Your Greatest Qualification for Ministry are your Weaknesses (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

 

Anya and some of her friends were taking about doing interviews.  Apparently, a standard question is, ‘what are your greatest weaknesses?’  Of course, the aim is to try to answer that question in a way that makes you not look too bad.  But supposing the potential employer actually wanted weaknesses.

You say to God, ‘I am not that smart.’  He replies, ‘Great!  You’ll be perfect for showing the world that my good news is for ordinary people.’  ‘I am not very brave.’  ‘Perfect, then you are going to have to depend on the Holy Spirit.’  ‘I struggle with anxiety.’  ‘Smashing!  You will be able to relate to real people in a real way.’  ‘I don’t think I have what it takes.’  ‘Marvellous, then you won’t be tempted to think that you did it by yourself.’

Your most important qualifications for ministry are your weaknesses.

God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (7)

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (6).  What a marvellous way to describe what it is to be a Christian!  We were people whose minds were hardened to the truth.  We were among those who were perishing.  The god of this world—the devil—had blinded our eyes from seeing the light of the good news of Jesus.  Yet the God who spoke creation into being with a word, has shone in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  But we have this treasure—the good news of Jesus— in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not us (7). 

Clay jars were the throwaway containers of the day.  They were cheap and ordinary.  The gospel comes in packaging, but the packaging is not impressive.  Supposing I give you a gift, and I decide to put it in the most beautiful bag that you have ever seen.  There is a chance you will spend more time admiring the bag than the present.  But if I give you that same gift in a brown paper bag then there is no chance that you become distracted by the packaging.  We are the brown paper bags! 

The emphasis here is on power.  Evangelism is not about the power of people, but the power of God.  Paul has already said that he does not depend on earthly wisdom, but on the grace of God.  We are called to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and the apostle Paul could debate with very well-educated people, but at the end of the day it isn’t fine sounding arguments that bring people to Jesus it is being clear with the truth.  The gospel has a power of its own!

Imagine Sam’s evangelism training sessions.  He looks at you and asks you to explain how you became a Christian.  ‘That’s not very exciting.  Do we have someone with a better story to tell?’  He looks at what you are wearing.  ‘You need to dress for success.’  ‘Have you thought about going to the gym?’  He suggests that you need to come across as the sort of person that people on the street aspire to be like.  Sam wouldn’t say those things because Sam knows the gospel.  The apostle Paul says, what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord … (5).  Our aim is to impress people with Jesus, not ourselves.  You don’t need to be someone else.  He can use you with your messed-up past, your lack of confidence and your ordinariness to show that the surpassing power of the good news belongs to God and not us (7). 

 

Our weakness causes us to depend on God’s power (8-9)

Paul gives four examples of how his weakness caused him to depend on God’s power.  This is the pattern for everyone who wants to serve Jesus.  We were afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (8-9).  The ‘but nots’ of these verses are the result of God’s power not his!      

Is it ever God’s will for His people to suffer?  Of course it is!  Our suffering should cause us to lean on God.  When a Christian is going through a hard time and yet God enables them to hold on to Jesus people around them may ask, ‘what is it that is so good about Jesus that stops them becoming bitter?’

When we are perplexed or bewildered at what God is allowing happen in our life we should pray that we won’t be driven to despair.  When God enables us to trust Him in the middle of our mess people may ask, ‘what have they seen in Jesus that enables them to trust Him?’

Paul knew what it was to be persecuted, but God enabled him to see that he was never forsaken.  Even if the whole world stands against you for being loyal to His truth, Jesus stands with you!

There is an incredible picture in the book of Acts when Paul was struck down but not destroyed.  He was in a town called Lystra sharing the good news.  The people turned against him, picked up rocks and they stoned him.  They thought he was dead and left him outside their city.  But Paul got up and went back into the city (Acts 14:8-20).  This is a story of God’s power being displayed in Paul’s weakness.  Paul had nothing left in the tank.  He would not want us to marvel at his bravery but the fact that God enabled him to do this.  There is no reason to think he was an exceptionally brave person.  But as this broken man looked at the beauty of Christ, Christ gave Him a courage that was not his own.  When we cry out, ‘I can’t do it!’, we are in the perfect place to depend on God’s power not ours.

