Deuteronomy 28

What would Israel have been like if the people had listened to the voice of God through Moses? There would have been blessings everywhere in the land.

Imagine what it would have been like to live there. The nation of Israel would have experienced the Lord's blessings in ways that would have set them above all the other nations of the world. The Lord would have given them a marvelous life militarily, economically, demographically, agriculturally, environmentally, and spiritually.

Moses set these blessings before the people. They needed to obey the Lord's commandments and reject entirely the worship of other gods in order to experience these wonderful gifts.

But what was the Lord's warning if they disobeyed? The land would be full of the Lord's curses. “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.”

Sickness, drought, defeat, madness, blindness, and misery would be their portion rather than health and peace. All the horrors of life under an oppressive enemy and all the pains and scars of living in exile and slavery would be their portion.

These curses would not be the random result of chance, but the direct judgment of the Lord their God. Why? Because they had not served the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart.

Moses described to the conquest generation the horrors of living under an enemy siege with alarming detail even before they had set foot in the land. He told them that if they did not obey the voice of the Lord, they would be scattered among all the peoples of the world, and that they would serve gods of their own making and live in fear.

These words offered a stark contrast for the people of God. The way of obedience and true worship would have brought them the greatest blessings, but the rejection of the Lord and His Word would bring horror and degradation.

Now consider what Jesus faced for us on the cross.

“When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.”

What happened to the Lord on the cross? He took the curse that we deserved, not just the curse that was upon Israel for their disobedience and idolatry, but the curse that was upon creation and humanity because of the sin of Adam and because of our own rebellion. He did this for us.

What happened to us as a result of that cross? All our sin was atoned for.

The curse of God against us was a many-headed beast from which we could never have escaped. Christ has destroyed that enemy. The curse can no longer have a hold on us.

We have not obeyed the Law of God, but Jesus has, and He did that for us. What has His righteousness won for us? In Him we have the fullness of every blessing of God in the perfect land of resurrection glory.

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were a present far too small;

love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Deuteronomy 27

The people of Israel had been traveling through the wilderness for forty years. One period of their life was about to end. Another was beginning. Would they seek the Lord and follow Him in the land that He was giving to them?

These words of the Law of God were to be carved in stone. On the very place where the Law was written, on a plastered altar of uncut stone, animals would be killed. In this celebration of a blood-bought peace offering, the blood of the sacrifice would touch the just demands of God's Law.

What followed was a solemn ceremony marking the sanctions of the Law, with six tribes standing on one mountain for the blessing and six tribes standing on another for the curse. The Levites would pronounce from their place on one mountain twelve specific curses of God for disobedience, and the tribes would reply together, “Amen!”

The sanctions for disobedience were not the civil punishments that allowed for penalties that were lesser or greater to fit the offense. They were all the ultimate curse by God for disobedience to His commandments. “Cursed be the man...” or “Cursed be anyone...” twelve times.

The man who made an idol like Aaron had in the wilderness was cursed by God. By this point Aaron had died. Was he cursed? What about those who kept their idolatry private, confined to their secret thoughts? Would they be safe?

The person who dishonored his mother or father was cursed by God. How much dishonoring was God talking about? What about the thoughts and actions that were unknown to the community but known by God? Would those count against them?

The one who took some of his neighbor's land by moving a landmark, or who took advantage of a blind person, or denied justice to the weak in the community, that person was cursed by God. What if an Israelite recognized his error years later and said that he was sorry? Would the curse be lifted?

Four kinds of sexual sins were specifically mentioned. The ones who did these things were cursed by God. No exceptions were given.

Two types of murderous action were next. Cursed.

The words of the final curse should have convicted all of the people of their need for a Savior: “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.”

Every curse was to be heard by the congregation and affirmed by a resounding “Amen!” There could be no claim that Israel did not know the seriousness of the Law. This conquest generation had seen what had happened to those who died in the wilderness. Now they had heard the words that could only confirm their own desperate condition.

How could there be blessing for anyone who had not perfectly obeyed the Law? It would only be through the blood-bought mercy of God that there could be any hope for any of them or for any of us. The only honest way to rejoice would be by faith in an obedient Substitute who would give His blood for His people.

We live after the death of the Jewish Messiah. For us, the answer to our need for grace has been fully revealed.

The Law-Keeper has come, and He has made peace with God for us through His death. His resurrection life and His Holy Spirit have brought us a new and living hope. He is the only credible answer to the tremendous danger of the justice of God. We have been rescued from the curse of the Almighty through Jesus.

2 Kings 18

Just before the Assyrian Empire finally conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, God gave a good king to reign in Judah to the south. Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, was far more faithful than his father. Here was a king who even removed the high places of false worship that others before him had been unwilling or unable to remove. Other idols that had become sacred to the people were finally destroyed during his reign. He trusted in the Lord, and the Lord was with him.

When the king of Assyria came against Israel in the north, he also threatened Judah in the south. Many cities of Judah were lost to the Assyrians. In one of the great power encounters recorded in the Bible, the Assyrian representative mocked Hezekiah's trust in the Lord. This foreign ambassador did all that he could to undermine the faith of the king and of the people of Judah.

One of the key arguments of this pagan representative was that the gods of many other nations had not been able to withstand the power of the great king of Assyria. Did the people of Judah really believe that their God would be any different? This was a direct affront to the God of the Hebrews. Would Yahweh defend His own Name?

It is foolish to challenge Almighty God in this way. He is far above the dead gods of other nations. He has a perfectly appropriate zeal for His own reputation.

