Author: Calleen Hough

Unfaithful

The prophet Hosea was given the difficult task of modeling for everyone around him the relationship between God and Israel. Hosea’s choice of a mate was symbolic of God choosing the nation of Israel to be his people. Because Israel had been unfaithful to him, God told Hosea, “Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredoms, departing from the LORD” (Hosea 1:2).

The harsh picture drawn of the Israelites was meant to be a sort of shock treatment to get them to realize how God felt about their idolatry. Not only did God want them to know how disgusted he was with their behavior, but he also wanted them to know that in spite of their unfaithfulness, he still loved them and wanted them to come back to him. The names of Hosea’s children were used to convey a message of detachment and punishment for their inappropriate behavior. Beginning with Jezreel, God’s awareness of his children’s sin was made public so that his intentional rejection would not be mistaken for a lack of love on his part.

God had a right to be angry because he had gone to such great lengths to deliver his people from their sins, and yet, they made no effort to follow his commandments. In fact, the Israelites openly worshipped other deities and gave them the credit for their success. The seriousness of their transgression was reflected in the name of Hosea’s third child. “Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for you are not my people, and I will not be your God” (Hosea 1:9).

In spite of Israel’s lack of interest in having a relationship with the LORD, God did not want to permanently cut them off. His intention was to show them that their idol worship was pointless. In order to bring them to their senses, God allowed Israel to reap what it had sown, ruin, and destruction. Speaking of Hosea’s unfaithful wife Gomer, the LORD said, “Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now” (Hosea 2:6-7).

More than wanting to punish Israel for its unfaithfulness, God wanted to restore the relationship that existed between him and his people when they first entered the Promised Land. God was capable of forgiving them, but he would not allow his people to worship other gods. The end result that God expected was sincere devotion to him and him alone. He said, “And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God” (Hosea 2:23).

Imagine

Psalm 48 is a vision of a future or end state of the capital of God’s kingdom. The psalmist refers to this city as the “city of God” (Psalm 48:1). Another way of looking at it would be as God’s hometown, the city where he actually lives. It may be hard to imagine God living on earth, but the Messianic name of God, Immanuel, means “with us (is) God” (6005) or God with us.

The amazing thing about Psalm 48 is that it appears to have been written after Israel was taken into captivity. The purpose of the psalm was probably twofold. First, it was a statement of faith that Jerusalem would survive Assyrian attack. Second, the psalm provided hope to those who dared to imagine that God’s presence on earth would one day be a reality.

The ability to imagine themselves as the final victors over every kingdom on earth gave the Israelites strength to endure their most difficult challenge, exile from their homeland. With hopeful expectation, the psalmist stated, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion” (Psalm 48:2). In other words, he wanted us to imagine the city of Good as a bright light that brings joy to the faces of everyone that sees it.

In addition to portraying the city of God as a place of hope, the psalmist also described mount Zion as an impenetrable fortress. The city’s elevation, proximity to the desert, and access to a water supply made it a perfect place of refuge, but the presence of God’s temple made it an intimidating citadel that seemed beyond capture. The psalmist declared, “For lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled and hasted away” (Psalm 48:4-5).

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the city of God is its eternal existence. God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants was that he would give them the land of Canaan for ever (Genesis 13:15). When Jesus establishes his kingdom on earth, it says in Luke 1:33, “He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” According to this promise, the psalmist stated, “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever” (Psalm 48:8).

Trying to imagine a city without end would be impossible if it weren’t for the concept we have of heaven. Even though we can’t see it, we know heaven exists and that it is God’s home right now. Somehow, in the future, heaven and earth will intersect in such a way that eternal life will be natural for human beings. The key to this intersection is Jesus and his triumph over death. As if to explain the need for death to occur before there could be eternal life, the psalmist stated, “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death” (Psalm 48:14).

 

Spiritual reform

Hezekiah’s intentional effort to revive his nation’s worship system began immediately after he became king of Judah. It says in 2 Chronicles 29:3, “He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.” During his father Ahaz’s reign, idolatry had replaced worship of the LORD and the temple of God had been desecrated by foreigners (2 Kings 16:17-18). Hezekiah took responsibility for his nation’s spiritual reform and acted quickly to make things right again.

Hezekiah saw the connection between Judah’s trouble and the neglect of God’s temple. Hezekiah’s personal commitment to the LORD resulted n a national revival at a time when there was little to no interest in God’s blessing (2 Chronicles 30:10). Much of what Hezekiah did could be attributed to supernatural circumstances or divine intervention. After the temple was restored to daily activity, it was noted that it happened suddenly, as if in the blink of an eye (2 Chronicles 29:36).

