Kings and Chronicles (Part 2)
With the splitting of the kingdom there also arose false prophets—those who would tell the king and the people what they wanted to hear. The world has never had a lack of scoundrels since; many of them today have television and radio programs. In the book of 1 Kings, we have already seen the damage that an old prophet did in lying to “the man of God” in 1 Kings 13; we are also made aware that numerous prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth also had been invited into the land by the infamous and wicked duo, Ahab and Jezebel.
In 1 Kings we see a great deal of the power of God, which is contrasted by the perverseness and stubbornness of man. The reader is introduced to the prophet Elijah, who uses God’s power mightily. The Scriptures are remarkable in that we find an excellent description of him written in the New Testament: “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:17-18). As Paul wrote in Romans 15:4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning….” God will listen to the prayers of His people just as He did to this dedicated believer.
Elijah challenged the false prophets to a contest of sorts. Both he (by himself) and the 450 false prophets of Baal would prepare a sacrifice to their respective deities; then the people would see which God answered the supplications made to Him. The prophets of Baal went into a frenzy, trying to get their false god to answer them. Nothing happened. Elijah even mocked their lack of response, but when he prayed, Jehovah provided a demonstration those present would never forget. He consumed Elijah’s sacrifice with fire—even though it had been thoroughly doused with water. The effect of God’s action upon the people was interesting.
The Israelites, who shortly before would not answer Elijah a word when he told them to choose which God they would believe in (1 Kings 18:21), were now astonished and rightly concluded: “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” (v. 39). Whatever the false prophets of Baal thought was short-lived; they were immediately put to death because they had led the people astray spiritually, worshipping a god with no power whatsoever (v. 40). Even the ungodly king was impressed. He allowed the prophets to be killed, although he surely could have prevented it.
Everyone loves a happy ending, right? The people had become convinced that they needed to follow Jehovah. Even the incredulous king was having second thoughts about his evil ways. Elijah had demonstrated that, through his prayer, he had influence with God over the weather, and his defeat of the false prophets was spectacular. Was it the dawn of a new day in Israel? No! Ahab reported what had happened to his even more evil wife, Jezebel. She was not at all thrilled with what Elijah had done; in fact, she was incensed with the loss of her prophets and swore to kill Elijah, who was forced to flee (1 Kings 19:1-3).
As with Pharaoh, this occurrence serves to show that no matter how much proof God supplies for His existence, it will not convince everyone. Pharaoh’s closest advisors begged him to let Israel go, but he stubbornly refused. Even after the death of the first-born, he changed his mind and pursued them, which resulted in the ruin of his army. Ahab was present to observe the power of God, and he recounted it to his wife. Like Pharaoh, however, she was so perverse that she ordered the prophet’s death in order to regain control of the kingdom. We have as a basis in these two events a means of understanding the kind of hearts possessed by the elders and chief priests when they condemned Jesus. It was not evidence of His power that was lacking; missing was any humility on their part.
Despite the claims of any modern-day skeptics that there is no proof of God, the problem is not a lack of evidence or its quality. The problem lies in the one who, for whatever reason, persistently fails to consider it at all or examine it carefully. The heavens still declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and man remains without excuse (Rom. 1:18-20). Pharaoh and Jezebel likewise had no legitimate reason to doubt the existence and power of Jehovah. Like Satan they preferred rebellion over submission and to be irrational (perhaps even emotional) more than logical.
The book of Joshua was written at least 500 years before 1 Kings. When Israel conquered Jericho, Joshua gave the following charge: “Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho; he shall lay the foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates” (6:26). Needless to say, no one volunteered to rebuild that city for several hundred years. But during Ahab’s reign, a man rebuilt the city. His firstborn son died when the foundation was laid, and his youngest son expired when he set up the gates. The writer of 1 Kings cites Joshua’s prophecy in that regard (1 Kings 16:34). How could Joshua have predicted such a thing except by Divine inspiration?
