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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 29 - God Sent His Messengers, the Prophets to Israel;

Israel Refused to Respond to their Warnings

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

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

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

2. Did God give Abraham’s descendants the land which He had promised them? Yes, God kept His promise and gave them the land.

3. What did the Israelites do after Joshua died? They turned away from the Lord and worshiped idols, like the people near them who didn’t know the true and living God and did not have His Word.

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

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

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

a. Because Satan hates God and doesn’t want anyone to worship God.

b. Because Satan hates all people and doesn’t want them to trust in God and be delivered from death.

c. Because Satan uses many things to disguise himself and to deceive people.

7. How did God punish the Israelites for worshiping idols? God allowed their enemies to conquer them.

8. What did God do when the Israelites admitted they were wrong and asked God to deliver them? God used Israelite men and women called judges to help them to fight and overcome their enemies.

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

a. David believed and obeyed God.

b. David agreed with God that he was a sinner, and he brought the blood of animals, trusting in God to forgive his sins and accept him.

10. What important promise did God make to David? God promised David that one of his descendants would be the Deliverer.

11. After David had finished his own house, what did he decide to build? David decided to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem.

12. Did David build this temple for the Lord? No, his son Solomon built it.

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

a. The temple still had the two inner rooms and the same furniture.

b. The heavy, large curtain still hung across the entrance to the most holy place as a “DO NOT ENTER” sign for everyone except the high priest.

14. When was the high priest permitted to enter this inner room? Only once a year.

15. What did the high priest do in the inner room? The high priest sprinkled the blood of animals on the mercy seat, the golden lid of the box under the cherubim.

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

a. No, sin must be paid for by the death of the sinner.

b. The blood of animals was only a temporary offering, holding off punishment until a complete payment for sin would be made.

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

a. God forgave the sins of Israel committed during the past year.

b. God held off His punishment until a complete payment for sin would be made.

18. What happened after King Solomon died? The ten northern tribes split away from the two southern tribes.

Have you ever tried to tell someone something they didn’t want to hear? It’s not easy, is it! Harder still, have you ever warned someone you love of something you saw that was going to cause them ruin if they didn’t heed your warning?

God is the Creator of all people in the world. God loves all mankind and wants all people everywhere to be delivered from the power of Satan, sin, and death. Therefore, from the very beginning of the world, God has spoken to people so they would know His will.

- Recall:

God spoke to Adam and Eve and to Cain and to Noah. God gave His message to Noah so that he could tell the people of his day that God commanded them to repent and to believe only in Him. God also spoke to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. God gave His message to Moses, and Moses gave it to Pharaoh and the Israelites. God continued to speak to Moses as He led the Israelites toward the land He had promised to give them. God spoke to the nation of Israel and gave them His commandments from the top of Mount Sinai.

God spoke through His messengers to Israel and Judah to teach the Israelites His ways and to warn them of His judgment on sin. God also sent some of His messengers to other nations near the land of Israel.

God’s messengers were called prophets. Let’s look on the chart at the names of some of God’s prophets.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were some of the well known messengers of the Lord. You will find these and the names of some of the other prophets used as titles to the Old Testament books which God had these men write.

God’s prophets told the people to repent, to destroy their idols, and to trust only in the Lord.

- Remember that “repentance” means a change of mind.

-   To repent is to agree with God about our own sin.

Many of the Israelites who worshiped in the temple also worshiped idols.

- God told them that He would never agree to that.

- They must choose whom they were going to serve.

- Those who worship God must do so from their hearts, and their worship must be according to God’s Word.

- He is the only true God.

God will not accept worship from anyone who worships anything or anyone else.

God’s prophets also reminded the Israelites of God’s laws given to them through Moses.

- The Israelites had disobeyed these laws.

- The prophets told the people that the Lord said they must repent or He would punish them. He would send their enemies to fight against them. Their enemies would conquer them and lead them away captive to foreign lands. The Israelites would then be slaves of their enemies who spoke languages which the Israelites did not know.

- Isaiah the prophet warned Israel (the northern ten tribes) that the Lord would send the Assyrians to fight against them and capture them if they didn’t repent.

- Jeremiah warned the people of Jerusalem and Judah that the Lord would send the Babylonians to destroy them.

Refer to Map 2 above: Locate Babylon and Judah.

God has not changed.

- He is the only true and living God.

- He is our Creator and will punish all those who worship or serve anyone or anything besides Him.

Even though thousands of years had passed since God gave the first promise of the Deliverer in the garden of Eden, the Lord had not forgotten His promise to send the Savior who would destroy Satan, deliver man, and make it possible for man to once again be the friend of God.

- Recall:

God repeated the same promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised them that the Deliverer would be one of their descendants. All through the years, God repeatedly reminded Israel of the promised Savior. The Lord promised David that the coming Deliverer would be of his family line.

Hundreds of years before the great Deliverer came, God foretold many more things about Him.

- He told His chosen messengers, the prophets, what would happen to the Deliverer.