Jesus is our model of ministry (10-12)

We are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (10-11).  Apparently, the word for death here refers to the process of dying rather that the state of being dead.  Paul is speaking about the physical and emotional pain that he experienced in his obedience to Jesus.  He knew what it was to be slandered, misunderstood and beaten.  He knew what it felt like to grieve over churches that were heading on a wrong course.  Our experience of being under pressure as we live for Jesus is a reflection of the dying life of Jesus.

Your family look down on you because they think that you have become some sort of religious freak.  It feels like death!  The Christian on disability refuses to exaggerate on their claim forms even though everyone else does it and they need the cash.  It feels like death!  The Christian teacher feels that God is calling them to work in a missionary school in a far-off country, but they love the school they’re in.  It feels like death!  The Christian electrician gets fired because he won’t by-pass the taxman with cash in hand jobs.  It feels like death!  The Christian businessman never gets promoted because he refuses to neglect his family and work all the hours of the day.  It feels like death!  But our dying in Him results in life.  Paul says that death was at work in us, but life at work in you (12).  Without death in the life of the apostle Paul there would be no new life for the Corinthians.  As we live a life of dying for Jesus He uses that witness to bring life to those around us.

Conclusion

Paul’s opponents didn’t think of themselves as jars of clay.  They were trained in the best communication techniques, boasted of the fees they could charge and could tell you of great spiritual experiences they had.  They looked down on Paul who was unimpressive in person, a hesitant communicator and always facing difficulties in his missionary efforts. 

The nervous breakdown, the teenage pregnancy, the broken marriage, the prison sentence, the shyness, the social anxiety, the struggle to express ourselves can all be used to display His power. We have this treasure—the good news of Jesus— in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not us (7).  Do you ever thank God for your weaknesses?  Are you glad for the many ways in which you are ordinary?  Your messy past gives Him a opportunity to show how He restores the broken.  When we think that God’s call is too difficult, He gets to show His power through our weakness.  As we refuse to give up His demonstrates how He never forsakes His people.

A couple of decades ago someone wrote a letter to Billy Graham’s ‘Decision Magazine’.  They signed the letter only with initials, so we don’t know if they were a man or woman.

‘For a long time, I was bitter about life!  It seemed that it had dealt me a dirty blow.  For since I was twelve years old, I have been waiting for death to close in in on me.  It was at that time that I learned that I have muscular dystrophy. 

I fought hard against this disease and exercised hard, but to no avail.  I only grew weaker.  All I could see was what I missed: my friends went away to college and then got married and started having families of their own.  And when I lay in bed thinking, despair would creep in from the dark corners to haunt me.  Life was meaningless!

In March last year, my mother came home from the public library with Billy Graham’s work, ‘World Aflame.’  I started reading it, and as I read I realised that I wanted God.  I wanted there to be a meaning to life.  I wanted to receive this deep faith and peace.  All I know is that now my life has changed, and I know that I have joy in living. 

No longer is the universe chaotic.  No longer does life have no goal.  There is instead God, who so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I continue to grow weaker.  I am close to being totally helpless and I am in pain most of the time.  But sometimes I am so glad I am alive that it is hard to keep myself from bursting at the seam.  I can see for the first time the beauty all around me, and I realise how very lucky I am. 

Despair is such a waste of time when there is joy.  And lack of faith is such a waste of time when there is God.’

God could have displayed His power by healing him, but instead choose to display His power by sustaining their heart.  They were perplexed, but as they looked at Jesus, God enabled them not to be driven to despair.  I am sure that refusing to wallow in self-pity must have felt like death.  As they depended on Christ brings life and encouragement to others.

2 Corinthians 4:1-6 ‘Don’t give up on doing God’s work God’s way’

In His great mercy Jesus has given you a wonderful ministry.  You are an ambassador of Christ.  You get to share the very words of God.  Around you are immortal souls who are heading to hell, but you can tell them of God’s one way to heaven.  The person of the Holy Spirit is within you to equip you for this task.  Angels watch on and see what you do.  Better still, your heavenly Father applauds your efforts to serve Him.  Through your actions and with your mouth you have many opportunities to show the world that God is great. 

However sometimes God’s kingdom grows so slowly.  People we have been seeking to share the gospel with can be totally uninterested.  Some people who were such vibrant followers of Christ years ago no longer have any passion for Him.  Most of all we struggle against our own tendency to apathy. 

Don’t give up!