Ahab regressed from his spiritually high moment at Mount Carmel. He asked Micaiah, a prophet of God, about what success he would have going into battle at Ramoth in Gilead. All of the false prophets had guaranteed him success. Micaiah not only foretold his death; he even told him how he would be deceived into going anyway, though he knew the truth. Ahab went to the battle and died, as the prophet of the Lord had said (1 Kings 22). The point is that even when people have been told the truth, they frequently reject it. The reason they dismiss it has nothing to do with the fact that the majority oppose it; they simply have no love of the truth (2 Thess. 2:10). People today know that they must believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God in order to be saved (John 8:24; 3:16), but they are not interested in doing so—or repenting of their sins, either (Luke 13:3). In the entire history of mankind, the individual who wants to live his life on his own terms and in his own way has never pleased God or been saved. But it never prevents people from trying it anyway.
2 Kings continues the history of both nations to their conclusion. Israel is taken captive in 721 B.C. (2 Kings 17), and Judah was taken to Babylon in 586 B.C. Elisha continued to do miracles just as Elijah had done, but the overall effect was minimal. Many of the other prophets, from Isaiah to Zephaniah also lived during this era, but the people often ignored the prophets; some were put to death, so intensely was their message of truth despised. Overall, the people descend back into a time period not unlike that of Judges. Two bright spots involve the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah, who attempted to restore the nation to what it had once been. However, both reigns were followed by a period of even worse degradation than before, and all the good that had been accomplished was soon undone.
Sadly, Judah did not profit from the fact that Israel was taken captive by Assyria. They became even more wicked until they could only be described by the following grievous words:
And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy (2 Chron. 36:15-16).
Likewise, there will be no remedy today for those who have rejected the Word of God time and again. The fault, however, lies with each individual who maintains that disposition in the face of God’s calls to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). If there is one lesson that can be clearly seen over the centuries in God’s dealings with His people, it is His profound patience. How many human beings would give anyone as many opportunities, as many warnings, or as many exhortations as God offered to His people? God provides us the means of hearing and obeying the gospel today, also, but the decision is ours alone. He will not make it for us.
Although the excellent lessons from which we can profit are numerous, God inspired one incident to be written that might profit those who say they have trouble making sense out of the things that God requires or who claim things would be much better if only they had been in charge of salvation. Naaman commanded the Syrian army, but he had leprosy. A young servant girl from Israel told Naaman’s wife that in Samaria was a prophet who could heal her husband. When Naaman arrived, Elisha did not come out to see him but asked a servant to go tell him to wash in the Jordan River seven times, which would cleanse him of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-10).
The first lesson to observe is that Naaman was upset because this entire exchange did not occur the way he had imagined it. He thought the prophet should come out, “wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy” (v. 11). Too many people today think that God should have done things differently than what He did. “Why does God require worship on the first day of the week when we need to sleep in?” Naaman could not logically determine why the River Jordan should be chosen when Damascus had two cleaner rivers. He did not understand what dipping in any river would do to remove leprosy; he could not see any logical connection (v. 12). Human beings fail to realize that God, who is eternal, has a much better grasp on the past and on the future than we do. He also understands His own plan better. When Naaman relented and washed in the Jordan seven times, his leprosy was cleansed. Perhaps one reason that God included this event in Holy Writ is that He knew that someday certain people would question baptism’s ability to cleanse sins. It matters not if we understand it. It works.
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
Most of the prophets foretold a time when a remnant would return to their land. The book of Ezra picks up in 536 B.C. when Cyrus issued the decree and the chastised Jews were allowed to return home. This book is a testimony to the fact that God keeps His Word. Enemies found a way to make the Israelites halt their progress in rebuilding the temple, which had been destroyed by Babylon. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred up the people, after a 15 year hiatus, to resume their work. It was completed in 516 B.C.
Between Ezra 6 and 7 there lies a period of sixty years (which is not noted in the text of Ezra). During these decades, the events of the book of Esther occur (about 479-74 B.C.). Although the name of God is never mentioned in the book, nevertheless His presence is all-pervading. King Ahasuerus rules most of the world. The story begins with his wife’s refusal to show her beauty to the king’s inebriated male guests. The king deposes her and begins the search for a new queen. In the providence of God, he selects a Jewish woman who has been living in Susa, the capital, with her cousin Mordecai, who had promised to take care of her in the absence of her parents. The king makes Esther his wife.
