GOD’S WORD FOR DECEMBER 3 ~ ~ Joshua 23:14~ ~ “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.”

Continuing in the book, How to Read the Bible by Dr. Michael Youssef of Leading the Way International Ministries

We’re in Chapter 6 David and Solomon; Foreshadowing God’s Kingdom

David’s son, King Solomon, was famed for his wise leadership and writing three books of the Bible – Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.  But he also had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, including Pharaoh’s daughter and foreign princesses from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other nations.  Solomon allowed his foreign wives to bring their gods to Israel. – and he even built temples to these foreign deities.  According to 1Kings 11:4, as Solomon grew old, his pagan wives “turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”

Solomon had inherited a nation built on the spoils of war and the riches of tribute paid by other nations.  He faced the challenge of growing Israel’s economy through trade – and growing the government through taxation (see 1 Kings 4:7, 10:14-15; 1 Kings 12:3-4).  He also launched a building program that he hoped would increase national unity and pride,  to provide labor for it, Solomon forced many of the non-Israelites in the kingdom – the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites – to work as slaves (see 1 Kings 9:20-21).

Under Solomon, Jerusalem became an urban concentration of privileged nobles and merchants who enjoyed a higher standard of living than the peasants in the village and farm.  Solomon ruled his home tribe, Judah, directly and the other tribes of Israel through administrators.  As a result, the northern tribes grew resentful of the Jerusalem aristocracy.

During Solomon’s moral and spiritual decline, Ahijah, a Levite prophet from Shiloh (the Levites were the Jewish tribe of the priesthood) foretold the division of Israel into northern and southern kingdoms.  He also foretold that Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s construction  supervisors, would lead the northern kingdom:  Here is what Ahijah said in 1 Kings 11:29-34:

About that time Jeroboam was going   out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah (the prophet)  took hold of the new cloak he  was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.  Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:  ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.  But for the sake of My servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.  I will do this because they have forsaken Me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek, the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to Me, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did. 

But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David My servant, whom I chose and who obeyed My commands and decrees.’”

After Solomon died, the ten northern Israelite tries revolted against his successor, Rehoboam.  The united monarchy of Israel split into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah (with Jerusalem) in the south.  The two Jewish nations were in a state of war for decades afterwards.  Around 720 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Empire and many Israelites were taken into captivity.

From about 598 BC to about 587 BC, the army of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, laid a series of sieges to Jerusalem, resulting in the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the city walls.  During those years, and as late as 582 BC, the Babylonians took thousands of Israelites into captivity and slavery.

As Jerusalem and its Temple lay in ruins, the people must have despaired.  How could this have happened?  God had promised King David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before Me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

And God had also promised that a future king would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (Isaiah 9:7).  Now the throne of David was destroyed and Jerusalem was nothing but rubble.  Had God’s promise failed?

Amid the desolation of the northern and southern kingdoms, the people must have thought that God’s kingdom was finished, His promises could never be fulfilled.  The seemingly invincible empire of Israel was laid to waste.

(But read tomorrow for God’s everlasting plan)

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*Isaiah 54:5                                                                                                                       

For your Maker is your husband.  The Lord of hosts is His name, and youe redeemer, the Holy One of Israel;   The God of the whole earth shall He be called.

*John 14:18

I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.

*Psalm 147:3

He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.

*Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;

*Habakkuk 3:19

the Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. …

*Romans 8:37

Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

*I John 5:14 &15

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He hear us:

And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

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