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Israel’s BIG Mistake.
Israel rejected God as King.
When Samuel tried to appoint his dishonourable sons as judges, the tribal elders demanded a king to rule over them ‘like all the other nations’.
This time God instructed Samuel to appoint a king but also made it clear that Israel was rejecting him as King.
1. The Tribal Elders Demand a King.
All the elders of Israel gathered together and approached Samuel at Ramah saying, “Look, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. So appoint a king to judge us like all the nations.”
(1 Samuel 8:4-5)
2. Israel have rejected God, not Samuel.
Do everything the people demand. They are not rejecting you! They have rejected me from being king over them.
(1 Samuel 8:7)
3. God warns Israel about the consequences.
Warn them about the ways the king will rule over them.
(1 Samuel 8:9)
From this day forward, Israel’s fortunes would be tied to the spiritual condition of one man, the reigning king. In fact, Israel would fracture into two kingdoms, Judah and Israel, after the reigns of David and Solomon.
Below is a list of the kings of Judah; godly kings in bold red, reasonable kings in red, weak kings in black, apostate kings in bold black (Athaliah, the usurper queen, was the Israelite wife of Jehoram and daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, the northern kingdom).
- David
- Solomon
- Rehoboam (divided kingdom)
- Abijah
- Asa
- Jehoshaphat
- Jehoram
- Ahaziah
- (Athaliah)
- Joash
- Amaziah
- Uzziah
- Jotham
- Ahaz
- Hezekiah
- Manasseh
- Josiah
- Johahaz
- Eliakim/Jehoiakim (Egyptian and Babylonian occupation)
- Jehoiachin (taken into captivity in Babylon)
- Mattaniah/Zedekiah (Babylonian occupation)
Israel and Judah Conquered.
All the kings of Israel, the northern kingdom, ‘did evil in the sight of the Lord’. The northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian empire in 722BC.
In 586BC, the Babylonian Empire conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, demolished the temple and exiled its population.
Israel would never return to a theocratic form of government.
The Synagogue, 'house of prayer', which emerged in the third century BC, became the dominant congregational-model for Jewish religious life in the diaspora and Israel during the life of Jesus Christ.
Israel would never fulfil the Abrahamic promise to be,
a blessing to all the families of the earth.
The next Bible study.
In the next Bible study we will consider the Family Model of the Church in the Gospels and Acts.
There has never been a better time to be a disciple of Jesus Christ!
