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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 28 - Israel in the Promised Land Under Judges and Kings

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Why didn’t the ten spies think that Israel would be able to enter Canaan?

a. Because they saw the giants and the walled cities.

b. Because they did not believe God’s promise that He would give them the land.

2. Why did Joshua and Caleb think that Israel could enter Canaan? Because they believed God’s promise that He would give them the land.

3. What are we calling God if we do not believe His Word and trust in Him? We are calling God a liar.

4. Will God accept anyone who does not believe what He says? No, all who do not believe God will go to everlasting punishment.

5. What was God’s punishment on the Israelites because they did not believe His promise to give them the land? God said all who did not believe Him would die in the wilderness. They would not enter Canaan.

6. Who did God say would enter into the promised land?

a. Caleb and Joshua, because they had believed God.

b. The children of the Israelites.

7. What should the Israelites have done when they needed water? They should have trusted in the Lord.

8. Why did the Lord say that Moses and Aaron would not enter the promised land?

a. Because they did not trust and obey Him and thereby honor Him as holy and perfect before the people. Instead they showed their own anger.

b. Because Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God had instructed him.

9. What did the Lord do to punish the Israelites for their unbelief? The Lord sent poisonous snakes which bit and killed many people.

10. Who, like a snake, has “bitten” all people and brought death into the world? Satan.

11. How did Satan bring death to all people? Satan led Adam and Eve to sin against God so that they, and all of us, would die.

12. What did God tell Moses to do to save the Israelites from death? The Lord told Moses to make a serpent out of brass and put it on a pole.

13. What did those who had been bitten by a snake have to do in order to be healed? They had to look at the snake on the pole.

14. Did the snake of brass have magical power to heal those who looked? No.

15. Who healed those who looked? The Lord did.

16. Did they deserve to be healed? No, they were sinners and deserved to die.

17. Why did the Lord heal all who looked?

a. Because He is loving, merciful, and gracious.

b. Because they believed His promise and looked at the brazen serpent just as He commanded.

18. Did anyone who looked at the snake on the pole die? No, God always does what He promises.

The Israelites had wandered around in the wilderness for forty years, and all the generation who refused to believe that the Lord could give them the promised land had died. This was God’s punishment on them because they refused to believe His words.

- Consider:

Just as the Israelites were given God’s words by Moses, so we are given God’s words as we study together. We have the Bible readily available to us; we can read and study it on our own if we wish. Do you think God holds us responsible for what we know about Him? God gives us His Word so that we might believe Him. If we refuse to believe God, we, like the Israelites, will die in our sins.

Just as God said they would, Moses and Aaron also died before Israel entered the promised land.

Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, and God gave them the land that He had promised to Abraham and his descendants.

- Recall:

Although Satan and the king of Egypt had tried to stop the Israelites from leaving Egypt and although the Israelites had doubted God many times, the Lord still did what He had promised. He made a way for them through the Red Sea. He led them, protected them, and gave them water and food for forty years while they wandered in the wilderness. The Lord did not fail to do any of the things He had promised them.

Before his death, Joshua said to the Israelites, “...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.” (Joshua 23:14).

While Joshua was alive, the Israelites remembered the Lord. But after Joshua and the generation who had seen the Lord’s miracles in the wilderness had died, the Israelites forgot the Lord.

- They followed the ways of the nations that did not know the true and living God and did not have His Word.

- They made idols and worshiped them instead of the Lord. God had wanted to drive out the idolatrous Canaanites from the promised land and give Canaan to the Israelites.

- But Israel refused to believe and to obey God.

- So God allowed some of the Canaanite people to remain.

- Israel had settled among these idolatrous people.

- Instead of trusting God in the promised land, they adopted the evil practices of the Canaanites.

The Canaanites worshiped false gods named Baal and Ashtaroth.

- Satan had deceived these people into thinking that they were worshiping real and living gods.

- They did not realize that what they were really worshiping was Satan and his demons.

- Consider:

When people worship anything other than the true and living God spoken about in the Bible, they are really worshiping Satan. Satan disguises himself. He hides behind idols and other things which people worship, just as he disguised himself by using the serpent when he tempted Eve. Satan hates God and doesn’t want anyone to worship God. Satan hates every person. He doesn’t want anyone to trust in God and be delivered from death.

The Lord punished Israel because they forgot Him and worshiped idols.