1.      Don’t give up because God is merciful

The good news is a message of mercy.  In His love God sent His Son to die for people who have rejected Him.  He loved people who did not love them.  He took the punishment for our guilt.  He pursued us when we ran from Him.  He opened our eyes to His truth.  He persuaded us of His goodness.  He gives us works to do.  Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart (1).

In some denominations they call the pastor ‘the minister’.  That’s misleading.  Every follower of Jesus gets to share in this ministry.  Every Christian gets to embody and speak of the transforming love of Christ.  God doesn’t need any of us, but He delights to use each of us.

Peter Linkens is a great guy.  He’s really smart and has particular interests.  A couple of weeks ago we were in McDonalds after Crossway.  Peter was having a great conversation with another young man who attends.  They were talking about some obscure computer game.  On the way home Peter said that he finds it hard to see where he fits in to God’s mission.  I pointed out that I have been longing to see the guy he was talking with made feel more connected.  Peter connected with him more naturally than any of the rest of us could.  I told him to go to bed and thank God that He had used in a unique way that evening.

God has prepared works in advance for us to do.  You don’t have to be someone else to do His ministry.  He knew what he was doing when he wired you.  So, don’t lose heart.  Ask Him how He wants to use you and He will show you.  Ask Him for opportunities to speak about Him and you will find conversations opening up.  Ask Him for the strength to live in a way that shows people how merciful he is.

2.      Don’t give up doing God’s work God’s way

One of the most painful issues in Irish church history is ‘souperism’.  This was where Protestant Bible societies set up schools, around the time of the famine, where starving children were fed, on the condition of receiving Protestant religious instruction.  Souperism has left a lasting distrust towards evangelism in this country.

In our own day there is a thing called ‘bait and switch’.  Like the event that offered a draw for a new Play-station (the bait).  But when you can to the draw you had to first listen to a gospel presentation (the switch).  Similarly, we need to be careful not to manipulate emotions or take advantage of people’s vulnerabilities.

How we share the gospel matters!  Paul writes that, ‘we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with the God’s word, but by open statement of truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God’ (2).  If we have confidence in the power of the gospel we won’t feel the need to manipulate people.  

A retired couple went to a town where there was a small church that only opened for part of the year.  They were the right people for that place at the time.  They had a special love for migrants and many migrants were moving in to their area.  God chose to let that church grow.  People in their denomination tried to figure out what their technique was.  In truth it was simple.  They simple prayed, loved people and taught the Bible.  Don’t stop doing God’s work God’s way!  

The false-teachers who opposed the apostle Paul tried to attract people with how impressive they were as speakers, with talk of the money they could charge and how they had unique spiritual experiences.  Most seriously they weren’t faithful to God’s truth.  Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy that ‘there will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching.  They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centred’ (2 Timothy 4:3).  There will always be pressure to water-down the message.  There will always be people who say that they want to hear something more ‘relevant’.  That is the advantage of sermon series that simply work through the Bible.  We are letting the text set the agenda. 

Church growth teaching used to emphasise how those up-front needed to convey a certain image.  They had to be the sort of people those on the street aspired to be like.  Cool people were seen as more valuable.  However, ‘what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake (5).

While the false-teachers highlighted how great they were, Paul makes himself a servant for Christ’s sake—in a culture that knew nothing about servant leadership.  One commentator explains that ‘no person can think of themselves as great and at the same time declare that God is great.’  One of the reformers wrote, ‘he that would preach Christ alone must necessarily forget himself’ (Calvin).

A Christian is to live with humble confidence.  Humble in the fact that we know that we have done nothing to deserve God’s mercy, and we have given Him many reasons why He should give up on us.  We have nothing in ourselves to boast about.  But our boast is in the Lord (2 Cor. 10:11).  We are confident because the sacrifice of Jesus is of infinite worth and covers the worst of sins.  We are confident because the mercy of Christ accepts all who see their true need of Him.  We are confident because the love of God, our Father, is such that He will never drive us away.  Humble confidence is what commends the gospel to the world!

3.      Don’t think anyone is beyond his love  

Jesus warned us that there would be discouragements.  He taught that when the seed is sown—the good news about His kingdom is shared—some soil would fall on rocky ground.  Sometimes of the people we tell about Jesus remain totally uninterested.  If we measure success by numbers then we will be attempted to attract people with hype.  But what you attract people with will be all that you have to grow them with.  Our job is to faithfully share the gospel, only God can bring new life.