- They wrote these things down in their books which are now recorded in the Bible.

- In the coming lessons we will look at some of these prophecies and see how God fulfilled them.

He knows everything before it ever happens.

God did not abandon His plan to send the Savior even though the vast majority of people were not interested in His will for them nor in His promises. God loved the world and did not want anyone to go to everlasting punishment.

There were always some Israelites who believed God and believed the messages of His prophets. But the majority of the Israelites refused to obey the words of God. They persecuted and killed God’s messengers.

- They continued to worship idols.

- They followed the wicked ways of the surrounding nations.

- Many continued to go to the temple to worship the Lord, to perform all the ceremonies, and to offer sacrifices, but they did not obey God in their everyday living.

- They said many good things to God, but He did not accept what they said because He could see that they did not mean them in their hearts.

- Isaiah 29:13 says, “...these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me....”

- Consider:

Maybe someone has made you bitter against God and against the church. You say to yourself, “I would never want to be like that person. If that’s religion, you can forget it.” God detests that kind of religion, too. Don’t let a false worshiper keep you from believing God and coming to know Him as He is. God does not lie. He is always faithful and true. He never changes. He is loving and kind and merciful. He is also holy and righteous and punishes all sin. God will take care of the sins of false worshipers. Let Him take care of those who are offending you and interfering with your understanding of Him. He wants us to admit our own sins and to trust Him.

We cannot fool God.

- Man can only see the outside of us and can only hear our words.

- God looks into our thoughts and our hearts. He knows what we are really like inside.

- He says that we are all sinners.

- None of us pleases God by what we do. Most of the priests and leaders were evil men.

- They did not trust in the Lord.

- They did not obey His commands.

But besides the prophets sent by God, there were also false prophets who spoke lies to Israel.

- They claimed to be the messengers of God, but they were the servants of Satan.

- They spoke lies to the people.

- They told the people that everything would be all right and that God would not punish them.

- Consider:

Satan is still the same today. Satan speaks through people who may tell you that God’s Word is not true, or they may say that God will not punish sin. Many are preaching that there is no eternal punishment, that God would never send anyone to Hell. They may tell you that things are going to be fine. Everybody is going to make peace with each other, and we will just all be one happy family. Some are suggesting that God exists so He can give people material and physical benefits. They say that if you give a lot of money to the church, God has to give you lots of wealth in return. Some are telling people to demand things from God, because God owes it to people to give them what they ask.

- Consider:

God does not owe people anything. God is sovereign. He is still the holy, righteous, sovereign God who will not tolerate sin in His presence and who will judge all sin. Those who refuse to believe Him and to come to Him in His way will be punished forever in the Lake of Fire. God says that there is no peace for the wicked. Anyone who tells you that the Bible has changed or that the Bible is not true is a false prophet. Do not listen to anyone who is teaching anything contrary to what God has said in the Bible. Everyone must make a choice to either believe the words of men or the Word of God.

God is patient. He does not immediately punish sinners.

- Consider:

He warned the people in Noah’s time for 120 years before the flood destroyed them. For many hundreds of years, He sent His messengers to Israel. They warned Israel of God’s anger and His coming punishment on them if they did not repent.

Israel did not believe that God would allow their enemies to take their land and make them captives. Because Israel would not believe and repent, God allowed their enemies to fight against them and conquer them. The Assyrians conquered the northern ten tribes and took them away as captives.

Locate Assyria and Northern Israel.

The Assyrians then brought people from other countries to live in the northern part of Israel.

- These people worshiped idols.

- They did not know the true and living God of Israel. Many of the people from the ten tribes of Israel who were not taken to Assyria intermarried with these people who had come from other countries.

- The descendants of these mixed marriages were called Samaritans.

- The Samaritans continued to worship the Lord, but they worshiped Him according to their own ways and not according to the way God had told Moses.

- Furthermore, they refused to go to God’s temple in Jerusalem.

- For these reasons God refused to accept their worship. Judah, which included the two southern tribes of Israel and the people of Jerusalem, also refused to repent, so God allowed the Babylonians to take them away into their country.

Locate Babylon, Judah and Jerusalem on the map below.

- The Babylonians smashed down the stone walls of Jerusalem.

- They also tore down and burned the temple of God which Solomon the king had built.

God did what He had warned the Israelites He would do if they did not repent.

- The people would not believe His Word, so He punished them.

- All unbelievers will be punished by God forever.

After many years, the people of Judah who were in Babylon repented and asked the Lord to take them back to their own land. The Lord heard their cries for His help, and He brought many of them back to Jerusalem.

- They rebuilt Jerusalem and the stone walls around the city. God did what He had warned the Israelites He would do if they did not repent.

- The people would not believe His Word, so He punished them.

- All unbelievers will be punished by God forever.

- They also rebuilt the temple.

The Israelites who returned to their land were also given another name.

- They were called Jews, the name still used for the descendants of these people today.

