Religion in Israel 922 to 587 BC

Spiritual life in Israel 922 to 587 BC

or: Can the Leopard Change its Spots?

Next I want to examine the sweep of history from the period of the “judges” ( c. 1200 to 1020 BC) which we have just finished to the final deportation of the Jews from their land to Babylon in 582 BC. Actually I will pass over the reigns of Saul and David and start with Solomon. 2 Chronicles spans this period of history from the perspective of the influence of the kings on the religious life of the nation. 

 

Unsurprisingly the boom and bust spiritual cycle continues. The kingdom splits in two after Solomon's death. Chronicles concentrates on the Southern kingdom of Judah which continues with kings who are descendants of David and here the king of the day plays a pivotal role in the state of national religion however there are mentions of the Northern kingdom of Israel and here the officially sanctioned religious institution is generally an arm of the king's rule. But that is a story for later!

For now I want to tabulate the kings and make brief notes about the state of religion and their part in it. To complicate matters some “bad” kings were converted and became “good” and (more often) initially good kings went bad at the end of their reign.

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922 BC Rehaboam : Managed to set the Northern peoples in rebellion by handling them in-diplomatically. Then abandoned God. Egyptians attack. A prophet tells him; “You abandoned God therefore God has abandoned you”. The leaders then humble themselves before God and so they are rescued to the extent that Egyptians only carry off plunder and make them a vassal state.

915 BC Abijah: Maintained the Temple services and trusted God when attacked by a large force from the North and he was victorious over them.

913 BC Asa: (2 Chron.14, 2ff) “Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Ashera poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord the God of their fathers and to obey his laws and commands.” When attacked by a huge Cushite army, Asa cried out to God for help and they were routed before him. Encouraged by a prophecy he went on to remove idols from the whole land and captured territory and repaired the Lord's altar in Jerusalem. He even deposed his grandmother for worshipping Ashera. He enjoyed peace until the 36^th year of his reign.

873 BC Jehoshaphat: in his early years “he walked in the ways his ancestor David had followed. He did not consult the Baals but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel” … “he removed the high places and Ashera poles from Judah.” “the fear of the Lord fell on all the lands surrounding Judah, so they did not make war with Jehoshaphat.” In a most spectacular display, God causes the annihilation of a huge army from three nations coming to attack Jerusalem (see2 Chron. 20) . However there is a comment at the end that for all Jehoshapht's piety (and God's deliverance of the nation from enemies!) “the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.”

849 BC Jehoram : “when Jehoram had established himself firmly over his father's kingdom he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the princes of Israel … He did evil in the sight of the Lord.” Subject nations successfully rebelled. A prophet warned him: “You have not walked in the ways of your father … You have led the Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves … You have also murdered your own brothers therefore the Lord is about to strike ...” The nation was attacked and invaded and plundered and Asa was struck down with a painful fatal disease. “(Jehoram) passed away to no one's regret ...”

842 BC Ahaziah: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord” Killed whilst visiting the king of Israel, then his mother took power

842 BC Athaliah : A nasty woman! On her son's death she exterminated the royal family and ruled. One baby prince, Joash was rescued and brought up by the high priest in the temple of God in Jerusalem. When he was aged seven with the help of the priests and army a coup was staged and Athaliah was executed.

837 BC Joash. “Joash did right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoida the priest” (who raised him). He repaired the temple. “After the death of Jehoida, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king and he listened to them. They abandoned the temple of the Lord the God of their fathers and worshipped Ashera poles and idols” God sent prophets to warn them but the people did not listen. Then Zechariah, Jehoida's son prophesied: “This is what God says: 'Why do you disobey the Lord's commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord he has forsaken you.” Joash the king had him murdered. “at the turn of the year the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people.”

800 BC Amaziah: “ He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly” He later conquered a neighbouring country – but brought back their idols and started to worship them. He refused to hear a prophet sent to warn him. He challenged Israel, but was defeated, captured and lost all the valuables from his palace and the temple. He was eventually assassinated by conspirators.

783 BC Uzziah: “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord … he sought God all the days of Zechariah who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success” Later he became proud and tried to usurp the priestly role: he was struck down instantly with leprosy.

742 BC Jotham: “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord … The people however continued their corrupt practices.” he was successful in battle. “Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the Lord his God”

735 BC Ahaz: “He made cast idols for worshipping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. Therefore the Lord his God handed him over to the king of Aram ...” Other surrounding nations pressed attacks. “the Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz … because he had promoted wickedness in Judah and been most unfaithful to the Lord.” He also closed the temple and built pagan altars throughout Jerusalem.

