Revivals in Israel Pt 1

Revivals in Ancient Israel (922 to 732 BC) Pt 1

The “ten tribes” which rebelled against Rehoboam formed the northern kingdom of “Israel” from then on to its demise at the hands of the Assyrians in 732 BC.

Humanly the rebellion was caused by Rehoboam's lack of diplomacy and care for his subjects. Divinely it was foretold and caused by God in response to Solomon abandoning God in his old age.

Jeroboam (king 922-901) had been approached by the prophet Ahijah who said “This is what the Lord says: 'I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's had and give you ten tribes … you will be king over Israel' ”. Sadly, after the successful rebellion Jeroboam did not trust God to maintain him in power but made his own holy places at each end of the kingdom (Dan and Bethel) complete with golden calves and his own brand of priests (not Levites as God had decreed). 

 

I will skip over the next five kings of Israel, because they all followed the same pattern. Most took over the throne by force and killed all the males related to the former king. All of them did further evil in God's sight by worshipping idols. A prophet would tell them that God was about to strike them for all the evil they had done but they did not repent and then disaster befell them.

This brings us to Ahab, who succeeded his father Omri as king. He married Jezebel who was a devotee of Baal, and between them they made Baal and Ashera worship the state religion and tried to exterminate Yahwism. Onto this stage steps the prophet Elijah.

Elijah throws down the gauntlet by declaring that, although they claim their idols control the weather there will, as a demonstration of Yahweh's power, there will be no rain until he says so.

There follows a delightful account (1 Kings 17 & 18) of the cat and mouse game: Ahab trying to capture Elijah but God hiding and miraculously feeding him. In the midst of this we learn that there has been an “underground church” in Israel. We encounter one Obadiah, a high official who still worships God and who has hidden away 100 prophets of God and supplied them with food and water.

Then comes the big contest. Elijah challenges the Baalists through Ahab to meet him on Mount Carmel before all the Israelites. 

The prophets of Baal dance all morning around the altar they have built to no avail. At the time of evening sacrifice Elijah says a short prayer and fire falls from heaven and consumes the offering on his altar. After such a demonstration the Israelites declare their allegiance to God and dispose of the prophets of Baal. Then the rains come.

In this revival of true religion, God defeats the ruthless power of the state with a miraculous demonstration of his superior power. 

 

After this, God delivers Israel twice from attacks by vastly superior forces. Even after the judicial murder of Naboth, God's sentence on Ahab is postponed because Ahab humbles himself before God.

Elisha succeeds Elijah as prophet and his ministry too is studded with spectacular miracles. The king, Ahab's son goes in awe of Elisha, and is delivered from attacks by the neighbouring Arameans, but Jezebel is still alive and we see later that while there are companies of God's prophets, there are also many belonging to Baal. I am only guessing, but this could be the reason God works so many spectacular miracles at this time.

A lesson for today I would Take from this is: God can, but infrequently does, miracles. I say this because there has on one hand been a “signs and wonders” movement that expected miracles at every turn, but on the other hand in mainline churches a lack of belief in let alone expectation of miracles. In the Bible they do happen but they are pretty rare: mostly grouped around Elijah and Elisha, then Jesus and the early Apostles. Apart from that they are sprinkled as authentications of prophecies (as for Hezekiah) and as military deliverances – although there are certainly a large number of those! As Jesus said: “In the time of Elisha the prophet no one in Israel was cleansed of leprosy, only Naaman the Syrian” 

 

My advice is: Pray for miracles, because when the situation warrants it God is more than capable of doing them: but do not expect them just whenever you think they might be useful. 

 

Next an army commander, Jehu is anointed king by one of the prophets at God's command. I am personally confused about what follows. Jehu deliberately carries out God's sentence on Ahab that all his descendants would be killed. He also disposes of Jezebel. He kills all the prophets and ministers of Baal, and purges the leading men of the country. The Bible commends him for carrying out God's sentence, but historically his purge of all the leaders weakens Israel economically for some generations. Perhaps I am wrong, but I would take two opposing lessons from this:

1) God takes the perverting of true religion really, really seriously – so that a complete purge is worth the consequent problems …. but …

2) To convert and be able to retain the leaders, influential people and intelligentsia is better still.

As God predicted, Jehu's descendants to the fourth generation are kings, thereafter they change by assassinations and coups. They do not institute religious revival. Although some like Jehoash revered the prophet Elisha, indeed he referred to him as “the chariots and horsemen of Israel”. Some, like Jeroboam II had economic prosperity, some were oppressed by Aram, and finally Hoshea by turning traitor against his Assyrian overlord caused all Israel to be deported and scattered over the Assyrian empire. 

 

So unlike Judah in the South, kings were rarely the motivators of revival in Israel.

 

We have looked at Elijah and Elisha, next I want to see what effect some of the later prophets sent to the North had.

My Adventures with God Ch.16

Ch 16: Schools & Miracles

I took “religious education” classes one morning a week in each of the two government junior schools which served the area.

There was a provision for people accredited by an inter-church body to give these half-hour lessons in government schools using an approved syllabus. Over time this body had brought out revised syllabuses to appease the strong anti-Christian lobby groups which wanted no religious education at all. I believe that this was a mistake because these lobbyists, like the proverbial camel getting into the tent inch-by-inch, would never be appeased no matter how much the Christian content was watered down. However the fact is that the inter-church body had watered down their new syllabus so much by this time that it was little more than a secular social studies course dressed up in a few Bible verses. My snapping point with it had come a year or so earlier when the lesson about Easter was totally taken up with a story about some eastern European tradition of rolling Easter eggs downhill! The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead rated I think just an obscure line ticked away at the end to the effect that “Some people believe ...”

