Week 25

Week 25.

This may be a little disjointed and rambling, but this is what stood out to me this week.


We saw that it didn't take long for the Israelites to turn away from God. He punishsed Egypt with plagues, He led the Israelites by day and night as a cloud pillar and fire pillar, He divided the Red Sea for them to cross on dry land, He slew the Egyptian armies with the waters of the Sea, and His presence was awesome and frightening before them when He descended to the mountain to give them His law.

And they turned away from Him to worship an idol made with their own property and fashioned by their own hands.

It didn't take long for the Israelites to turn away from God after David died. Solomon, who started out on the right track and greatly blessed by God, in his later life turned from God to worship the false gods Molech, Astoreth, and Chemosh. And most of Israel followed his example.

After Solomon's death, the kingdom was split between his son and a man chosen by God. Solomon's son, Rehoboam, became king of the southern kingdom of Judah (consisting primarily of the tribes Judah and Benjamin). Jeroboam became king of the northern kingdom of Israel consisting of the other ten tribes. Neither man proved to be Godly, although Rehoboam had a slightly better start in the right direction.

The line of kings of Israel shows they were ungodly men, in many cases the next being more evil than the previous.


"The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Yes, even now. And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles. And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit." (1 Kings 14:14-16)

History records that the northern Kingdom, Israel, was destroyed by the Assyrian army in 722BC, the ten tribes scattered throughout the world, and vanished from existence.


The southern Kingdom, Judah, was ruled by a number of godly kings amid a longer list of ungodly kings. Eventually, the evil of Judah would be punished also.

And though the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, "Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you." "But you did not listen to me," declares the LORD , "and you have provoked me with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves."

Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the LORD , "and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25:4-11)

History records that the southern Kingdom, Judah, fell to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586BC.

Unlike the northern kingdom, the Jews continued and were given "freedom" to return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. (The prophecy fulfillment of this one, even to the naming of Cyrus the Great, is truly astounding and worth your time to study)


Asa, the first godly king of Judah, even lost focus on God. Where he initially trusted God to deliver him from his enemies, he later trusted his own strength and cunning. God chastized him for it by allowing war to come when there had been peace all around him.


I think it is easy for us to turn away from God and trust in our own intellect, cunning, and strength. It's a very human thing to do, and it isn't new to our generation.

We see in this week's reading that even Jeroboam and Rehoboam both humbled themselves before God and God withheld punishment from them for it.

This shows me that God is a God of forgiveness. He wants to forgive us. We just have to earnestly repent and want His forgiveness.