And even if the gospel is veiled, it is veiled from those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world had blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel in the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (3-4).  Those are hard words.  Jesus is not going to save everyone.  God let’s many people live with the consequences of their rejection of Him.

But mercifully He brings new life to many.  A woman had repeatedly shared the gospel with her friend, but her friend simply did not get it, even though she said that she wanted to understand it.  So, finally, the woman said, ‘You have a veil over your heart.  And you need to pray that God will remove it.’  A few weeks later the woman’s friend called, elated, as she explained that she had gone to bed the night before perplexed, but when she awoke the meaning of everything was clear.  The veil had been removed forever.

For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made the light shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ (6).  What an interesting way to describe what it is to be a Christian!  We are people who know the glory of God that is displayed in the face—the person and work—of Christ.

‘There is no one beyond the creative and recreative power of God.  He who spoke the world into existence and with a word birthed light and plants and birds and sea-creatures and animals and us—this God can illume and transform us from glory to glory with a word.  No one is beyond his love.  No one is beyond his grace.  And no one is beyond his creational power’ (Hughes).

Conclusion

Let’s finish as we started!

In His great mercy Jesus has given you a wonderful ministry.  You are an ambassador of Christ.  You get to share the very words of God.  Around you are immortal souls who are heading to hell, but you can tell them of God’s one way to heaven.  The person of the Holy Spirit is within you to equip you for this task.  Angels watch on and see what you do.  Better still, God applauds your efforts to serve Him.  Through your actions and with your mouth you have many opportunities to show the world that God is great. 

Let’s seek to make disciples of Jesus by praying for people, loving them and speaking clearly of the person and work of Jesus Christ.  We won’t give up because God is merciful.  We won’t give up doing God’s work God’s way.  We won’t give up on believing that God can rescue the most unlikely of people.

Beholding is becoming (2 Corinthians 3:7-18)

Do you realise, that if you are a true follower of Jesus, then one day you will stand before God and the angels in heaven will marvel at how like Him you are?  Yes, on that day you will be perfect.  You will perfectly display the fruit of the Spirit.  You will no longer be able to sin.  Your heart will be filled with love.  But, even now, as we look forward to that day we are becoming more like Him. 

This is a key passage on understanding the relationship between the first part of the Bible (the Old Testament/Covenant) and the second part of the Bible (the New Testament/Covenant).  A covenant was a solemn agreement.  The Old Covenant was given to a man called Moses at Mount Sinai after God had rescued His people from slavery in Egypt.  The New Covenant centres on the death and resurrection of Jesus.  This is also a key passage on how we can become more like Jesus, which is one of the great blessings of the New Covenant. 

I have three simple points: God can change you, only God can change you and God changes you as you look at Jesus.

1.      God can change you (7-11)

Believing you are beyond hope is not an act of humility, it is an act of unbelief.  We must not limit the power of the Holy Spirit to break old habits and produce new graces in us.

The apostle Paul planted a church in the city of Corinth, which is in modern Greece.  After he and his team moved on, a group of false teachers came to town and began to contradict what he said.  Paul had said that the new Christians were free from having to obey the law of the Old Covenant, these false teachers said you had to obey the law.

Paul brings his readers back to the second book of the Bible, Exodus, and to the events surrounding the giving of the old law.  While Moses was up the mountain speaking with God the people showed their unwillingness to obey God by making a golden calf and worshipping it.  Moses was so angry that he broke the stone tablets on which God had inscribed the law.  Moses had to go back up the mountain and get the law from God again.  When Moses came back down his face shone because he had been face-to-face with God.  The people were afraid because they were afraid of the glory of God, and so after he had spoken to them he put a veil over his face.  Paul says that this illustrates the difference between what he was teaching and the false teachers were teaching.

The ‘ministry of death carved on letters of stone’, as Paul calls the law was glorious because it was given by God and reflected His character, but the good news about Jesus is more glorious.  It’s more glorious because while the law was given for a time, the good news of Jesus is for ever.  It’s more glorious because the law was unable to change people, but Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out.  The law had sacrifices for sin that had to be repeated again and again, Jesus’ death was the perfect sacrifice for sin that never needs to be repeated.  Under the law the people were scared of the glory of God, the good news of Jesus can remove all such fear.