After reaching my snapping point with the new syllabus I was faced with a problem. Not just the problem that the approved syllabus came with glossy worksheets for the children and notes for the teachers. The ethical problem. People who want to be Christ-like aim to act honestly and honourably. If the government has granted access to schoolchildren under its care on certain conditions then Christ-like people will not break those conditions. There are of course unscrupulous people who do abuse such access to indoctrinate children into their political or religious outlook: but we do not copy their example.

My breakthrough came when, as a curate I took this up with a representative of the inter-church body. I was told that there was an “old syllabus” which was still permitted. But of course, I was told I would not want to use that because there were no teaching aids for the old syllabus and anyway it was only Bible stories! So henceforth I used what I understood to be the old syllabus: Bible stories.

A Quick aside on stories as instruction

In that period people in the churches who held themselves up as 'experts' pooh-poohed Bible stories. I think they were just short of barking mad! Stories are brilliant teaching tools. Young children have a great ability to extract a moral from a story without it being spelled out. Later when I was studying moral philosophy one of my texts was Alastair McIntyre’s 'After Virtue' One point he made was that for a thousand years Homer's stories had fixed the model in the minds of generation after generation of what it was to be a Greek Citizen. Similarly, he pointed out, in the Judeo-Christian world, Bible stories had been powerful in character formation and upbringing. So ceasing to tell the stories of the Bible to children so that they at least know them and can draw their own morals from them was a big mistake. Huge!

So I told Bible stories. I covered the whole span of the Old and new Testaments. I narrated, I dramatised, I got them to act out some parts: but I stuck to the original script – I did not try to foist my conclusions on them! We also did prayers. I would ask the kids for anything they wanted me to pray about. That got interesting in the football season – everyone wanted God to make their team win, and thought God just making it a fair game wasn't any good – after all the best team was going to win anyway!

The kids loved the stories. However I did need something else. I wanted music. There I faced two problems. First I couldn't sing or play an instrument. Second, and most important I couldn't find any suitable music.

Those readers who have been brought up in the church may say: “Oh but there are such lovely Sunday School songs” or perhaps “There is so much contemporary church music”. Really? Try looking at the words from the point of view of a ten year old with no Christian background. Try singing some of the tunes – if one can call them tunes!

I was not going to insult the street-wise intelligence of these kids with words like “Noah and the floodie-wuddy” In fact I came to the sad conclusion that the words of all the “children's” Christian music were so trite and condescending that they would make the good news about Jesus look ridiculous to these life-hardened kids.

So what did I do? I went into my study and complained to God. I was direct. I said more or less: “God, If you want me to teach RE then I need you to provide some decent kids music!”

So what did God do? God did something really amazing.

A few days later Rosalie, our first convert, turned up again on our doorstep and said she had a strange story to tell. Her story went like this: “Yesterday I was cleaning the house. As I scrubbed the toilet the back of the brush hit the bowl and made a note. Suddenly the thought popped into my head:'that's the beginning note for a song'. Then this whole song flowed into my head. It is a Christian children's song, and I am getting other songs like it.”

Needless to say I stopped and listened to her sing a couple of her songs. The words were sound solid theology. The language was what the local kids spoke. The tunes were – melodic for a start – and they were predictable in the sense that you felt you could join in after just hearing a few bars.

Yes I said “Thank you God, thank you God” with all my heart!

Rosalie then offered to join me in the RE lessons. She took the singing bit, and mingled with the kids while I was doing the stories and prayers. God continued to give Rosalie more songs for the schools and for Sunday School. One class of very disturbed kids even got their own song which they proudly kept written on a large sheet of paper which was kept rolled away in the classroom to be brought out each lesson. No one else got to sing it. It started angry – which reflected their lives – and as it progressed transformed through Jesus love to peaceful. It worked for them!

The songs were an instant hit with the kids. They said something. They were singable. They were intelligible.

I want to illustrate how profound the theology of these songs were compared to even adult contemporary church music. The language is simple, the sub-text is not. Often the songs started by expressing the feelings and anxieties that our local kids really did have. Here are some examples.

For start of Sunday School;

Good morning God

You’ve brought us here together

Good morning God

You’ve brought us here today

Help us to learn

To care about each other

Help us to do

Everything your way. (the kids added “Olay!” at the end)

For Good Friday ...

See him dying, see him dying

Hanging high, near the sky

See him dying

(next verses modulate – up to the relative minor & then back to finish in major key)

Hear them crying, hear them crying

Gathered round, on the ground

Hear them crying

How he suffers, how he suffers

But he knows God’s love grows

We are free!

Just two more examples:

Hey Lord I'm lonely, hey Lord I'm lost

I wanted the world but look what it cost.

I know that I've hurt you, I've made you sad,

just like some kid done wrong by his dad.

…

Hey Lord forgive – I won't do it again.

and

Hey hey hey hey, hey look at me

now now now now, now that I'm free

see see see see, see how I've changed

love love love love, love's re-arranged.

….......

What am I saying? Just this: When I cam to the limit of my resources to do his work and asked God straight out for help – He sent help. In this case a combination of human effort and divine miracle.

Next Post: Holiday Mission.