The story of the Lord's victory in the days of Hezekiah is recorded for us in the next chapter. For now it is enough for us to consider the arrogance of mankind. How dare we challenge the Lord of Glory?

Moving ahead several hundred years, the cross was another place of a brash challenge to the God of the Jews. Some expected Jesus to be intimidated by the pressures that caused others to fear. Had they adequately considered who this Man was? Jesus is the Son of God, now come in human flesh. He took on our humanity in order to redeem us.

When we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, we forget God. We also minimize matters of first importance which alone can satisfy our hearts. Christ died and rose again according to the Scriptures. His person and teaching have empowered us to bring the good news of Jesus to those who are looking for answers in life but are lacking any commitment to the household of faith.

No idol will every satisfy us. In Christ we have something far above another religious system. The cross of the Son of God is a powerful statement to proud men and angels. It calls us to give up on our self-centered arrogance and to believe the truths that have comforted millions when it would seem that the victory of the world, the flesh, and the devil could not be denied. When we are tempted to believe the devil's lies, we remember again that Jesus is Lord, that His death has saved us from certain destruction, that His resurrection was unstoppable, and that the way of salvation that He is bringing will lead to a world of the greatest everlasting significance.

2 Kings 17

Hoshea became the king of Israel by leading a conspiracy against his predecessor. This had become the pattern in the north in the generations after the end of the line of Jehu. By the time that Hoshea was king, Israel was already under the control of the Assyrian Empire. Hoshea was not a very loyal servant to the Assyrians. He was looking for another foreign powerhouse, the Egyptians, to provide protection for Israel.

The events that transpired among these foreign powers are less important for us to remember than the fact that the Lord's purpose was being fulfilled in the fall of Israel. The loss of national sovereignty in the north “... occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God.” (2 Kings 17:7) Specifically, Israel worshiped other gods and walked in the lifestyles of idol-worshiping nations.

The leaders of Israel had led the way in false worship and immorality. The people thought that their secret evil practices would escape God's notice. God had plainly warned them through the ministry of many prophets that they needed to turn from their wicked ways or face exile from the land. During the reign of Hoshea, in 722 BC, exile finally came to Israel in the north. Judah in the south, and particularly her capital city, Jerusalem, would finally fall to the Babylonians in 586 BC. These sad days came by the Lord's hand of discipline and correction.

Israel would not obey the law of Moses. The examples that came to them from other cultures were more formative for them than the Word of God. Their failure was a symptom of unbelief. They would not obey the voice of God because they did not trust Him. We cannot accuse Israel of atheism or agnosticism. They eagerly received religious direction from every god but their own. Thus the Lord was “very angry” with them, and He “removed them out of His sight.”

The religious story of the northern part of the promised land was soon heavily influenced by the captives that the Assyrians forced to settle in that territory. The newcomers brought their gods with them and added what they knew to the religious mix that was already there. The Lord, the God of Israel, demanded wholehearted devotion from His people. They chose to give Him something different. They offered up a mixed message that came from a variety of spiritual traditions. God was not pleased with that confusing worship. They thought that they could worship Yahweh and their own carved images. Yahweh wanted none of that religious blend.

Over 700 years after the days of Hoshea, Jesus of Nazareth came preaching and teaching the kingdom of God. His kingdom did not come by the force of military might, nor would it grow through the weapons of this world. Jesus heard the Word of the Father and obeyed. This was His strength.

His obedience to the will of the Father extended to His atoning sacrifice of Himself on the cross for us. Through His life and death, Jesus secured the approval of the Father for us, winning a glorious kingdom of resurrection life for all who belong to Him. The kingdom of Israel under the Law fell because of the disobedience of God's people. The kingdom of heaven has been established for us through the obedience of one Redeemer. Other kings faced the end of their reigns when their enemies killed them. Jesus began to reign over us when He died for our sins.

Deuteronomy 26

Stage 1: Eternity Past, when God already had His eternal plan for His glory and our good.

Stage 2: Old Testament Preparation, when God prepared His people for the coming Messiah. The laws in Deuteronomy are a part of that period.

Stage 3: New Testament Gospel Life, when we who have received Jesus are given the privilege of following the Suffering Servant. We are here now.

Stage 4: Eternity Future, when we dwell in the fullness of blessing forever in accord with the eternal purpose of God. This is our hope, but we get to taste it and live in it today.

Got it?

We live in Stage 3 with the hope of Stage 4 as a daily imminent reality to us. This hope “does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Deuteronomy was written back in Stage 2, the time of Old Testament Preparation. God gave His people many laws to guard them from danger and to lead them to the future Messiah.

In Deuteronomy 26, God commanded Israel to give to the Lord the first and the best of the harvest. This was an act of worship, and it was to be accompanied by these words of testimony:

I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.

God's faithfulness was publicly noted.

A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me.’

This testimony of faith in God was humbling to the Israelite. His ancestor, Abraham, was “a wandering Aramean.” Aram was another word for Syria. Abraham became the man that he was not because of his inherent greatness, but because his great God was leading him. The same was true for his descendants. The Israelites needed to testify before God and His people that the fruit of their fields came from the bounty of the God who led them into the land and who provided for them.

The other prevailing note in this confession was the mercy of God toward the Israelites. When they cried out to the Lord, He helped them. He delivered them out of the hand of powerful adversaries that were too strong for them. They could rejoice in the beginning of the harvest, knowing that any good they received in the land was a gift of a God who loved them.