715 BC Hezekiah: “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” He opened the temple. He ordered the priests and Levites to clean out and consecrate the temple. Re-instituted Passover and sent couriers round the country with the message: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that he may return to you ...” There was a great assembly in Jerusalem for the feast of unleavened bread and “When all this had ended the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah and smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Ashera poles ...” When the Assyrian King Sennacherib invaded, God miraculously rescued Judah. Sennacherib withdrew to his own country and was assassinated.

687 BC Manasseh: “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord … he rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished, he also erected altars to the Baals and built Ashera poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts. He built altars (to the starry hosts) in the temple of the Lord … He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practised sorcery, divination and witchcraft and consulted mediums and spiritists.” …

“the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention so the Lord sent the army commanders of the king of Assyria who captured Manasseh … then Manasseh humbled himself greatly before the Lord … who brought him back to Jerusalem … Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God … he got rid of the foreign gods … the people however continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.”

642 BC Amon: “he did evil in the sight of God” his officials conspired and assassinated him.

640 BC Josiah: “he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” He was 8 when he became king. At age 16 he “began to seek the God of his ancestor David” At 18 “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Ashera poles and carved idols and cast images.” At 26 he ordered the repair of the temple, during these the “Book of the Law” was found. He called all the people together, read out the book of the Covenant, and renewed the covenant – to follow the Lord and keep his commands. He made all in the country serve the Lord. “As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord the God of their fathers.”

609 BC Jehoahaz: only reigned 3 months before he was removed by the king of Egypt

609 BC Jehoiakim: Installed as a vassal to Egypt. “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar invaded and took him captive to Babylon.

598 BC Jehoiachin: Installed as vassal to Nebuchadnezzar, “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord”. He was summoned to Babylon and replaced by his uncle Zedekiah

597 Zedekiah: made king as vassal to Nebuchadnezzar, taking an oath of allegiance in the Lord's name. “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah who spoke the word of the Lord.” He also broke his oath and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians besieged Jerusalem. Zedekiah rejected God's promise of safety if he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem fell in 587. Zedekiah's sons were executed in front of him, he was then blinded and taken in chains to Babylon along with most of the survivors. The city was looted and the temple destroyed.

Those are the main facts. Next post I shall attempt to draw some conclusions from them.

One Thing That Can Trigger Revival

One Thing that Can Trigger Revivals

In Judges (and 1 Samuel 7) we have statements that there were revivals of true religion after times of apostasy.

A theme that occurs over and over again runs like this: “Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord and he gave them over to ----- for ---- years. When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of their distress he sent them --- who delivered them.”

Several times the stress is on God's compassion for them and there is no mention of him waiting for revival of religion – apart from appealing to him for help — before he acts. In others there is either the demand to, or the stated fact that they did, put away their false gods and return wholeheartedly to him.

There are two examples in particular that I think repay closer inspection.

The first is that of Gideon.

In Sunday School we tended to focus on the episodes of “Gideon's fleece”; the choosing only the 300 warriors who didn't kneel down to drink; and the exciting bit of smashing the pitchers, holding up flaring torches, blowing trumpets, shouting “for the Lord and for Gideon” and standing there while the confused Midianites killed each other. For our purposes I want to pass over those.

In Judges 6 we have the familiar “again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord”. This time “and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” Then after a brief account of their privations under this incessant raiding: “When the Israelites cried out to the Lord he sent them a prophet ...” So God's first response on this occasion was to call the nation to repentance, for the prophet's message was: “This is what the Lord the God of Israel says: I brought you up out Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you 'I am the Lord your God, do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me”.

So in answer to their cry for help there was a reminder of God's gracious dealings with them in the past and their ingratitude and disobedience. Interestingly there is no mention of their response to this call to repentance at this stage, rather the narrative continues with God beginning to rescue them.

Gideon is told he is God's chosen leader for this purpose. Like many others in this position he demurs at first but when God demonstrates his presence, Gideon accepts his commission. Now we come to an interesting bit. What is the first task God sets Gideon? (can you remember without looking it up)

Gideon's first assignment is to tear down the local pagan shrine and offer a bull as a burnt offering to the real God.

This may sound simple: it was not!

Gideon sensibly did it at night, and even so, when the fact was discovered the men of the town demanded Gideon be put to death. 