The primary focus of Hezekiah’s spiritual reform was restoration of the Passover celebration. The Passover was key to the Israelites relationship with God because it not only represented their deliverance from Egyptian slavery, but also signified their forgiveness of sin. The Day of Atonement was a national celebration in which the priest made reconciliation in order to atone for the sins of all Israel (2 Chronicles 29:34). The sacrifice literally wiped the slate clean for the entire nation in a single moment.

The positive effect of having their sins forgiven resulted in the people of Judah giving generously to support the priest and Levites who served in the temple. It says in 2 Chronicles 31:5, “as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.” The people brought so much stuff to the temple that it took four months to process and store their offerings (2 Chronicles 31:7).

Hezekiah’s spiritual reform shows that the kings influence had a significant impact on the people. His actions were described as “that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God” (2 Chronicles 31:20). But, perhaps the best testimony to Hezekiah’s positive spiritual example was the condition of his heart. It says in 2 Chronicles 31:21, “in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart.”

Judah’s turnaround

King Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz king of Judah, began his reign within a few years of the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. It says in 2 Kings 18:1 that Hezekiah began his reign in the third year of Hoshea’s reign, which would have been about 729 B.C. In 725 B.C., Shalmaneser V, king of Assyria, attacked Samaria and three years later the northern Israelite kingdom ended. From that point forward, only the kingdom of Judah was left and Hezekiah became the first king since king Solomon that had sole control of the Promised Land.

Hezekiah’s approach to managing God’s kingdom was the opposite of his father’s. Whereas Ahaz had practiced obscene idolatry comparable to the pagan practices of Syria, Hezekiah was devoted to the LORD and kept his commandments (2 Kings 18:6). Most likely, this was due to the influence of his maternal grandfather Zechariah. During the reign of Uzziah king of Judah, Zechariah was a spiritual advisor. It says in 2 Chronicles 26:5 that Uzziah “sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God.” No doubt, Zechariah also shared his understanding of these visions with Hezekiah. Perhaps, as a young child, Hezekiah had listened in as his grandfather counseled king Uzziah in the ways of God.

The difference between the reigns of king Ahaz and his son Hezekiah was like night and day. The dramatic change produced an almost overnight turnaround in Judah’s decline in stature. King Ahaz’s defeat by Pekah the son of Remaliah resulted in 120,000 valiant men being killed in one day and another 200,000 people being taken into captivity. In spite of this devastating blow to the army of Judah, king Hezekiah was able to reverse the conditions in which the Philistines captured Judahite cities and subdued the most dreaded enemy of Israel (2 Kings 18:8).

King Hezekiah’s dramatic turnaround of the kingdom of Judah was proof that God had not turned his back on his people and was willing to forgive their transgressions if they would put their trust in him. The sincerity with which Hezekiah sought the LORD was such that it says of him in 2 Kings 18:5, “He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.”

Special status

God’s plan for the nation of Israel was unique in that he guaranteed salvation for his people based on a special status they held. Because he had chosen the Israelites, the LORD was committed to them and went to great lengths to secure their position in his kingdom. God described his care for his people as that of a man tending his vineyard. The objective was to bring forth good fruit. Isaiah stated, “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6).

It may have seemed as if God was too harsh with the Israelites when he sent them into captivity, but the process of salvation was different for them than everyone else. Originally, there was a need for atonement, a transaction in which the sins of the people were covered through a substitutionary sacrifice. Isaiah explained, “By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin” (Isaiah 27:9).

As the Israelites were scattered like seed out into the world, their relationship with God became more evident to the people around them. It was obvious they were not like everyone else. God’s work continued in and through them in spite of their dispersion. In some ways, it could be said, that the disintegration of the nation of Israel was a sign to the rest of the world that God required payment for sin. If he did not let his own children get away with their rebellion, how much more would he punish those who denied his existence.

One of the characteristics of the last days, or end of time, is that there will be a harvest. During that time, God will call his people back home. Isaiah said, “And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, o ye children of Israel” (Isaiah 27:12). The gathering of God’s people was compared to the threshing of wheat in order to emphasize a separation from the rest of the world. The reference to one by one indicated that God would track the whereabouts of Jacob’s descendants and supernaturally return them to the Promised Land.

Although there was an initial fulfillment of this prophecy when a remnant of the nation of Israel returned from Assyrian and Babylonian exile, Isaiah 11:11 indicated there would be a second effort to recover the remnant of God’s people. It is likely the final return will be a complete recovery sometime in the future. Isaiah stated, “And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).