The mercy of God placed an important obligation on those who had received His benefits: They were to be merciful to others. Every third year they were to bring a tenth of what God had given to them forward in worship so that the Levites, any traveling foreigners (sojourners), widows, and orphans would have something to eat.

Tithing was a duty of mercy that God placed on those who knew that they had received His mercy. It was accompanied by a testimony of dedication to God and to His law and a plea from the worshiper that God would bless His people and His land.

Law-keeping was a duty for those who had come to know that Yahweh was their God. His people promised to obey His laws. This was the way they were to express their gratitude to Him as His “treasured possession.” Without this obedience to His Word, there was no way for them to be a light to the nations of the world. They needed to be a holy people.

If Stage Two could have secured all the blessings of God for Israel and the world, there would have been no need for a Messiah. The Law itself was not the problem. The defect was in those who did not keep the Law.

But God did not respond to Israel's disobedience by simply casting her off in darkness forever. God sent His Son to be the Law-Keeper for all who would trust in Him. He has become the hope not only of the Jews, but of all who call upon His Name from all the tribes of the earth.

We have been recipients of His great mercy. We have been given the kingdom of heaven. Those who meekly confess their sins and put their trust in Jesus shall inherit the earth. The grace of God still calls us to a life of holiness, but now we know that the requirements of God's holy Law have already been kept for us by His perfect Son. This gives us boldness and assurance in worship. Now we confess our faith as Stage Three believers: “Lord, I am not worthy” (Matthew 8:8), and because of the Word of God's own Son we believe that we have been healed. In Jesus, we have become the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14)

Deuteronomy 25

We feel our ignorance when we consider some of the stipulations of God's Law. The life of Israel under the Law of Moses is foreign to us.

We need to understand the Lawgiver who cared for His people by granting to them this system of public life. As we do that, principles emerge that can help us to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord who saved us.

The God of Israel taught His people that there needed to be limits to the physical pain inflicted upon a guilty man. The punishment needed to be proportional to the seriousness of the offense, but the dignity of the guilty man was important. The expectation behind such a law was that this man would be restored to the people of Israel.

Even an ox in Israel needed to be able to eat of the field in which the animal worked. If that was God's will for a beast, how much more for a human being?

The death of people entered the world through sin. But the death of a man did not need to mean the end of his family line. His brother was commanded to carry on the name of the deceased by doing his part to provide offspring for his sister-in-law. The Lord cared for the widow and for the name of her deceased husband. To reject these duties would be a matter of public shame.

Barriers of decency and human dignity were not to be crossed lightly in Israel. The hidden parts of the body were treated with appropriate respect and protection, even in dire circumstances.

Dishonesty in commerce could not be tolerated. To steal through the deception of false weights and measures was something the Lord hated.

The Most High cared for the weak. Enemy nations were not to attack faint and weary Israelites like wolves. The nation of the Amalekites would be blotted out forever because they had been brutal to God's people in their time of need.

These laws are worthy of our meditation. They reveal a God who concerned Himself with the intimate details of the lives of human beings. He created them in His image, and He expected them to behave toward one another with His tender care.

What kind of God cares about what a wife does when two men are in a brawl? What deity would want a man to be ashamed for not providing offspring for his brother's wife once she had become a widow? Why would the Lord bother Himself about the name of a deceased man in Israel, or the honor of a man who had done something so repugnant to community standards that he needed a public whipping?

The God of Israel, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, cares about human beings. How much does He care about us? He sent His own Son to pay the penalty that would restore to us the eternal dignity that He intended for us.

You may be ignorant of the details of a culture that existed thousands of years ago in a very different world than yours. That is understandable. But you need to know something about their God and ours. You must not be ignorant of His love. He cares about the details of your life. He has made a way for you to walk with Him forever in a society of peace.

Deuteronomy 24

In Genesis 2, God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone. The solution to that “not good” came in the creation of the woman. At the end of the day, the Lord spoke the words “very good” over all His works of creation.

But the world changed in Genesis 3 as the man and the woman became partners in hearing the voice of an enemy rather than the voice of God. With the fall of mankind, sin polluted every relationship, even marriage. Various lusts began to carry the descendants of Adam and Eve in ways of life that brought more death.

Yet the Lord's eternal purpose for His people was life, not death. Another marriage would eventually be made by a much better husband, The relationship between Christ and the church will be free of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, for Jesus will sanctify His bride. One day she will be without spot or blemish or any such thing, for Christ will fully cleanse her by His Word and Spirit.

In the days of preparation for the coming of this great Husband, God gave Israel a Law which could have worked for great blessing in the land if the people of God had followed it. But they would not limit their passions. They pursued entangling affections despite His warnings that they would pollute the land by their unbridled desires.

By the time the Messiah came, Israel had such a casual attitude about divorce that the religious leaders seemed to have lost sight of what marriage was. They had forgotten about the gift of Eve for Adam in the beginning, and they were using Moses' prohibition against repeated divorce and remarriage as if it were a blanket endorsement of divorce.

Even today in the church, evil is sometimes celebrated as the greatest good, and the promise of the eternal marriage between the Son of God and His bride seems very distant. Some are preaching boldly about the blessings of fleshly desires, while ordinary Christians are a little embarrassed about having an eager affection for Christ as their ultimate Husband. In the world outside of the church, lust is openly exhibited as the theme of so much entertainment, and shame has become the enemy. Holy faithfulness seems unnatural and even unhealthy.