All this is great news for us.  He says his ministry brings righteousness.  There is no amount of evil in us that Jesus is not willing to forgive.  His ministry is that of the Spirit.  The Spirit can free us from the most enslaving patterns of sinful behaviour.  Believing you are beyond hope is not an act of humility, it is an act of unbelief,

2.      Only God can change you (12-16)

On Monday, Sam organised street outreach.  Alan is particularly gifted in this.  At one stage Alan offered a man a tract and the man replied, ‘I am not interested.’  Alan then said, ‘you need to become interested.’  So, the man replied, ‘talk to the wife.’  We were left a little confused!  By nature, people are not responsive to the idea of being changed by Christ.

Again, the apostle Paul uses the picture of the veil that covered Moses face.  The veil stopped the people of Moses’ day seeing the glory of that covenant.  It also stopped them seeing that the glory reflected on Moses’ face was fading.  The old covenant was fading away.

In Moses’ day the people refused to obey God’s covenant because ‘their minds were hardened’.  The majority of the people simply refused to accept what God was saying.  In the apostle Paul’s day when the old covenant was read the majority of Jews refused to believe that it actually pointed to Jesus.  That was because a veil lay over their hearts.

It’s not just the people of Moses’ day whose minds are hardened, or the Jews of Paul’s day that have a veil over hearts, in the next part of this letter Paul will tell us that the devil has ‘blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.’ (4:4).  ‘But when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed’ (16). 

When someone becomes a Christian, it is a work of God.  The Spirit of God takes the good news of Jesus and brings life.  It’s the Holy Spirit who has softens their hearts and it’s Christ who enables them to see the truth.  Therefore, if we want to be effective in sharing the good news about Jesus we will be praying for people and we will want to be very clear in telling them about what Jesus has achieved through His cross and resurrection.

One of the reasons I know that I am a Christian is that I am willing to accept that the cross of Jesus is the only way of being made right with God and, although I am very far from perfect, I want to become like Jesus.  These things are a gift of God.  But how does the Holy Spirit make us more like Jesus?  That brings us to our final point.

3.      God changes you as you look at Jesus (17-18)

The Apostle Paul calls the New Covenant made through Jesus ‘the ministry of the Spirit’.  Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (17).  This freedom includes the freedom from condemnation, the freedom from the fear of death, the freedom of the fear of God’s glory, the freedom from having to obey all the regulations of the Law given to Moses, and the freedom that gives access to the loving presence of God.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (18).  We are being transformed from one degree of glory to another.  We are not yet perfect.  We are a work in progress.  To paraphrase the hymn-writer, John Newton, ‘I am may not be what I ought to be.  I am not be what I want to be.  I am not what I will be when we see Jesus face-to-face.  But by the grace of God I am different than I used to be.’

How do we change?  We change as we behold the glory of the Lord.  Beholding is becoming.  This is why Paul’s message was greater than that of the false-teachers.  They could talk about laws, but they could not show you how to change.  The apostle Paul shows us that as we fix our gaze upon him He makes us like himself.

The key to transformation is to grow more and more in love with Jesus.  When you sin be quick to acknowledge His forgiveness.  Preach the cross to yourself.  Trust His promises.  Be with His people when we gather He is with us in a special way.  Read the Bible as a love story and not just a text book.  Remember that He wants to see your face and that he delights to hear your voice. 

Conclusion

Do you realise, that if you are a true follower of Jesus, then one day you will stand before God and the angels in heaven will marvel at how like Him you are?  Yes, on that day you will be perfect.  You will perfectly display the fruit of the Spirit.  You will no longer be able to sin.  Your heart will be filled with love.  But, even now, as we look forward to that day we are becoming more like Him.

God can change you.  Only God can change you.  He changes you as you look at Jesus.

1 Kings 11-22 and 2 Kings: ‘The Kingdom Goes’

 

I’m not a regular diamond buyer, but I am told that if you are buying diamonds the seller will place them on a black velvet cloth when you are viewing them.  The purpose of this cloth is to highlight their beauty.  Against this dark background their brightness is seen in its fullness.

In some ways the kings of the Old Testament are like that black velvet cloth to Jesus.  So many of these kings are simply awful and you are left thinking, ‘Israel needs a different sort of king!’  The king they need is Jesus.  When Jesus comes the gloom and darkness of Israel’s sinful kings serve to highlight the beauty of Christ’s kingship.[1]

 

Solomon’s reign was a time of peace and prosperity.  In line with God’s promise to Abraham, God’s people were in God’s place enjoying God’s blessing.  These were the golden days for Israel.  However, the good times are not to last.  Solomon acts as the king was not to act (see Duet. 17:16-17)—hoarding gold, gathering chariots and horses, and marring many foreign wives who turn his heart after their gods.  Just like Israel, as we have observed them right throughout our studies, Solomon refused to follow the LORD wholeheartedly.