 

So the populace could not have listened to the prophet sent to them if their attachment to the cult of Baal and Asherah were still so strong that they wanted to Kill Gideon for challenging it. Nevertheless God proceeds to rescue these ingrates! But I think it is really significant that his chosen leader has to thus demonstrate his loyalty to God.

Coming forward to the present day, how would any of us even in a society where we at least won't be killed fare in standing up against false “gods” that have been intertwined in our culture? I offer this challenge because I have faced it myself! Yes, I chose loyalty to God and no I wasn't killed, but on the other hand I was not rescued as Gideon was by his father's edict: “Whoever fights for Baal will be put to death by morning” instead I paid – only in human terms of course – a price for my loyalty. Of course I don't regret it for a moment! (well not many moments anyway), as Paul said anything we suffer now is nothing in comparison to the glory which awaits us in heaven. But I have mentioned this as a warning that being part of a revival will not be all fun and games!

The second example is in the preface to the account of Jephthah in Judges 10.

The usual start “again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the philistines”. The Israelites certainly seem to have outdone themselves in disobeying and forsaking God this time! Then: “ he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites who that year crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed them.”

Once again when their suffering brought them to their senses “the Israelites cried out to the Lord 'We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals'.”

This looks like repentance, but this time God is tough on them : “The Lord replied 'When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods so I will no longer save you. Go cry out to to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are I trouble!”

This is a lesson which is repeated and expanded on through the Bible. For instance the N.E.B. translates Rom. 2,4 as “Or do you think lightly of his wealth of kindness, of tolerance and of patience, without recognising that God's kindness is meant to lead you to a change of heart?” 

 

In this case they had thought lightly of God's kindness so he resorts to toughness which fortunately for them does lead the people to a real change of heart: “But the Israelites said to the Lord 'we have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.' Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer.” And God does rescue them.

So at least one thing that can trigger revival is when suffering as a result of abandoning God brings people sufficiently to their senses that they ask God for help.

 

Perhaps that is like a group version of the “Prodigal Son” who only comes to his senses when he is starving and finds forgiveness and reconciliation when he takes the road back to his father. We may see further instances of this particular cause of revival, and find others as we proceed.

Spiritual Boom and Bust Cycle

Spiritual Boom and Bust Cycle

This seems to be a major theme of the book of the Bible called “Judges”. 

 

I said earlier that we had to be careful applying things that God did with ancient Israel to modern entities because Israel had a unique relationship with God. However in this 'boom and bust' cycle it is human nature that is in question and so we should still be able to learn valid lessons. Also God's mercy and kindness even when his covenant people flagrantly broke the covenant and brought on themselves the dire consequences this involved is something we can take great comfort in.

As readers may be aware, mostly these “judges” were not judges in the legal sense. They were national leaders raised up by God in times of emergency to rouse Israel to fight and defeat enemies who were oppressing them. With two notable exceptions: Deborah, a prophet, seems to have been a law-court type of judge. On God's orders she appointed a military leader to throw off Canaanite domination. Samuel was another law-court judge doing yearly circuits of Israel. When the neighbouring Philistines attacked the Israelites gathered at Mizpah, Samuel did not lead the army but prayed and in response God threw the Philistines into such panic that they fled from the Israelites.

I think it will be best to describe this cycle in the Bible's own words from Judges Ch 2.

6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. …….

1  After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands.18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

So the pattern seemed to go like this: God rescues them and they stay faithful for a while, then the next generation ditches God in favour of attractive human-invented “gods”. God leaves them to the consequences … eventually they cry out to him, he rescues them and so the cycle starts over.

It seems to me that this (and the continuing occurrences through the Old Testament) tell us something about human nature and human-invented religion (if we can include modern secularism as a religion!). Our human nature is intrinsically flawed. This nature rebels against true religion and coming into a friendship with the God who really exists. Jesus had quite a lot to say about this, and it is eloquently described at the start of John's gospel

“9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (KJV – for the poetry of it!)

What our human nature feel more comfortable with is this:– a religion which does not require us to repent of our sins and seek and receive God's forgiveness and henceforth be ever in God's debt – infinitely in his debt! That our proud human nature abhors! Yet to those who subdue their human pride, turn to God and devote themselves to being like Jesus, it is infinitely precious: forgiveness, adoption as God's sons and daughters, recipients of his love and heirs to his promises of eternal life with him in heaven.