How can we recover from such depravity? We need a new spirit growing in us, the Spirit of holiness. This will not come from the Law of Moses but from the gift of our faithful covenant Husband who has a perfectly chaste love for us as His bride.

What can we learn today from some of the specific provisions contained in this section of God's Law? The joy of a new marriage was guarded in the Law of Israel. A young man was protected from military service and other public duties for one year so that he could love his wife and be happy together with her in the fruitfulness of this new relationship. There is something beautiful here that testifies to a world of life and a newness of love that will never fade away.

Israel also had laws against taking a poor family's way of providing food for themselves. The Law warned about the penalty for stealing a fellow Israelite. There were laws to contain disease, greed, and abuse of all kinds. But who can heal our diseased hearts that glory in our shame? How do we recover purity when we are convinced that every eager affection is good?

Have we forgotten the consequences of Adam's sin?We need to remember what that one sin, and our many sins that followed, meant to our faithful eternal husband. His young life was cut off from the face of the earth. The cross reminds us of the seriousness of our impurity.

But our loyal Husband has come to save us. He defeated every enemy that threatened the blessing of His new bride. His resurrection power can defeat enslaving sin within us and restore us to the holiness that He is giving to His family today and forever.

Ask Him for the gift of holy wisdom for living a new life. Your life on earth does not have to be a perverse carnival celebrating every fleshly impulse. By the power of Jesus Christ you can live a life of willing submission to the perfect Husband who saved you by His death. 

Deuteronomy 23

God has always been the King of heaven and earth. Since sin entered the world through Adam, we do not see that reign of God very well. One day we will see Jesus reigning over everything in a renewed earth where the wicked will no longer be nearby to oppress the righteous.

We are looking for God's promises to be fulfilled. Meanwhile, God has been working. God was working among the people of Israel as they waited to go into the promised land. He gave the Law of Moses to Israel to set them apart as a special people, a people who were eager for a Messiah King. Now the King has come. Many Jews and non-Jews follow this Jewish King.

Gentiles who follow Jesus do not have to keep all the laws recorded in Deuteronomy as if they were Old Testament Jews. How then should the church use books like Deuteronomy today?

The ceremonial and civil laws recorded here for Israel were part of God's revelation leading us all to the Messiah King. Together with the writings of the prophets and other inspired messengers, these laws led the people of God to a new covenant era. In that coming day, the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon God's people. That day has arrived.

We are people of the Holy Spirit, but we can still make excellent spiritual use of the Law of Israel. That Law teaches us about the coming King who is now reigning over us. Our King shows us what He loves and what He hates, and He gives us His Holy Spirit. We can ask the Spirit of the living God to mold us into His image, and to make us more and more like Jesus Christ. Our goal is not just a surface religious picture. We want the power and integrity of a renewed heart and life.

The Lord Jesus loves purity. That love of God for holiness was once expressed with outward regulations for the worship assembly that kept the Israelites as a separate people until the coming of the final King. Now we have a holiness that no commandment could ever bring, and that no system of excluding the wrong kind of people could ever produce. People are removed from the membership in the body of Christ not based on who their parents and grandparents were or because of some outward deformity, but because they will not repent when they are confronted with their own sin. Even their exclusion is an act of the grace of Jesus Christ with the sincere desire that they will reconsider their lives and be brought back into the fellowship of those who walk in the light.

The uncleanness that we are most concerned about is not an outward ceremonial impurity that violates the Old Testament Law, but the inner impurity of a heart that will not obey God. In the Old Covenant ceremonies, the community of Israel was cleansed from external filth by bathing in water. In the New Covenant age, all kinds of people experience an inner cleansing by the renewing power of God's Word and Spirit. They live together in a growing relationship with the Lord. Jesus became the unclean and excluded One for us. There was no sin in Him, but He was cut off from the assembly of the Lord in order that we might be brought in.

Under His present reign we experience a freedom from the enslaving power of evil that could only be symbolized by outward ordinances in the days of Old Testament Israel. Today, slaves of sin have been set free. Prostitutes have been forgiven and eat at the King's table. Debtors have been released from the bondage of what they could never repay.

This is happening even now in the lives of those who know the power of the kingdom. The King has made a vow. He has promised to knit together a glorious family of purity and truth by the power of His own atoning blood. To live in the light of His reign is to walk in the power of heaven.

We are poor and needy, but the King bids us to walk in His garden every day. We eat bread from His fields and receive fruit from His trees. We grow in Him, and His Name is glorified.

Deuteronomy 22

The Law of Moses revealed the Lord's concern for everything under the sun. How can the church today use these verses in Deuteronomy 22 for spiritual good? Israel was the creation of the Lord. How much more do we belong to the Lord as disciples of the Jewish Messiah? God's church is now comprised of Jews and Gentiles from all over the world who have been granted faith from on high. We need to be in the light, as He is in the light, and to shine forth moment by moment with the glory of our resurrection Savior.

The resurrection life does not obsess with self, but sees the need of another, and brings the lost home again. The follower of the Lord regularly experiences restoration and is looking to be an agent of the peace of God everywhere in ways that are great and small.

Jesus, who lives in us, is not interested in our exploring confusing and enticing patterns of sin. The disciple of the Lord sees what God has created all around him and even within him. He then goes forward to repair what is broken by sin and neglect. The joy of the Lord is his strength. Isn't that the way you want to live today, to see brokenness and alienation and to be led by God to help and to heal?