- God allowed surrounding nations that hated Israel to overcome them and make them their servants.

- The Lord had warned the Israelites that this would happen to them if they did not obey and worship Him only.

- God does not change.

- No matter how many years pass, God remembers His promises, including His promises to punish those who do not believe.

When Israel repented, that is, agreed with God about their sin and called to the Lord for help, He chose a man or woman to lead and deliver them from their enemies.

These people who were chosen by God to lead Israel were called judges.

But over and over again, the Israelites forgot the Lord. Therefore, the Lord allowed them to be conquered repeatedly by their enemies.

Even though the Israelites were disobedient to God and He had to punish them, His love and care for them did not change.

- Recall:

In the garden of Eden, the Lord had promised that He would send a Savior who would destroy Satan and deliver the world from Satan’s power. God also gave this promise of a Deliverer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord assured them that the Savior would be one of their descendants. God protected Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for it was through Israel that God planned to fulfill all His promises of the Deliverer.

Furthermore, God wanted the world to know about Him. We can only come to know God through the Bible. It was through Israel that God gave much of the Bible.

- God used chosen Israelites to record His message in the Bible.

- Consider:

God preserved Israel so that His Word and the story of the Deliverer could be taught to you and to me. Do you remember that when we first began to study, we talked about the fact that all but one of the men whom God used to write His Bible were Jews? It is through the Jewish or Israelite people that we have a Bible. And God was going to do just as He had promised. He was going to send the Savior through the line of the Israelites so that all people might have a way to be saved. God wanted us to hear His Word so that we, too, could come to God and be saved.

Of all the nations of the world, Israel was most fortunate, for their ruler and king was God Himself. But Israel rejected God and asked for a king like the nations around them. God granted their request. Many kings ruled over Israel.

Refer to Time Chart:

- A few of these kings believed God and trusted in Him, but the majority of them did not.

- They worshiped idols and led the people of Israel to sin against the commandments of God.

- Archeological Note:

Over the years, archeologists have discovered many, many things that support the details of the reigns of the kings. Locations of towns and cities have been confirmed. Cult objects, idols, altars and other things from this period have been unearthed. The names of several of the kings have been found inscribed on monuments and tombs. Trade records verify names of rulers and towns. Records of wars list specific battles mentioned in the Bible. What has been found confirms the biblical record. Nothing found has gone against the biblical record. The Bible is a true history. We can believe every word of it because it is God’s Word.

A few examples of the archeologists’ findings:

Sennacherib’s prism, which mentions King Hezekiah (c. 700 B.C.)

King Hezekiah’s tunnel (c. 700 B.C.)

Jasper seal inscribed “Shema, servant of Jeroboam” (c. 750 B.C.)

Ivory inscribed with the name of King Hazael (c. 800 B.C.)

The Moabite Stone, which mentions King Omri (c. 800 B.C.)

David was the greatest and best-known king of Israel.

Unlike many of the other kings who ruled over Israel, David truly believed in the Lord and wanted to obey Him in everything.

- Consider:

David, like all of us, was born a sinner and was separated from God. But David knew that he was a sinner and that the wages of sin is death. He knew his only hope was in God’s mercy and forgiveness. In obedience to God, David offered blood sacrifices for his sins. Because David trusted in the Lord, he was accepted and forgiven just like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and many others.

David was also one of God’s prophets.

- God chose David to write many things that are in the Bible.

- David wrote many of the Psalms, which are songs of praise to God for His love and mercy.

- Note:

Before he became king, David was a shepherd. Some of the Psalms use imagery taken from David’s knowledge of shepherds and sheep. God used this imagery to explain to us that our position as sinners is like needy, straying sheep. We need a wise, strong, kind shepherd to keep us from destruction and to guide us into right paths. The Lord is the only one who can do these things for us and be our Good Shepherd.

- Background:

- As king of Israel, David acquired a great deal of wealth. He built himself a beautiful palace of timber, stone, gold, and silver. One day, David was thinking about his beautiful dwelling, and he realized that the Lord’s house was still the same one which had been made in the wilderness from animal skins and curtains of cloth. It was the tabernacle that the Israelites had made for the Lord when they were at Mount Sinai.

- Therefore, David planned to build for the Lord a permanent and beautiful dwelling place made of stone, timber, silver, and gold.

David wanted the Lord to have a permanent place where the people could come to worship Him and offer their sacrifices.