The consequences are disastrous.  For David’s sake, God delays his judgement until Solomon dies (see 1 Kings 11:11-13), but then causes civil war and the kingdom begins to disintegrate.     

The rest of 1 and 2 Kings traces the decline of the once great kingdom.

 

Israel and Judah—Samaria and Jerusalem—Jeroboam and Rehoboam

After Solomon’s death his son, Rehoboam,[2] comes to the throne.  However, the ten northern and eastern tribes rebel against him and set up their own kingdom under Jeroboam.[3] The kingdom is divided.

The northern kingdom, confusingly, is called Israel.  Its capital is initially Shechem, and later Samaria.  The southern kingdom, Judah, has Jerusalem as its capital.  1 and 2 Kings can be a confusing read as the narrative jumps back and forth between the two kingdoms.[4]

 

The Northern Troubles: Jeroboam—Ahab—Jehu

In the Full of Promise study book that we looked at in the home groups, we were given a list of verses referring to some of the kings of Israel—the northern kingdom.  It asked us how the kings seemed to be doing.  Of each we read that they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.[5]  They didn’t do well!

Jeroboam is Israel’s first king.  He worries that the people will want to go to Jerusalem, in the southern kingdom, to meet with God at the temple. So he sets up two alternative shrines in Bethel and Dan, putting a golden calf in each.  He declares, ‘Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt (1 Kings 12:28).  He is attempting to combine the pagan calf symbol with the worship of the LORD.[6]  Jeroboam is remembered as the one who caused Israel to sin (1 Kings 14:16 and 2 Kings 17:21-23).

The most notorious of Israel’s kings is Ahab who, as a result of his marriage to Jezebel of Sidon, introduces Israel to the worship of Baal.  The prophet Elijah confronts Ahab about his religious and ethical behaviour.  At Mount Carmel Elijah demonstrates that it is the LORD not Baal who is God (1 Kings 18).

Of all the kings of the northern kingdom only one, Jehu, is commended; he alone rids Israel of Baal worship (2 Kings 10:28).  Nevertheless, he continues to promote the use of the golden calves set up by Jeroboam.   

In the year 722 BC—two hundred years after the kingdoms divided, the Assyrians attack Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom, and destroy it.  We are left in no doubt why this happens: All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of Egypt (2 Kings 17:7).  Both Israel’s kings and its people failed to obey God.

The people of the northern kingdom were largely deported, and their country was colonized with Syrians and Babylonians.  The resulting mixed population was the origin of the Samaritans—who were so despised by the Jews at the time of Christ.

 

 

The Southern Problem: Rehoboam—Hezekiah—Josiah

So the northern kingdom ended in disaster.  What about the southern kingdom—Judah, how did it do?  It didn’t do much better!  Again Full of Promise gives a list of verses, this time with reference to some of Judah’s kings.  Most of the references tell us of kings who did evil in the eyes of the LORD.[7]  

Despite having kings from the line of David, and the temple in their capital Jerusalem, Judah also degenerates into rebellion against God.  Like Solomon they turn their hearts to other gods and are not fully devoted to the LORD their God.  When we read of their failure to be a distinct people, we might ask ourselves ‘are we different from the world around us?’  And when we read of their lack of faithfulness we need to ask ‘are we wholehearted in following God?’  For as Christians we too are called to be distinct (see 1 Peter 1:13-16).

King Hezekiah and King Josiah try to turn the people’s hearts back to God, but ultimately they are unsuccessful.  Josiah promotes religious reform when a copy of the law—which appears to have been some edition or part of the Book of Deuteronomy,[8] is found during repairs in the temple.  But the change does not go far enough or deep enough to deflect God’s anger.  They have broken the covenant and are going to be punished (see 2 Kings 23:26 and Jeremiah 3:10).  In Deuteronomy God had warned his people what he would do if they deserted him—he would drive them out of the Promised Land (Deut. 28:15-68), and this is what happens. 

In 597 BC the Babylonians defeat Judah and take some of its inhabitants into exile in Babylon.  Soon afterwards, in 586 BC, the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and the temple, and thousands more are taken away.