- The name Jew is probably derived from the word Judah. The Jews continued to worship the Lord, although the majority did not do it from their hearts.

- They went to the temple with their sacrifices.

- But they did not really believe they were sinners who needed God’s mercy.

The Lord punished them once again by allowing other nations to conquer them. The Greeks took control of the Jews’ country and taught them to speak the Greek language.

Locate Greece on the map below.

God, in His sovereignty, was going to use the Greek language to spread His Word over much of the civilized world.

- Explanation:

At that time, the Bible was not yet completed. Only the part we know as the Old Testament had been written. Some of these books were being translated into Greek from the Hebrew language in which they were originally written. People in places far from Israel were being prepared, through reading God’s Word, for the coming Deliverer. Later, in the first century A.D., when God gave to men the rest of His Word, the New Testament, He caused it to be written down in the Greek language, which was by then spoken by many people in distant countries.

After a time, the Romans overcame the Greeks, and they took control of Jerusalem and the land of Israel.

Locate Rome on the map below.

The Romans ruled over the Jews and made them pay taxes.

- If anyone disobeyed, he was strictly punished.

- The Romans killed many Jews with sword and spear; others they crucified.

The Roman Emperor, Caesar, appointed men to rule for him over the countries which he had conquered.

- The Romans worshiped many false gods; they also worshiped Caesar.

- Nevertheless, the Romans permitted the Jews to continue worshiping the Lord by going to the temple.

Again, in God’s sovereignty, Roman rule had its benefits.

- God allowed the Romans to build many excellent roads linking their vast empire.

- God was preparing a way for His Word to be carried to distant lands.

God cares about the people of all nations and wants them to know Him. During these times, the Jews built meeting houses, called synagogues, where they could read and teach the Old Testament Scriptures.

- Because of persecution and captivity, the Jewish people were now scattered to many countries.

- Synagogues were built, not only in most of the cities and towns in Israel, but also in many cities in Asia Minor, Greece, Persia, and North Africa. Locate these areas on the map below.

- On the last day of the week, the Jews met in their synagogues, and the Jewish religious teachers and leaders read and explained the writings of Moses and the prophets.

- But in many cases, their explanations were not according to what God had spoken and written in the Bible.

- The majority of the Jews went to the temple and the synagogues, but they did not truly trust in the Lord or obey His Word.

- They were only meeting as part of their cultural duties and habits; they were not worshiping God from the heart.

However, there were always a small number who believed God’s Word given through His messengers.

- They trusted in the Lord and tried to follow His commands.

- They were accepted by the Lord because of their faith in Him.

- Consider:

They were like Abel, Noah, Abraham, and many more who realized they were sinners and trusted in the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness.

- They were waiting for the coming Savior whom God had promised would save them from Satan and the punishment for their sins.

- Thousands of years had passed since God had first promised to send the Deliverer, but they knew that He would come at the exact time which God had planned.

- Consider:

Whom are we like? Are we like the Israelites who refused to believe God, or are we like those few who wisely believed His words and trusted only in Him?

Israel’s unbelief and rejection of God’s promises brought deep grief and sadness to the Lord.

In Psalm 81:13,14,16, God says, “Oh; that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would subdue their enemies....” God said He would have “...fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock....”

God was, indeed, saddened by Israel; but He had never changed His plans or forgotten His promises. Now He was extending His grace and mercy to the whole world. He had established a common language, an excellent road system, and meeting places in distant countries. He was making a way for all to hear about the long-promised Savior.

QUESTIONS:

1. Why did God call men to be His messengers?

2. What did God’s prophets say to Israel at this time?

3. What did the Lord say He would do if they refused to repent?

4. Has God changed?

5. Although thousands of years had gone by, had God forgotten His promise to send the Deliverer?

6. To whom did God give much more information about the coming Deliverer?

7. Where are these things written?

8. What was the attitude of the majority of the Israelites to God and His prophets?

a.

b.

c.

9. Did the Israelites continue to go to the temple, offer sacrifices, and worship God?

10. Was God pleased with them? Did He accept their worship and their sacrifices?

11. Why didn’t God accept the worship and sacrifices of many of the Israelites?

12. Who sees into our thoughts and knows our hearts?

13. What does God say about us all?

14. Did God accept any Israelites?

15. For whom were these believing Israelites waiting?

16. What did the Lord allow to happen to the northern ten tribes of Israel?

17. What did the Lord allow to happen to Jerusalem and the two southern tribes?

18. Did any of the Israelites return to their own land?

19. What did they do when they returned to Jerusalem?

20. What new name were the Israelites given?

21. What other people conquered the Jews?

22. Whom did the Romans worship?

23. What were synagogues?

24. Were there any Jews who were true believers like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 141: 2 Samuel, Chapters 14 and 15

Day 142: 2 Samuel, Chapters 16 and 17

Day 143: 2 Samuel, Chapters 18 and 19

Day 144: 2 Samuel, Chapters 20 and 21

Day 145: 2 Samuel, Chapters 22 and 23