As time went on, the king promoted a man named Haman, who relished the glory he received, but Mordecai, as a Jew, refused to bow down to him, and he could not tolerate such insubordination. He determined to destroy all Jewish people in the whole kingdom and coaxed the king to sign a decree to that effect into law. The king did not know that his wife was Jewish. Mordecai urged Esther to speak to the king on behalf of her people so that they would not be destroyed. The courageous lady did so at the risk of her own life. Mordecai had told her that it just might be that she had become queen and been in a position of influence over the king for a reason—to save her people. The rest of the book explains how that salvation occurred.
But the point had already been made. Human beings do not know what God may have brought about through His providence. It may be that we have become a part of someone else’s life in order to save them. Perhaps another has become part of our life to save us! The great lesson of this book is that God is active in this world, arranging various opportunities. By the time the book of Esther concludes, the Jews have won a great victory, and Haman has been hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. God also possesses a delicious sense of irony.
This book explains why the Jews are held in high regard during the remainder of Ezra and Nehemiah. To this day, the Jews observe the Feast of Purim in commemoration of their victory over their enemies. If the Bible were a book of fiction, as critics assert, it would be absolutely incredible that the Passover and Purim were tributes to things that were just invented. The truth is that history is behind these celebrations.
Returning now to Ezra 7-10, we find that the people no longer worshipped idols, but the men had another problem—marrying women they were not authorized to have as wives. The problem was resolved in the last chapter with the men putting away those wives and children (Ezra 10:11-12, 44). Although they were a far more compliant people, God still expected them to be holy in all things, just as He does from Christians today.
The book of Nehemiah takes us to the close of Old Testament history (except for some historical data we read in the final prophetic book of Malachi). Nehemiah is a thoroughly dedicated governor who begins the book as the cupbearer to a king. He takes it upon himself to lead his fellow Jews in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, so that they might be protected from their enemies. This enormous feat is accomplished in 52 days under his expert leadership. What is so realistic about this book is that Nehemiah finds that enemies are opposing him both from without and within.
The builders of the walls were first ridiculed for their efforts (Neh. 4:1-3). When that failed to work, their enemies threatened them with physical violence (4:11). No sooner did Nehemiah encourage the men in that regard that he discovered an internal problem—some of the Jews were charging interest to their own brethren and forcing financial hardship upon them. Nehemiah got those men to restore the funds they had received in that manner, and the work continued (5:12).
But then Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem started in again. They tried to get Nehemiah to meet them in the plain of Ono (so they could do him harm), but he refused (6:1-4). Then Sanballat sent an open letter, in which he accused Nehemiah of having himself proclaimed king. Nehemiah dismissed the charge by saying such stuff was just invented, and they continued their work (6:5-9). A traitor inside the city warned Nehemiah that enemies were coming that night to kill him and tried to persuade him to hide in the temple, but he refused to play the part of a coward and deduced that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired the man to frighten him (6:10-13). The remnant, despite all opposition, completed the task (6:15).
Ezra read all the law to the people (Neh. 8), and the city progressed well, thanks to everyone’s commitment. Nehemiah returned to the king. However, on a later visit he discovered a fact that needs to be remembered by every generation: It does not take long for fresh problems to arise. One of the priests was actually allied with Tobiah and had prepared him a large room where worship items had been stored! Equally incredible was that some were violating the Sabbath day. The priests were not being supported properly, and more unauthorized marriages had taken place. Nehemiah promptly corrected each one of these, but the lesson for Christians is that we must be ever-vigilant. It takes practically no time at all to depart in some manner from the truth—even to develop outrageous practices. Just as with Pharaoh, Jezebel, and the Jews of Nehemiah’s day, the Bible reveals to man his stubbornness and his frailties. May we all heed the warning!