The Lord was very pleased with David for wanting to do this. God sent His prophet Nathan to speak to David.

The Lord told David that not he but his son would build this new place where Israel could bring their sacrifices and worship God.

God gave David the same promise that He had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

- The Lord promised David that the great Savior of man and conqueror of Satan would be from his family.

- This great descendant of David would rule as king forever and ever.

- God never forgot His promise to send a Deliverer.

David prepared the materials for the house of the Lord which was to be built in Jerusalem.

- Note:

Jerusalem is still a city in the news today. Like most ancient cities, it was surrounded by great stone walls to protect the people from their enemies. Archeologists have unearthed many ancient sites in the city and many levels of rebuilding of the wall. Visitors to Jerusalem today can see many archeological sites, some dating back to the times of the kings of Israel.

Before David died, he gave his son Solomon the responsibility of building the house of the Lord.

Solomon became king over all Israel after his father, David, died.

Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.

Now there was no further need for the tabernacle which the Israelites had constructed in the wilderness using animal skins and cloth. This new house of God was called the temple. The temple of the Lord had the same two inner rooms and the same furniture as the tabernacle:

- The thick curtain was hung in front of the most holy place, the inner room where God was to dwell.

- This curtain was there as a “DO NOT ENTER” sign for everyone except the high priest.

- It was a symbol of the separation between holy God and sinful man.

When the temple was dedicated and sacrifices offered to the Lord, the Lord came and entered the most holy place of the temple, just as He had entered the tabernacle. As the Lord came down and entered the temple, the people saw the brilliant light, the Shekinah glory, and worshiped God.

- Recall:

The high priest was only allowed to enter this inner room once a year on behalf of the people. The Israelites could not come to God themselves. The only way they could be accepted was to depend on the high priest and the animal blood he offered for them. Every year, the high priest took the blood of animals into the most holy place in the temple and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat, the pure gold cover of the ark of the covenant. The Israelites were never to forget that they were sinners, that God is perfect, and that the punishment for sin is death. Because the blood of animals could not pay for their sin, the blood had to be placed before God every year. Every year, God forgave their sins and held off His judgment, waiting for the time when a perfect and complete payment for sin would be made.

After Solomon’s death, the nation of Israel argued over who should be king, and they split into two kingdoms. The ten northern tribes were called Israel, and the two southern tribes were called Judah. Refer to Map 2 below.

We have just covered a major span of Israel’s history. Refer to Time Chart:

In time, it is hoped that you will take the time to read the entire Bible for yourself, as the stories of each event and individual are full of valuable lessons and insights for us today. But at this point, we are moving rapidly through the Old Testament so we can gain a good overview of God’s message for us.

The next lesson will take a look at some of God’s prophets who spoke His messages to Israel and surrounding nations. And we will consider Israel’s response to God’s stern warnings. As we consider what we are learning, we need to think of our own response to God’s Word. God’s Word is written for us so that we may know Him.

QUESTIONS:

1. Who was the leader of Israel after Moses died?

2. Did God give Abraham’s descendants the land which He had promised them?.

3. What did the Israelites do after Joshua died?

4. Who deceives people so they worship idols and other created things?

5. If we worship anyone or anything other than the true and living God, whom are we really worshiping?

6. Why does Satan lead people to worship idols and other things?

a.

b.

c.

7. How did God punish the Israelites for worshiping idols?

8. What did God do when the Israelites admitted they were wrong and asked God to deliver them?

9. How was David different from many of the kings who ruled over Israel?

a.

b.

10. What important promise did God make to David?

11. After David had finished his own house, what did he decide to build?

12. Did David build this temple for the Lord?

13. In what way was this new stone building like the tabernacle in the wilderness?

a.

b.

14. When was the high priest permitted to enter this inner room?

15. What did the high priest do in the inner room?

16. Did the blood of animals pay for the sin of the Israelites?

a.

b.

17. What did God do because the high priest sprinkled the animals’ blood on the mercy seat?

a.

b.

18. What happened after King Solomon died?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 136: 2 Samuel, Chapters 4 and 5

Day 137: 2 Samuel, Chapters 6 and 7

Day 138: 2 Samuel, Chapters 8 and 9

Day 139: 2 Samuel, Chapters 10 and 11

Day 140: 2 Samuel, Chapters 12 and 13