So humans find for themselves other gods. These may make cruel demands: the O.T. condemns the people turning to worship “that detestable god” Moleck and burning their sons and daughters alive in his fiery statue. Today tourists may see Hindu devotees carrying a kavardi by metal skewers piercing their skin, and be awestruck at the torment they are prepared to endure in the course of their religion. On the other hand they may be religions that pander to our lusts: the worship of Asherah seemed to involve much sacred prostitution and adultery.

But the point is that the people who knew God and had been beneficiaries of his kindness kept turning away from him to these human religions. As he said through Jeremiah: (2:10 ff)

“Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

So we should not be at all surprised that we have seen a general falling away from Christianity over recent decades in the West. The rise of a stridently anti-Christian secularism is also explained once we recognize it as a human-invented substitute for religion of the old sort. This may not have advanced our thinking on the how of revival, but it has shown us that every generation needs one!

Bible on Revival

What the Bible has to say on Revival

There is no shortage of books about Christian revivals. Over the decades I have read a fair cross section of them, so why do I want to go back to basics and look at biblical examples? The answer is a bold one: I think on the whole that the books are missing vital elements.

To be sure some of the stories of past revivals make exciting and inspirational reading which is good as far as it goes, but I want to know more. Also authors of these put their own spin on them. Some are super-spiritual and discount the human – sociological factors, human psychology and techniques of persuasion. Others go to the other extreme of denying anything except these human elements. Finally some produce one-size-fits-all human based blueprints for revival which strike me as pretty useless.

So I want to go back to basics.

A word of warning before we enter the world of the Bible. I happen to believe it – which sets me apart from an awful lot of modern church ministers! For those who eschew the Old Testament, just two quick points. Sure the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus and found its fulfilment in him, but Jesus quoted it as authoritative in teaching and said “I did not come to do away with the Law and Prophets” (which is what they called what we call the “Old Testament”) So If one believes in Jesus one is committed to taking the OT as authoritative too. Second point is the statement in 1 Corinthians 10.11 about the experiences of the Israelites in the desert: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us...” This should alert us to the fact that there are things to be learned from the narratives in the OT. So far from being “just a Jewish history” as I have heard it described, we have deliberately preserved for us in the OT narratives historical scenarios which have something to teach us.

I also happen to credit God with more (infinitely more!) than average human intelligence which sets me apart from an awful lot of “Christian” platform speakers and their followers. Here is what I mean: First they treat the Bible as a grab bag of quotes to back up their own one-eyed ideas – they wouldn't dare do that if they really believed it came from God! Then they read it in a literalistic way – as if God didn't know about the figures of speech and plays on words that even pretty dumb humans use all the time.

For example we understand a play on words – as in this joke: “There are two fish in a tank; one turns to the other and says 'Hey do you know how to drive this thing?'” Guess what? God uses plays on words too! For instance a very simple play in Jeremiah 1.11-12 where the footnote in your Bible should tell you that in the original Hebrew “almond tree” and “watching” sound alike.

If we interpreted our everyday language literalistically – which we don't – we would get ridiculous meanings. This is exploited for humour by one author (Terry Pratchett) in this example: “A brass plaque on the wall proclaimed that – against all gynaecological probability – 'Fred Bloggs was born here'”.

Other aspects of “methodology” will be discussed and developed as we go. If I were to put up a starting hypothesis to test it would be something like this:

a) There is no one-size-fits-all pattern of revival. Rather a great variety to suit different situations.

b) The initiative for revival is generally taken by God alone, but occasionally in response to the prayers of devout people.

c) Human agents are generally invited to play a role. Occasionally human agents unwittingly play a role.

d) God frequently utilises crises and sociological factors to motivate revival, and uses many honest techniques of persuasion.

Case Study : The Golden Calf – Exodus 32

I'm not going to treat this one in depth because it has many unique features.

But I think it is fair to use it as an illustration is the role played by a leader chosen by God. It would appear God was going to destroy the Israelites for turning away from him so quickly and attributing his deliverance of them from Egypt to an idol in the form of a golden calf, but in answer to Moses' petition spared them.

Ps 106.23 Puts this graphically even painting the image of a warrior defending the breach made by an enemy in a city wall: “So he (God) said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.”

From this I deduce that a person God has appointed leader may be able by their intercession to be responsible for God – in this case dramatically - changing his intentions, or in a more ordinary way sending revival. We may be able to refine this observation as we examine further cases.