Sunday, November 4, 2012

42 Kings - 9.5 Righteous and the Rest Stink

Happy Sunday friends!

This last week we have been studying the Kingdom Era of the bible. This includes the time from King Saul up until the captivity of the Jewish nations. A quick little history lesson before I really get into this...

God did not intend for His people to ever be ruled by a worldly king. However, due to the insistence of the people He allowed it. A man named Saul was anointed as King of Israel and the people rejoiced. While Saul was tall and handsome and looked the part, he did not have a heart for God. It did not take too long for God to reject him and to find a new guy for the job.

Enter in David. That name sound familiar? Well David is one of the most well known biblical characters after the big man Himself. He is the one who wrestled bears and lions. He defeated Goliath. He became the King of Israel known for being a man after God's own heart. Man, what a great tagline! David was a fantastic king minus the whole adultery and murder business he got into. But if you take that away he gets an A+!

After David dies, his sin son, Solomon takes over the family business. This is where the .5 of the righteous kings comes in. Solomon starts out all fine and dandy. He pleases God, because God tells Solomon He will give him anything he desires and Solomon asks for wisdom. Now this is a pretty Godly move by the S man. I mean let's be real here... He could have asked for wealth, power, lots of camels (I think camels were a big deal back then... something like a modern day collection of cars) but no he chose wisdom. Say what?! God was so pumped, He not only made Solomon the wisest man ever in the history of the world but the richest too. Solomon you lucky son of a gun! Now here is where Solomon's life gets a little odd. With all that wisdom he manages to still break the kings rule numero uno: DON'T COLLECT WIVES. How on earth did Solomon decide it was wise to have 700 wives and 300 concubines?! I really just don't get it! Like at all. Think about the headache that had to cause... I mean I have seen an episode of sister wives here and there and there are only 3 wives to one husband there and he seems to be in constant turmoil. Those 1000 women in his life led him to stray from God. Guess who didn't like that? You got it, God. Way to go Solomon you made the big man angry. Dumb dumb. That is why we say Solomon is half righteous... he started out all good but over time he became unrighteous.

Due to this, God ripped the kingdom from Solomon's son. He was still a king but only for 2 tribes of Israel compared to 12. This started the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, Israel and Judah respectively. This is where things get really messy. Over the 400 years of existence, these two kings only managed to have 8 good kings... 8! 8 out of 39 total kings! All of them came from Judah while Israel had 0 good kings. Come now Israel... I feel like you could have at least had one... No? Well fine. Since you were so stubborn you get to go into captivity before Judah does. Assyria come and takes over Israel and Israel never returns again (Judah becomes the modern day Israel). Since Judah was not that much better they end up in captivity as well, even though they made it a little bit longer than Israel. Babylonia comes over and sweeps up Judah. Judah gets to return after 70 years and they rebuild Jerusalem.

Okay so are you an expert on the Kingdom era now? Juuuuust kidding! That was just a quick overview of what went on. If you have time, I encourage you to really study this era. There is so much to learn and God is sovereign throughout it all.

Below I have picked a king from the United Kingdom (no not the modern UK... Israel silly) and a king from the Divided Kingdom to study. I hope you enjoy my notes about them and even more I hope it inspires you to go get into the Word yourself. That is where real learning happens! Enjoy!

Logan


David – 2nd king of Israel. Came after Saul was disobedient and rejected by God.
  • Positives:
    • David is known as a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22 – After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do”.)
    • Refused to kill Saul even though he was pursued by him.
      • He has two blatant opportunities to but he does not because Saul was anointed by God to be king. (1st Samuel 24, 26)
    • Completes many conquests sanctioned by God
    • Worships the Lord with no regard for anything else
      • 2nd Samuel 6
    • Has a heart to rebuild the temple of God
      • God does not allow him to because he was a man of war but he makes preparations and God allows his son to build it.
    • After sinning he truly repents and comes back to God (Psalm 51, 2nd Samuel 12:13)
  • Negatives:
    • Becomes lazy in faith which leads to big time sins
      • At home instead of being at war where the king should be
    • Commits adultery and murder
      • Sees Bathsheba while he was home from war and takes her even though he knows she is married. When he finds out she’s pregnant he tries to trick her husband into sleeping with her so he would think it is his. However, Uriah has too much honor to sleep with his wife while he is suppose to be at war so David decides to have him killed in war. (2nd Samuel 11)
      • God takes away first child
    • It takes Nathan the prophet to call David out on his sin in order for him to even recognize it. (2nd Samuel 12)
  • Lessons Learned:
    • Worship the Lord with your whole heart.
      • David did not care what other people thought when he danced out in front of the ark. Not even his wife who rebuked him for making a fool out of himself.
    • Have accountability in your life.
      • David did not have the huge mistakes in his life until his best friend/spiritual peer Jonathon died. When this happened he did not have somebody in his life who was around all the time to help him stay on track with God. Without any accountability he fell to temptation.
    • How to repent from sin.
      • David teaches us how we should not only confess our sin but repented and mourned it. After he acknowledges his sin against God he feels a deep sadness over it and seeks out God. He enters into a time of prayer where the only thing that matters to him is God’s forgiveness. With that attitude he is forgiven by God.

Hezekiah (13th King of Judah)
  • Positives:
    • Did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (2 Kings 18:3)
    • Removed the high places and cut down idols
    • Trusted in the Lord
    • Considered the greatest king of Judah (2 Kings 18:5)
    • Followed the Lord’s commands
    • Seeks the Lord during battle conflicts
  • Negatives:
    • Gave away the gold and silver of the Lord’s temple to get out of trouble (2 Kings 18:15-16)
    • Showed off Israel’s storehouses in order to bolster their appearance. (2 Kings 20:12-13)
  • Lessons Learned:
    • Regardless of the state of your family you can be live for the Lord.
      • Hezekiah had a long line of disobedient ancestors towards the Lord and his son would be known as one of the worst kings ever but Hezekiah did what he could to follow the Lord.
      • He took personal responsibility!
    • Only boast in the Lord, not in possessions
      • Boasting in all the stuff Israel had is what got Hezekiah into trouble. This is when it is prophesized that Babylonia would take away all of their possessions.

What the Kingdom Era Taught Me About the Character of God
  • God is full of mercy.
    • All throughout the kingdom period you see God patiently waiting for these kings to obey Him. 31 of them do not please the Lord in their actions while only 8 do. Throughout all of this He sticks by His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Judah and does not just destroy the nation. (Let’s be real, if I had been God I would have just gotten rid of them… PTL I’m not!)
    • Even when a horribly evil king like Manasseh repents as he has been captured, the Lord shows him mercy.
      • Due to God’s mercy, Manasseh changes his ways and takes away the foreign gods and rebuilds the wall of the City of David.

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