Tag: Division and Decline

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Division and Decline – Justice and Mercy

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8          

With the Northern Kingdom destroyed, the Southern Kingdom carried on as the primary nation who worshiped the Lord God. Unsurprisingly, the southern Kingdom of Judah fell into the same traps and snares as their neighbors. The people who claimed to follow the living God were acting no better and Idol worshippers.

The Prophet Micah critiques the character of the people by reminding them that God has already shown them how they are supposed to demonstrate their faith. He points out three distinct fruits of the spirit: justice, mercy, and humility. The first two, justice and mercy, are the two ways we care for one another. Mercy is something that usually happens in the moment, and justice is something that usually takes time.

We practice mercy when we have power over someone and choose to act with compassion or forgiveness. You might show a friend mercy when she steals from you by giving her a second chance. You might show mercy to a homeless person by giving them a few dollars or a warm blanket. Justice is a little bit different. We act with justice when something in our world is wrong, and we work to make it right. You might show justice to a thieving friend by having her return what was stolen. You might show justice to a homeless person by advocating for affordable housing or by supporting an agency that helps people get back on their feet.

Author and theologian Shane Claiborne reminds us that justice was the dangerous passion of Jesus Christ. “When people begin moving beyond (mercy) and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble,” he says. “Once we are actually friends with the folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity…People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.”

There is a place for justice and mercy in a Christian’s life. To which is God calling you today and how will you respond?

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Division and Decline – The fall of Israel

The king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria…All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them. 2 Kings 17:6-8         

On 14 April, 1912, Frederick Fleet was serving as lookout when he spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic during her first trip across the ocean. He quickly raised the alarm, and the first mate ordered the ship to change course. But it was too late. The Titanic struck the iceberg, and it soon became clear that the ship was doomed. No one on board was prepared for such an emergency. In accordance with safety practices at that time, ships were thought to be unsinkable.The Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board. Nearly 1,500 lives were lost.

In a lot of ways, the fall of the Northern Kingdom was a lot like the sinking of the Titanic. For generations, the prophets had warned the people in Israel that God was unhappy with their faithlessness. They continued to worship other gods and turn away from the Lord. Eventually,  the prophets’ message shifted. They stopped asking Israel to change and started warning Israel that God’s punishment was coming. There was an iceberg on the horizon and not everyone would escape.

In 722 BC the northern kingdom was destroyed by their neighbors the Assyrians. The Assyrians broke through the walls of the capital city Samaria and killed many of its inhabitants. Then they kidnapped anyone who might be useful and took them away to work on building the Assyrian empire.

The fall of the Northern Kingdom reminds us how seriously God treats unrepentant sin. Periodically, we all should pause and take stock of our own lives. Bad decisions can lead us to a point of no return, and we will suffer the consequences of our sinfulness. Today, spend time searching your heart for any sin that could sink your faith, and ask the Lord to make you whole again.

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Division and Decline – God as Father

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the idols and they burned incense to images… they did not realize it was I who healed them. Hosea 11:1-3

Once upon a time there was a young man, a teenager, who was struggling on the inside. He spent a lot of time alone in his room, and his parents began to worry. They tried to reach out to him, but the more they tried to get him to talk the more he shut down. They started to fight a lot. One evening, his mother was gathering up the piles of dirty laundry in his room and found a stash of pills she didn’t recognize. Not knowing what to do, they decided to call the pastor. “I don’t know what to do anymore,” said the father, his heart torn within him. “The more we reach out the more he shuts down. I feel like the enemy.”

Many prophets in the Bible received their own book, and Hosea is one of them. He worked as a Prophet during the reign of the Kings of Israel. In fact, his book is the only writing we have from someone who lived in the northern Kingdom. Every other book in the Bible was written by someone who lived in the South.

Hosea offers us a unique perspective on what prophecy was like in the declining northern Kingdom. Perhaps his most wonderful contribution as a prophet comes from the 11th chapter.

Hosea records God pining after the people of Israel and he characterizes God’s love as that of a father. The entire passage is filled with rich images of a nurturing, healings, and loving God. One theologian says that when we read Hosea 11, “we penetrate deeper into the heart and mind of God than anywhere in the Old Testament.”

Hosea presents the exact description of God that Jesus has in mind when he taught his disciples to pray saying, “Our Father, who is in heaven.” Hosea and Jesus try to help us understand what God is like. Our God loves with passion and tenderness, and our God can be hurt by our actions.

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Division and Decline – Turn Back

Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 1 Kings 18:36-37

After the Kingdom split into two, the Kingdom in the North started to drift away from God. A series of rulers in the North began worshipping other gods. They set up idols and offered sacrifices and encouraged the citizens to do the same. Needless to say, God did not like this very much. As the Kings became more rebellious, God raised up prophets to speak on God’s behalf. One of the most famous was the Prophet Elijah.

In one remarkable story, Elijah challenges the prophets of a God named Baal to a competition. An altar is set up to each God , and the prophets pray to ask their God to set fire to the altar. The prophets of Baal were unsuccessful despite their frenzied attempt. When it is Elijah’s turn, he prays and asks God to light the altar so that everyone gathered would realize God’s greatness and turn their hearts back. Immediately, fire falls down from heaven, consuming the sacrifice and altar. It burned up the wood, the stone, and even the dirt on the ground.

The main goal for Elijah was to turn the people’s hearts back to God by proving that the Lord is the one who answers prayer. The God of Elijah has been with Israel since the beginning. This new god named Baal is a stranger. It is not the one that rescued their ancestors from Egypt nor is it the god who settled them in the promised land. Our God is the God of Israel. The Lord our God is eager for us to turn our hearts back to Jesus and to answer our prayers.