshipping the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God who had brought them out of Egypt, and they … served the Baals and the Astartes. And so Yahweh lost patience with Israel and allowed raiders to attack them and rob them … and the Israelites could no longer protect themselves … They were in great distress’ (Judges 2:11–15).

This message sums up the perspective from which almost all the historical narratives of the Hebrew Bible were written and was applied as a means of understanding the ever-changing fortunes of the nation. Centuries after the time of the judges, all the great prophets, from Elijah to Jeremiah, were saying the same thing: that the people of Israel were going to ruin because of their love for the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites.

Thereafter the days of David and Solomon were days of unprecedented blessing on Israel. The nation as a nation enjoyed great material prosperity as seen in the vast amount of the materials David was able to gather together for the construction of the temple (2 Sam. 8:7–11). Solomon’s lavish wealth was described in 1 Kings 10:14–29 and 2 Chronicles 9:13–28. These kings expanded their borders to occupy more of the Promised Land than at any time in Israel’s history. And they enjoyed the blessing of peace, all of which can be attributed to their righteous obedience.

Following Solomon’s death, the kingdom was divided. Jeroboam the son of Nebat, one of Solomon’s officials, rebelled and formed a new northern monarchy, which took for itself the name Israel. Jeroboam himself set up a new religious system centering around idolatrous shrines at Bethel and Dan in the north. Later generations would seek to syncretize this idolatrous form of Yahweh worship with the Baal worship of neighboring lands to the north.[2]

Ten of Israel’s twelve tribes formed the northern kingdom of Israel, while the other two tribes—Judah and Benjamin—formed the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had an unbroken succession of godless kings—none of whom were of Davidic descent—while the southern kingdom was ruled by David’s descendants from the tribe of Judah. At no point in its relatively brief history was this Northern Kingdom faithful to their God or righteous in their ways. This resulted in the complete destruction of the ten northern tribes barely two hundred years after the founding of their independent kingdom (2 Kin. / 4Kg 18:9–12).

The succession of prophets God sent to Israel condemned its apostasy and disobedience, warned of coming judgment, and called the people to repentance.

A major function of the Old Testament prophet as administrator of the theocratic kingdom was to call Israel back to the Mosaic law to which the Israelites were bound to the Lord. Another function (among others) of the prophets was to proclaim predictive messages. The culmination of these predictive messages pertained to Israel’s future under Messiah’s kingdom rule. The prophets provided a God sent warning but also encouraged the people in the hope of God’s restoration.

In spite of the blatant apostasy in Israel, God graciously continued to plead with his people and warn them through “prophets” and “seers.” With the pagan deities came pagan practices such as child immolation (cf. 2 Kgs 16:3), and various magical practices (cf. 2 Kgs 9:22). The people of Israel had sold themselves to do evil with the deliberate intention, it would seem, of provoking Yahweh to wrath (17:17b).

Looking over the story of Israel’s resistance to Yahweh thus provokes a sense of puzzlement. Yahweh had demonstrated the capacity to provide for the people and in turning to empty gods they had “become empty”: that is resourceless. But here is a people changing a real God for a no-god, changing someone glorious for something that will be of no benefit.[3]

Beyond the mystery about Israel’s faithlessness, there is thus a further mystery about its persistence in this faithlessness.

4 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord,

“Do men fall and not get up again?
Does one turn away and not repent?
5 “Why then has this people, Jerusalem,
Turned away in continual apostasy?
They hold fast to deceit,
They refuse to return.
6 “I have listened and heard,
They have spoken what is not right;
No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his course,
Like a horse charging into the battle.    Jeremiah 8:4-6

Subsequently Yahweh confesses to a sense of deep puzzlement at the stupidity of the people left in Judah after the fall of Jerusalem who then flee to Egypt. “Come on, don’t do this,” Can’t they see the lesson in what happened to their kinsfolk when Nebuchadnezzar devastated Judah? Why are they trying to make Yahweh angry by worshiping other gods? Do they actually want to be cut off and made a laughingstock and a standard for cursing throughout the world?

4 Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.” 5 But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods…..7 Now then thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant.

Hosea, whose name means “salvation,” wrote the first book of the twelve prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Hosea prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II (r. 793–753 BC). Those who lived then did not think their nation was about to be destroyed. Times were good, and the people were prosperous when Hosea began to warn the nation (about 755 b.c.)

The Prophet Hosea pictured Israel as an adulterous wife because it had turned from the Lord—who had been as a faithful husband to them—and had joined itself to idols. What she has done instead is looked to the “Master” or the “Masters,” like a woman going after lovers because she thought they would provide for her better than her husband. The prophet warned of judgment to come (Hosea 12:2) and exhorted them to return to God (12:6; 14:1–2), noting that blessing would follow repentance (14:4–9).