People on fire for Jesus touch the world in thousands of ways. They are a delightfully robust expression of the Lord's sovereign care for all those who are weary and hopeless. We see unsafe situations and fix them. We discover new opportunities for fruitful enterprises and put them into practice. We do all of this with prayer and with attention to the voice of the Lord, expecting that the worship of God will make a very practical difference in our lives.

Our lives are to be constant reminders of the Lord's salvation and a continuous reflection of His powerful presence among us. We are not looking to bring forth a mixed message in anything we do, with some advice from hell and some direction from heaven. We earnestly seek the whole will of our God over all of life on earth.

How will the Lord use you today? Why not turn to Jesus every moment? His law reveals His sovereignty over all that your hand will touch and your mind will consider. He wants you to seek peace and pursue it, to find what is good and to cling to it.

If you find this vision of spiritual living in the present creation to be refreshing, you need to reject every sin that would derail you today. By the power of the Holy Spirit you can hate the lying temptations of an enemy who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

The Lord who defeated sin and death for you is very able to purge the evil that turns you away from an honest and peaceful life. Ask Him for help. He will change you.

Help the church to abhor evil. Love the Lord with all that you are and all that you have, and bring the power of the life of Jesus to the world today.

2 Kings 16

Trying to understand the history of Judah, Israel, Syria, and Assyria can be very challenging. Let's take a moment to review some facts. After David and Solomon, the old Israel was divided into two parts, Judah (with the continuing line of David) and the new "Israel" in the north (with other kings in several different mini-dynasties that were NOT in the line of David). Syria was the neighboring nation immediately to the northeast. Further east was the more powerful Assyrian Empire, different than the nation of Syria.

Concerning the kings of Israel and Judah, all the kings in the north (the new Israel after the split) were evil, even though they occasionally repented or did something in obedience to the Word of the Lord. Some of the kings in the south (Judah) were good, even though they occasionally were arrogant or ignored the Word of the Lord.

Ahaz, the king of Judah in 2 Kings 16, was not a good king. Like some of the earlier kings of Judah, he walked in the ways of the wicked kings of Israel to the north. Ahaz not only tolerated false worship in others, he participated in it himself. “He even burned his son as an offering.”

During the days of Ahaz, Israel and Syria were in league together against Judah. In order to survive this challenge, Ahaz looked further to the east to the powerful Assyrian Empire to rescue Judah from her neighbors.

Ahaz was determined to change the worship of Judah according to the pattern that he observed in Syria. He actually had a new altar built in the temple, calling it the “great altar,” displacing the bronze altar of the Lord, and changing the practices of temple worship according to his own design. Ahaz directed the priests in these innovations and they followed his instructions. In some of the renovations that he made in the temple courts, Ahaz displayed a desire to accommodate the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria was his Lord.

But like all the kings of Judah that came before him, Ahaz did not have “... the power of an indestructible life.” (Hebrews 7:16) When his time came to die, Ahaz slept with his fathers, and a much better king, Hezekiah, reigned in his place.

Ahaz was not an atheist. He was interested in spiritual things. Why else would he go to the trouble of having a foreign altar built in Jerusalem? He was spiritual, but he would not obey the God of Israel as the God above all other gods. He did not follow Yahweh as His only Lord.

Ahaz was one of the worst kings of Israel. The true son of David, Jesus, was the very best. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law of God, but to fulfill it. In accomplishing all of the holy commandments of Yahweh, Jesus has become our salvation. But our great Redeemer is not only our Savior. He is our Lord. If we admire Him as one among many spiritual advisers, we insult Him and follow in the way of kings like Ahaz. Ahaz was not extolled by the Lord as an open-minded leader over God's people. “He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.” But God said this about Jesus: “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him.” (Mark 9:7)

2 Kings 15

Azariah, also known as Uzziah, reigned for an unprecedented fifty-two years in Judah, the southern kingdom. Yet this was complicated by the fact his son, Jotham, was reigning for him during part of this time. Though we read more about Uzziah in 2 Chronicles, we learn very little about him in 2 Kings 15.

The few facts recorded for us here include this remarkable announcement: “The Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death.” To find out the details of why the Lord touched Uzziah in that way we need to wait for the retelling of his story in 2 Chronicles 26. For now, it is enough to say that though Uzziah did “what was right in the eyes of the Lord,” he did not always obey the Lord.

He was not the only king who received this type of mixed report from the word of God. As was said about many of the kings of Judah, “the high places were not taken away.” The people did not like to restrict their sacrifices to the one place appointed by God. They wanted the liberty to choose their own places for meaningful spiritual ceremonies. Their objections to God's ceremonial Law were not restricted to the question of where sacrifices could be offered to the Lord. They actually wanted to do everything their own way. They would not willingly limit themselves to the ways of worship that the Lord had revealed to them.

This was certainly also true of the kings of Israel to the north. From the very beginning of the divided kingdom, the king of Israel had set up shrines to the Lord that were not authorized by God. The kings of Israel never removed those false places of worship.

The names in this chapter are difficult to follow. Zechariah reigned for only six months. After him came Shallem, who conspired against Zechariah and reigned for only one month. Then came Menahem for ten years, and Pekahiah, his son, for two years. Then came another conspiracy, and another king, Pekah, who reigned for twenty years.

During this time of instability, insurrection, and brutality in Israel, the kings of the Assyrian empire were beginning to enforce their will over this entire region. The descendants of Jacob were increasingly a subjugated people who would soon be taken off into exile by a brutal foreign power.