The Resurrection

In the midst of Isaiah’s description of God’s judgment of the world, was a bright spot that appeared as if it were a silver lining to the cloud of doom that hung over God’s people. Speaking of the Messiah, Isaiah declared, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces” Isaiah 25:8). Isaiah portrayed the Messiah in that passage as both God and man. It was clear that Isaiah saw the Messiah as one who would arrive on the scene after God’s judgment was completed.

The belief that the Messiah would triumph over death may have been why his disciples were confused when Jesus said he would be crucified (Matthew 26:2). Jesus stated plainly that his victory over death would not come through avoidance of death, but through his resurrection (Luke 18:33). In spite of his explanation, Jesus’ followers were unaware of his impending resurrection at the time of his death (Luke 18:34). It wasn’t until the apostle Paul wrote about the transformation of believers that would occur when Christ returned, that the resurrection was finally understood (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).

Isaiah’s depiction of the resurrection implied a separation between the lost and the saved. Referring to the enemies of God, Isaiah said, “They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, the shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish” (Isaiah 26:14). The Hebrew word translated perish, ’âbad (aw – bad´) “represents the disappearance of someone or something. In its strongest sense the word means ‘to die or cease to exist'” (6).

In contrast to those whose memory would cease to exist, Isaiah said of God’s people, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Arise and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isaiah 26:19). Isaiah spoke of dead bodies coming back to life. His reference to the earth casting out the dead implied a restoration to normal life (7496).

The context of the resurrection Isaiah depicted was what is now referred to as the great tribulation. It is possible that Isaiah was actually describing the event known as the rapture which is expected to occur immediately prior to the great tribulation. After stating that the earth would cast out the dead, Isaiah went on to say, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut the doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over past. For behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isaiah 26:20-21).

Upside Down

The land God intended the Israelites to possess was described for Joshua as being, “from the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast” (Joshua 1:4). The closest Israel came to occupying the entire land promised to it was during the reign of king David when a friendship was formed with the king of Tyre, the Philistine hold on Israelite territory was broken, the Moabites were subjugated, and Damascus was forced to pay tribute to David (David’s Conquests).

Because Israel never gained full control of the land, kingdoms such as Tyre and Syria continued to exist and were a continual threat to Israel’s well-being. The only way for God’s kingdom to truly be established was for these kingdoms to be destroyed. God used the Assyrian empire not only to execute his judgment on Israel, but also to punish the universal sin of the nations that rebelled against God and the establishment of his kingdom on earth.

Moab, a kingdom to the east of Israel, was described by Isaiah as an extortioner, a spoiler, and an oppressor that would be consumed out of the land (Isaiah 16:4). Concerning Moab, Isaiah prophesied, “but now the LORD hath spoken, saying, within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble” (Isaiah 16:14). “The destruction of Moab was probably connected with an invasion by Sargon of Assyria in 715/713 B.C.” (note on Isaiah 15:1).

The crushing of Damascus, the capital of Syria, took place during the reign of Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria who captured Damascus and made it an Assyrian province (note on Isaiah 17:3). Damascus was like Tyre in that it was included in the land given to the Israelites, but it could not be converted from Baal worship and it influenced Israel into practicing idolatry. Referring to Damascus’ destruction, Isaiah declared, “At that day shall a man look to his maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves or the images” (Isaiah 17:7-8).

An indication that Isaiah’s message about the doom of Egypt was both immediate and ultimate in its significance was its partial fulfillment in 670 B.C. when Esarhaddon conquered Egypt (Isaiah 19:4), but some of Egypt’s transformation had yet to occur. In particular, references to Egypt being converted to the Lord make it clear that Isaiah was talking about things that would happen after the Messiah was born (Isaiah 19:19-21). Isaiah’s shift in focus to the eternal kingdom of God indicated that the transformation of the world would not be complete until the Messiah’s reign began.

Speaking about the end of time or last days, Isaiah said, “In that day shall Israel be third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed by Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance” (Isaiah 19:24-25). God’s judgment for universal sin has not yet occurred, therefore, the transformation that occurred during Israel’s captivity was only phase one of God’s plan of redemption. In the end, Isaiah predicted, only God’s kingdom would be left standing.

Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof…Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. (Isaiah 24:1, 23)

Burdens

God was not only  interested in the sins of Israel, but also the sins of the entire world, when he put together his plan of salvation. What differentiated God’s children from everyone else was his mercy toward the nation of Israel. As God had promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, so also he said he would “bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee” (Genesis 12:2-3).