Amos delivered a message to the northern kingdom warning of judgment to come because of the disobedience of the people (Amos 2:6–8; 3:2, 11, 14–15). The prophet reminded them of the principle that disobedience brings discipline and referred to God’s past dealings with Israel to prove his point (4:6–13). The prophet warned that the nation would fall (5:1–3). He also invited them to turn to the Lord in repentance (5:4, 6, 14–15). But because there was no repentance, judgment was inescapable (8:1–3). And having rejected the exhortation of the prophet there would be no further message from God, who said:

The days are coming … when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it (vv. 11–12).

The disobedient nation would be consigned to discipline (9:1–4) just as had been predicted in Deuteronomy 28:48–52.

Despite all the prophets God sent to the northern kingdom, there was no repentance. At no point in its relatively brief history was this Northern Kingdom faithful to their God or righteous in their ways. This resulted in the complete destruction of the ten northern tribes barely two hundred years after the founding of their independent kingdom (2 Kin. / 4Kg 18:9–12). So, in 722 b.c. God brought the Assyrians into the land to conquer it and to take the people into exile (2 Kings 17:7–41). The Assyrian Empire, as a standard policy, in order to prevent a future rebellion of conquered peoples, deported those peoples from their native lands to other parts of the Empire and brought peoples from those other regions to the newly conquered lands. The foreigners brought into the region around Samaria intermarried with the remaining Israelites to produce the Samaritan peoples.[4]

The same course of history occurred in the southern kingdom of Judah. Even though this small nation was ruled over by Davidic descendants, not all the kings walked in the ways of their father David.

Habakkuk was moved by the iniquity of Judah, about which God seemed indifferent. But God responded by revealing, “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor” (Hab. 1:6–7).

Jeremiah was a contemporary of the prophets Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel, and Ezekiel.

Jeremiah, over the span of a generation, condemned sin in the nation, warned of coming judgment, and called the nation to repentance. In 605 BC, Jeremiah prophesied that because of Judah’s sins, God would send Nebuchadnezzar (r. 605–562 BC), the king of Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem and take the Jews captive to Babylon (modern-day Iraq) for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:1–11).

His announcement of forthcoming invasion and captivity was very clear. And his call to repentance was equally clear.

Lest the people conclude that God had forgotten His covenants and that the nation would not inherit the promised blessings, the prophets were careful to prophesy a restoration of a repentant people to the land. Jeremiah illustrated this vividly when he purchased a field and secured it with a title deed so that after the restoration his descendants could claim property in the land (32:6–15). Restoration as a blessing was described in Jeremiah 23:7–8 and 33:6–26. The people would be brought back from captivity, the land would enjoy the bountiful blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1–14, and restoration would occur because of God’s faithfulness to His covenants.

Amos likewise was anticipating the enjoyment of the blessings of the Palestinian Covenant when he wrote: “I will bring back My exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them” (Amos 9:14–15).

[5]

After the fall of Israel, the kingdom of Judah continued to survive for another 136 years. Hezekiah was ruling in the southern kingdom when the Assyrians captured Samaria and deported the northern tribes.

The battle of Carchemish changed the dynamics of the politics of the Near East. The Babylonians were now the masters of the world. The Babylonian army arrived at Jerusalem on January 4, 587 b.c. They blockaded the city and began to systematically eliminate the outlying strong points.

To execute His discipline on Jerusalem and Judah, God brought Nebuchadnezzar into the land. The vivid description of invasion in Deuteronomy 28:47–52 might well have the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar in view, though that invasion does not exhaust the prophecy. Nebuchadnezzar came first in 605 b.c. and carried a number of the royal princes as captives into Babylon (Daniel 1:1–4).

He returned the second time in 597 b.c. when Ezekiel the prophet-priest was taken captive and with him a large portion of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:11–16).

Finally Nebuchadnezzar returned the third time in 586 b.c. and set siege against the city, bringing about its downfall and destruction (2 Kings 25:1–21; 2 Chron. 36:17–20; Jer. 39:8–10). The city was burned and its massive walls were totally dismantled (2 Kgs 8–10). In 586 BC all Jewish hostages—those taken in the siege together with deserters—prepared for deportation. Only the very poorest of the citizens were allowed to remain in the land.

The city was left without a temple and without a throne. To understand the weight of this idea, you need to know that according to the Jewish worldview, the Temple represented both the dwelling place of God as well as the meeting point of heaven and earth. This dwelling place and meeting point shifts in the biblical narrative from Eden to the Temple in Jerusalem[6] Thus Nebuchadnezzar’s invasions marked the beginning of a very significant prophetic time period which Christ later referred to as “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24). The times of the Gentiles is that extended period of discipline on God’s covenant people during which time no Davidic descendant sits on David’s throne ruling over David’s kingdom. It extends from the destruction of Jerusalem and the emptying of the throne of David by Nebuchadnezzar until the ultimate repentance. The Bible indicates that this ultimate repentance of Israel will not take place until the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, to this earth.

The people knew that covenantal disobedience would eventually result in the curse of exile. The people were deported, and like Adam and Eve departing Eden, Israel and Judah departed the Promised Land to live in foreign territory.[7]