Through all of these disappointments, the line of David continued in Judah to the south. Uzziah and his son Jotham reigned in Jerusalem for well over sixty years. The powers to the north and east were threatening all of Immanuel's land, but the promise that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was still as sure as it ever could have been.

The security of the people of God is never built upon our own assessment of our relative strength or weakness when compared with that of our adversaries. All of our assurance rests on the trustworthiness of the Word of the Lord and the perfect obedience of the Messiah. God had never promised that our eternal stability would only come from a descendant of David. Jesus of Nazareth would display His divine power by cleansing lepers. He would also fulfill all of God's Law and all of God's promises through His own death and resurrection. His achievements would count not only for Jews, but even for many from all the nations of the world who would put their trust in Him. He shall reign forever and ever.

2 Kings 14

Amaziah, the son of Joash of Judah, reigned for twenty-nine years. He did what was right, at least in part, “... yet not like David his father.” This brief statement reminds us how far the nation and her kings had fallen in the 200 years since the Lord chose David to be king over Israel and Judah. David, with all his faults, was a man of God's choosing, devoted to the Lord in worship and life. David was zealous for the God of Israel. Others, like Amaziah, might avoid some of the worst excesses of truly evil kings, yet they could not be rightly compared to David.

Amaziah showed some concern for justice, yet he became entangled in war with Israel in the north by provoking the king of Israel. Judah was defeated in the conflict that ensued, which meant a loss in security and treasure for the one who sat on David's throne. Amaziah was eventually put to death through a conspiracy that arose against him. His son Azariah, also known as Uzziah, reigned in his place.

Meanwhile, though the northern tribes experienced something of a resurgence in prominence at this time, the Lord's appointed time for Israel's discipline would soon come. The great-grandson of Jehu, Jeroboam II, would reign for forty-one years, but the prosperity that the nation experienced during these decades would not be able to save them from the force of the Assyrian empire in 722 BC.

Despite the evil of the Israelites in the north and the unfaithfulness of their rulers, God had made promises to His people that He intended to keep. “For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam....”

Israel would soon go away as a place of political, economic, and military power. Yet during the reign of Jeroboam II the Lord would aid His people in the north. It was the Lord's merciful plan to save them from the hand of their enemies, at least for a time.

These were not the best days in the history of Israel and Judah. The mercies that they were experiencing were only for a season. The fundamental need for a righteous ruler and an obedient nation had not been met by the people who lived their lives in the eighth century before the coming of the Christ.

The mercies that God did show to them were a testimony to a larger purpose that would extend far beyond the lives of those who lived in the promised land at that time. A Son of David who was more than worthy of the name “David” would eventually be born. He would obey the Lord's commandments, and lead His people in love by dying for their sins. This Messiah is the true David. His kingdom will never end.

Deuteronomy 21

Heaven is a place without murder. It is not a land of unloved spouses, rebellious sons, and captives of war. The world we live in today has many examples of all of these sad situations.

Israel was to be the one place on earth that would be a display of heaven, where the Law of the God of heaven was practiced. Yet the Law could not remove the curse for sin. Only the righteousness and blood of the Messiah could do that.

The Lord gave His people laws and rituals that testified to the seriousness of sin and the hope of a better day to come. But how would righteousness actually reign on the earth?

As the people of God waited for the kingdom of heaven, they could not consider murder a light matter. Murder required a penalty. But what if the murderer could not be found? Could the blood of a heifer really make things right? Even if the death of an animal might purge the guilt of innocent blood in a ceremonial way, at least for a time, would there ever be a better day without murder at all?

The law addressed the atrocities that were commonplace among other nations during a time of war. In Israel, the Word of God was to function as warning to men that they could not simply follow their lusts without consequences. But would there ever come a day without enslaving passions?

In Israel, it was unlawful for a man to disinherit his children just because he no longer loved their mother. That was a helpful statute, but surely the people of God longed for a place without broken families. Was it only an impossible dream that one day everyone would experience the love of a great husband and a devoted father?

In the promised land, a local village did not have to be terrorized forever by a rebellious and undisciplined young man who would not listen to his parents. An unruly drunkard would be stoned to death on the testimony of his parents. But who would comfort the mother and father in their loss? Could this be the Lord's best solution to their heart-breaking problem?

A new and better day arrived for the whole earth when the Son of God came in person to take away the curse for all who would believe in Him. According to the Law, a man who was hung publicly on a tree was cursed by God. But when God's perfect Son took the curse that we deserved on the cross, something new and very powerful came upon the earth.

The perfect Son of God has risen from the dead. He has promised us a much better day. Our day of hope is already reserved for us in the heavens and will surely come here soon with great power.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Deuteronomy 20

Cynicism and despair are not our allies. When we feel their presence, we can turn to our loving Commander and ask for His help. The Man who cast out demons with a word will defeat them and every other enemy.

If we fear the Lord, if we seriously consider that Jesus of Nazareth is the true Son of God and the only powerful Messiah, we will look on difficult adversaries in the right way. We will not be afraid of them.

Cynicism listens to the lies of the devil who would have us doubt that God is good or that the Lord is powerful to save. Despair would have us focus on our own weakness and run away in fear. When we receive the Lord again as our powerful Friend in every trial and as our merciful God who is full of compassion, our hearts are revived and we can go forth in the triumph of the cross.

“Let not your heart faint.... The Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

These words were to be the message of the Lord's priest before the assembled armies of Israel. Before leaders were chosen, distracted and fearful warriors were dismissed.