Do you remember Bony M’s ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’?  Words from Psalms 137, which was written by exiled Jews.  No wonder they wept, so much had been lost.  The golden age under Solomon surely seemed a very distant memory. 

 

Conclusion

The Bible would be a very depressing story if it ended with 2 Kings.  It seems that everything that we have been working towards—God’s people, in God’s place, enjoying God’s blessing has crumbled before us.  But there is hope because this is not the end of the Bible’s story.

God’s work among his Old Testament people was never meant to be the final fulfilment of the gospel promises.  The history of Israel points towards something bigger and better.  Even at the height of the Old Testament we only have a shadow of the perfect kingdom that God will establish to Jesus Christ. “Yes, it was great for the Israelites to be rescued from slavery to the Egyptians, but that rescue is just a pale shadow of the perfect redemption achieved by Jesus on the cross (John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7).  Yes, it was wonderful for the Israelites to have God’s presence in their midst in the tabernacle and the temple, but those structures were just shadows of the one in whom the presence of God was perfectly manifest: ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [or “tabernacled”] among us (John 1:14).  And yes, David and Solomon were great kings, but Jesus is far greater (Mark 12:35-37; Luke 11:31).”[9]   

 

One last thing before we finish.[10]  In the northern kingdom we see the rise and fall of several dynasties (that is a succession of kings from the one family).  However, in southern kingdom God sticks with one dynasty—that of David.  Why?  Because God had promised David that his dynasty would last forever.[11]

So in the north Ahab’s evil leads to the passing of the throne to a new dynasty.  However the behaviour of Jehoram in the south (who is described as walking in the ways of the house of Ahab[12]) does not result in a change dynasty.  The narrator explains that it was, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah.  He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and  his descendants forever’ (2 Kings 8:19).[13]

2 Kings closes offering hope that the Davidic monarchy will be restored.  Ishmael, ‘who was of royal blood’ (2 Kings 25:25), flees to Egypt; Jehoiachin, king of Judah is released from prison in Babylon and being given ‘a seat of honour . . .’ (2 Kings 25:28 see also Jeremiah 52:31-34).  The survival of these two is surely significant and as Old Testament scholar Dessie Alexander points out, ‘That one should be in Egypt and the other from Babylon is also noteworthy, for the book of Kings contains several examples of individuals returning from exile and being enthroned in order to fulfil God’s purposes.’[14]

The king who will eventually bring the fulfilment to God’s promises will still come from David’s line!

 

 

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[1] Full of Promise, p. 57.

[2] “. . . Rehoboam is portrayed as arrogant and foolish for refusing the advice of ‘the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime’ (1 Kings 12:6).  This is why the majority of Israelites rejected him as king, preferring Jeroboam.”  Alexander, p. 91.

[3] See 1 Kings 11:26-40 and 12:1-24. 

[4] ‘The story of the divided monarchy is not easy to follow, as we try to understand the relations between the two kingdoms, their involvement with the mighty empires to their north and south, and the intervention of the prophets who spoke boldly in the name of Yahweh to kings and commoners alike.  The biblical story is further complicated by the fact that much of it is told twice, once in the Books of Kings and once in the Books of Chronicles, the chronicler (possibly Ezra) writing later with the clear object of emphasising the importance of the southern kingdom, the Davidic dynasty and the temple cultus.’  Stott, Understanding the Bible, p.60.

[5] For example, 1 Kings 15:25-26; 15:33-34; 16:29-33, 22:51-53.

[6] ‘Aaron had said exactly the same after he and the people had made another golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law from God (Exodus 32:4).  This idolatrous worship is the besetting sin of Israel throughout its existence.  It is only a matter of time before God acts in judgement’ Roberts, The Big Picture, p.85.

[7] For example 2 Kings 8:16-19; 16:1-4; 21:1-6

[8] Stott, p. 67.

[9] Roberts, p. 87.

[10] This point is taken from Alexander.

[11] Way back in 1 King 11 when God tells Jeroboam that he is going to be king, he says this, I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.  God has a future plan for the Davidic dynasty.

[12] 2 Kings 8:18, 27.

[13] Even when confronted by an evil king, God was firmly committed to keep his covenant with David.

Another illustration of God’s concern for the house of David comes in 2 Kings 11.  There the queen mother attempts to annihilate the remaining members of the Davidic line.  One baby boy is rescued and hidden in the temple, where he remains for six years until he is publicly enthroned.

[14] Alexander, p. 95.