The Assyrian empire was a key enemy of the nation of Israel because it wanted to create a single world system that its king would rule over. Within the Assyrian empire was a city known as Babylon that would one day rise to the top of God’s most evil list. Babylon symbolized the world powers arrayed against God’s kingdom and its role in the downfall of Judah and Jerusalem made it a target of God’s judgment.

In his burden of Babylon recital, Isaiah stated, “the day of the LORD cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners  thereof out of it” (Isaiah 13:9). Isaiah spoke of a purging of sinners that would be cruel, meaning it would be violent and deadly (393). God intended to punish the world for its mistreatment of his people. In particular, Isaiah said of Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isaiah 13:19).

In his discourse, Isaiah spoke of the king of Babylon as if he were Satan himself. Isaiah said, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15). The king of Babylon was a type of antichrist, perhaps the first leader that attempted to exterminate the Jews.

God’s overthrow of the Assyrian empire was intended to set in motion the collapse of Satan’s kingdom on earth. The link between Jewish captivity and the destruction of Babylon was necessary to establish the true source of Israel’s spiritual weakness, idolatry. God said he would break the Assyrian and tread him under foot, “then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders” (Isaiah 14:25).

 

The curse

It’s hard to imagine that God knew Israel would end up going into captivity even before they entered the Promised Land, but along side the blessings of obedience listed in Deuteronomy 28 are the curses of disobedience which state:

And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you dood, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone…Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant  of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: for they went and served other gods, and worshipped them , gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them; and the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: and the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them unto another land, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 28:63-64; 29:25-28)

Hoshea, the last king of Israel, reigned from 732-722 B.C. Shalmanezer, the successor to Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria, conducted a three-year protracted siege against Israel that ended in 722 B.C. “At that time, according to Assyrian annuls written on clay ‘I (Sargon) besieged and conquered Samaria, led away as booty 27,290 inhabitants…I installed over (those remaining) an officer of mine and imposed upon them the tribute of the former king” (Campaign of Shalmanezer V).

The explanation of Israel’s captivity was that they did not believe in the LORD their God. “And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them” (2 Kings 17:15).

God did not force the Israelites to obey him. He gave them a choice (Deuteronomy 30:19) and clearly stated the consequences they could expect (Deuteronomy 28). Israel’s disobedience resulted in God rejecting them and turning them over to their enemies to be punished (2 Kings 17:20). After the king of Assyria removed them from the land, he “brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of God” (2 Kings 17:24).

The resettlement of Samaria with a mixture of cultures and nationalities led to diverse religious practices and idolatry. It says in 2 Kings 17:29 that even though the people were taught God’s divine law, “Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.” In a very hypocritical manner, these people practiced syncretistic religion. “They feared the LORD, and served their own gods” (2 Kings 17:33).

An abomination

King Ahaz’s reign over Judah was characterized by extreme idolatry. The depths to which he sank is summarized in 2 Kings 16:3 where it says that he “made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.” An abomination is something disgusting. The Hebrew word “to’ebah defines something or someone as essentially unique in the sense of being dangerous, sinister and repulsive to another individual” (8441).

An abomination is detestable to God because it is contrary to his nature (8441). King Ahaz’s behavior deserved to be punished and yet there is no record of anything happening to him as a result of his offenses against God. In fact, God sent Isaiah to deliver a message to Ahaz that indicated God wanted to help Ahaz and would deliver him from Syria and Israel if Ahaz would only believe in the LORD (Isaiah 7:9). But instead, Ahaz put his trust in Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria.

When Rezin king of Syria recovered an important port city on the gulf of Aqabar, it says in 2 Kings 16:7 that “Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son, come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria.” Basically, what Ahaz was saying was that Tiglath-pilneser was his god. Ahaz was going to rely on him for deliverance rather than the LORD.

King Ahaz’s devotion to Tiglath-pilneser enabled Judah to escape his vigorous campaigns, but the kings of Assyria that followed Tiglath-pilneser did not spare Judah from being attacked. Because king Ahaz refused to believe in the LORD, God used the Assyrians later on to draw his people back to him (Isaiah 7:20). Ultimately, the ravages of war caused Judah to look for their true deliverer, their Messiah (Isaiah 9:2).

Ahaz’s behavior was so outrageous that is served a dual purpose in bringing the people of Judah back to God. First, it showed the people that God really did love them because he allowed Ahaz to go his own way and did not punish him for his idolatry. Second, Ahaz’s determination to cut God out of the lives of his people was the impetus for God to go to greater lengths to prove himself faithful and to remind his children that their Messiah was coming.