As the Israelites were led in war by God, they were to make a distinction between those enemies that were in the land of conquest and others living in more distant cities who would stand in their way. Those enemies in the land of Canaan were to be destroyed. If they were left alive, there would be great danger that they would entice Israel in pathways of evil. But enemies who were outside the land of Canaan could be given terms of peace, and could surrender to Israel and serve them. If they refused this entreaty, all the males of those cities would be killed, but the women and the little ones would live and would be taken as plunder. These were the uncompromising rules of conquest warfare that Moses gave to Israel.

Imagine what this fighting force had been through. They and their parents had been delivered from slavery in Egypt. God gave them bread from heaven and water from the rock in the wilderness. But their parents did not walk in faith, and that whole generation died as a result of unbelief. Now the next generation was listening to the commands of God through Moses, and was ready to obey the Lord of heaven and earth.

The God of Israel is the one Lord over all. He gave His people instructions about their care even for the fruit trees of the cities they would defeat. He was certainly Lord over every body and soul that the fighting men would encounter both near and far.

We who seek to fight the good fight of faith today have a Captain who is not afraid. He is not lacking in power, authority, sovereignty, and glory.

This Jesus calls us to an uncompromising victory in the light of His cross. He does not lead His church to win heaven with the weapons of this world. We follow Him in the way of suffering love.

There is a strength in our weakness that is more powerful than the sword. We will not compromise with cynicism. We will not follow the lies of those who see our Savior as just one spiritual leader among many. We will honor Jesus as our King, not just with an outward form of religion, but with the power of godliness that is willing to turn away from evil impulses that would quickly destroy us.

We will follow our all-powerful Commander in faith. He is leading us to the Jerusalem that is above via this war-torn earth. His terms of surrender to all are very clear: “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Receive this Word and you will be servants of the Lord and even sons of God through Jesus Christ.

Every other choice, no matter how safe, intelligent, sophisticated, or advantageous it may seem, is actually a road that leads to death. Christ and His cross lead to the victory of resurrection life.

Deuteronomy 19

The Law of God for Israel had a very unusual provision that only made sense for this present world where people face unintended negative consequences. Consider a man swinging his ax only to have the unintended result that the axehead flew off and his friend was hit in the head and died. That man who was swinging the ax was not to be treated as a murderer. He was guilty of manslaughter.

In the Law of Israel, the man with the ax could run to a city of refuge and find safety from the grieving relatives. The next of kin to the dead man was a “kinsman-redeemer” who would see to the requirements of justice and who would also care for the land, family, and name of his relative. He was to make things right in this matter in the name of the deceased, and in this case was called an avenger.

But what if the avenger killed the man who had killed his relative? How would that make things right when the death was an accident? What about the man who would now die for the unintended manslaughter? Who would avenge his death? Where would it end?

The Lord provided a city of refuge. In that city, the elders would have to decide the case. They could not harbor a murderer within their gates, but they could protect a manslayer who had no intention of taking the life of his neighbor. As the conquest of the land progressed, the Lord would provide additional cities of refuge, so that the nearest city would be close enough to be an effective safety net.

How do you receive this unusual decree from Israel's God? Just for a moment, don't evaluate it as a judge or catalog it as a researcher of legal customs. Receive it like a young child who heard these words for the first time from a father who could explain the law based on the example, the story, that God had given. A child would be able to understand the story about the man with the ax, the other man who got hurt, the avenger who ran after the man with the ax, and the city of refuge.

In years to come, the story might come back to the mind of that child when someone told him that God had provided a place of safety for him where his sins would be forgiven. He could run for safety to the person who would be a safe place for him. It was a powerful idea, the city of refuge, but it only went so far. Israel needed a much more comprehensive solution to the sadness of life all around them. Their misery was not merely a result of unintended negative consequences.

Even among God's people there might be those who had stolen something of value on purpose. For instance, a neighbor might try to move the stone that marked his property line, and end up taking some land that was not his. He also might lie about another neighbor and bring horrible trouble upon many lives. Evil could not be tolerated, but how would anyone survive if all the evil in Israel received the punishment it actually deserved? Two or three witnesses could rightly bring a man to his death. What could be done for people who had sinned?

Consider our own situation today. We are guilty. How could we ever meet our Maker and live? Could there be any city of refuge for the guilty? Could the guilty man ever find forgiveness? Could people covered with shame ever find cleansing?

We do have a Kinsman-Redeemer in the Messiah. He is our closest brother. He died not just for our careless mistakes. He gave His righteous blood for our worst sins. Saul of Tarsus, who characterized himself as “the chief of sinners” once hated those who believed that Jesus was the Son of God and Messiah. Paul eventually found forgiveness through the blood of his Kinsman-Redeemer that He had hated without a cause.

There is a new story that we need to take into our hearts in the gospel. It is very powerful good news. Receive it like a child. You are guilty, and not innocent. Where can you go? The man running after you is the Son of God, and He runs faster than you do. He has every right to punish you forever. He comes in the Name of His Father, and you have stolen and lied in ways that have offended the Most High God. But what does that closest relation of God do when He catches you? He does not destroy you, He grants you life in His blood. He has taken the penalty for you. The Kinsman-Redeemer of God that could have demanded justice from you forever has become your Brother and Friend. He has paid Justice for you. He is your City of Refuge.

Deuteronomy 18

What gives a person identity and worth? For many people, their possessions define them, particularly their land and housing that they own and can pass on to the next generation.

It could not be that way for the Israelites. The Lord was the ultimate owner of the land in which they lived. Especially the Levites, the tribe of priests and tabernacle servants in Israel, could not find their ultimate meaning in their land. They did not have a triba1 territory of their own. The priests had their portion of the sacrificial offerings and the rest of the tribe had the privilege of serving God in their appointed participation in the life of the tabernacle. In this way, as God Himself had told them, the Lord was their inheritance. But what did that even mean?

Even if they could not answer that question, they needed to trust God and not give in to covetousness. They certainly could not safely imitate the Canaanites that they would soon dispossess from the land. The Canaanites offered up their own children as burnt offerings to God. They inquired into spiritual realms through the use of diviners, enchanters, fortune tellers and those who communicated with the spirits of the dead. All of these defiling practices were prohibited by God.

The way to know the will of God and the truth about spiritual realms would come from the Lord's Word. In his day, Moses explained the Lord's will to the tribes of Israel. He was the appointed prophet of God, the authoritative spokesman of God's Word. But his time on earth would soon be done. He pointed Israel to another prophet who would take His place.

This coming prophet would arise from their own number, “from your brothers,” the Israelites. Moses recognized the obvious possibility that a fellow Israelite might claim to be this great prophet presumptuously. How were they to tell whether this man was the true prophet?

“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

Think of the predictions that Jesus made, the things that He said would “come to pass.” He told His disciples about His suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day. He told them about the establishment of His church, that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He told them about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He told the disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

These things were all true. They have all happened.

This Jesus is more than a prophet. He is the fulfillment of thousands of Old Testament expectations concerning a coming One who would be Savior and Lord.

Jesus fulfills all of the requirements that Moses gave concerning the future prophet who would come. We need to listen to Him. He has given us a new identity and an eternal worth far beyond any of the riches or lands that we could gather together in this world.

2 Kings 13

The brief stories of the son and grandson of Jehu are included here for our benefit. These men were not inspiring rulers over Israel. They “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

What is inspiring is that even though the kings and the entire nation made God angry, He listened to them when they cried out to Him. He continued to show loving-kindness to Israel even after years of their covenant unfaithfulness.

God used the Syrians against Israel as His agent of justice, just as He had spoken so many years before to Elijah and Elisha. But He provided a deliverer for them when they prayed to Him for aid. The Lord saw the oppression of Israel, and He cared for them.

During the reign of Jehoash, Elisha drew near to death. It is striking to see the sadness of the wicked king of Israel as a result of Elisha's mortal illness. Jehoash referred tenderly to Elisha as his “father,” and wept for him. God was using His prophet to bless Israel in their struggle with Syria even during these generations when they would not turn away from idolatry.

The line of Jehu, and the entire northern kingdom of Samaria, would soon be lost, but the Lord was still giving shocking testimony among them regarding the prophet Elisha. Accidental contact with the grave of Elisha brought a dead man to life! What would be the point of such an astounding miracle if the Lord had no more plans of blessing for the northern tribes? The prophet was the voice of God in his generation. The Lord was showing that His Word from heaven was a powerful agent of resurrection, even during an era when it might have seemed that all hope of blessing in Israel was lost.

God would come in person and provide His own faithfulness, not only for the remnant of Jacob, but for all who would call upon His Name. The Lord would not be satisfied with anything less than resurrection life among all His beloved people. Though the kings that reigned in Samaria were wicked, the compassion and holiness of the Lord, expressed so perfectly in Jesus Christ, will never fail.

2 Kings 12

God had preserved the line of David through a devastating trial, the murderous attack of a woman who desired power and was willing to slaughter all of her grandsons to remove them as potential rivals to the throne. Joash (Jehoash), the one grandson who survived and who regained the kingdom through the aid of the faithful priest Jehoiada, would reign over Judah for forty years. Jehoiada would be greatly used by God, not only in preserving the life of the young king, but in guiding him in the way of godliness. There were still problems in Judah, but the generations of the promised line of kings would continue.

The account of Joash's reign is primarily concerned with the efforts of many to see the contributions of the people effectively used for necessary repairs to the temple. Though people were giving and the priests were collecting money, the temple repairs were not moving forward at a reasonable pace. Eventually the words and actions of King Joash, Jehoiada the priest, the workmen, and the worshipers came together in a system of honest giving and hard work toward the good goal of the restoration of the house of the Lord.

Nonetheless the Judah's struggles continued as Joash faced the hostility of the Syrians against Jerusalem. The king used his own gifts that had been dedicated to the Lord, together with the gifts of several previous kings, in order to persuade the Syrians to go away.

The end of Joash's reign was very disappointing, a story that would be told more fully in another place. (2 Chronicles 24:20-22) Here in 2 Kings 12 we learn only that Joash suffered death by the hands of his own servants who conspired against him.

God had shown great mercy in preserving the life of Joash and in overthrowing the evil intentions of his grandmother, Athaliah. Yet this did not mean that Joash's reign would be marked by ease in the battle for faithfulness. Powerful enemies were everywhere. In the movement of history toward the coming of the Messiah, sometimes it was enough just to see the next generation survive. Even the best kings would not be able to establish the resurrection kingdom. Only the Son of God could do that.

When the Messiah King came, He too would face enemies on every side, especially from among the religious rulers in Jerusalem, but even from one who was within His own circle of disciples. Yet this final King who suffered on the cross could not be overcome by evil. He defeated every adversary that stood against Him and secured for us a coming eternal age of glory that will have none of the frustrations that are so much a part of this present fallen world.