All glory to God our Father
Let us turn now to Isaiah 44 and read it together.
The Blessings of Israel
1 “But now listen, O Jacob, My servant,
And Israel, whom I have chosen:
2 Thus says the Lord who made you
And formed you from the womb, who will help you,
‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant;
And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
Jershurn is yet another name, and an honored one, for Israel. It means righteous or straight and is in contrast to Jacob, which means over reacher or deceiver. Possibly even trickster.
Lest you think this is a one time use of this new name, not so. While you were perusing Deuteronomy, you would have encountered it first in: – You were perusing Deuteronomy weren’t you?
Deuteronomy 32:15
“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
You are grown fat, thick, and sleek—
Then he forsook God who made him,
And scorned the Rock of his salvation.
Also in:
Deuteronomy 33:5
“And He was king in Jeshurun,
When the heads of the people were gathered,
The tribes of Israel together.
Let’s go back up to the first one, Deuteronomy 32:15 and consider that for a moment.
Deuteronomy was written by Moses, in Moses’s day, around 1400 BC. The book is right after Numbers, in case you didn’t happen to read it yet. The Hebrew translation is “These are the words”, from the first 2 Hebrew words in Deuteronomy. When the Greek Septuagint translated this book, they got the name wrong. Their version means “Copy of this Law.” A better description of it is “a record of Moses’ words of explanation concerning the Law.” It is a bit legal and dry to read, but instructive all the same.
Moses wrote that Jeshurun had grown fat and kicked. Meaning that Israel had gotten quite happy with itself and started to rebel against their God. Elohim, and we are dealing with the Hebrew word for God now, because they are all Hebrew and this was well before the Middle Ages came and started dropping J’s all over the place. So Elohim had brought his people out of Egypt and blessed them, because they were his people and He was their God. I keep bringing this up because it is important. This is where God’s plan for bringing salvation to his people, through is Son, Jesus Christ into fruition. And from the word Go, those Jeshurunites, those sons of Jacob were not buying into the program. And as of this day, those stiff necked Jews are still not buying into the program.
Getting back to Deuteronomy, the book itself does not advance chronologically from the last 2 books and takes place in one location and for a period of about a month. And that month is the last month of Moses’s life. Elohim had told him he would not be crossing over to the promised land. He and his people were encamped in the rift valley, on the plains of Moab, near Jericho. This book is Moses last words of divine revelation from God to the people of Israel.
Like an ox who has gotten fat and intractable, the people of Jacob were not living up to God’s Law. A more valid question would be, when did they live up to God’s Law? We will have to chase that down another day.
3 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land
And streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring
And My blessing on your descendants;
4 And they will spring up among the grass
Like poplars by streams of water.’
5 “This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;
And that one will call on the name of Jacob;
And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the Lord,’
And will name Israel’s name with honor.
6 “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
‘I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no God besides Me.
7 ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it;
Yes, let him recount it to Me in order,
From the time that I established the ancient nation.
And let them declare to them the things that are coming
And the events that are going to take place.
We have heard this same argument from God 2 or 3 times now in Isaiah. God is, quite reasonably, asking “Who is like me? Let them come forward and state their case.”
There must have been a very uncomfortable silence when that was asked.
8 ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid;
Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?
And you are My witnesses.
Is there any God besides Me,
Or is there any other Rock?
I know of none.’”
The Folly of Idolatry
9 Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.
10 Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit?
11 Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame.
12 The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary.
13 Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house.
14 Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow.
15 Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it.
16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.”
17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”
18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.
19 No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!”
20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Another talk about idols, that we have heard, again, many times. These Jews had a thing choosing poorly. But we must not laugh at their expense. Are we any different? Since Hollywood came into existence, we have had our own idols. In fact it has become so pervasive that now it has just about overtaken our culture. You have a favorite movie star or more modern media personality, maybe a sports team? Would you rather watch your favorite movie, tv show or sports game than read the Bible, go to Church or do the Lord’s work? These media personalities or sports stars that so capture our attention, we now have them telling us how to live, how to be more virtuous. Telling young women that you no longer have to be a slave to a family, raise kids and all that. No, get an abortion, live your own life. And young women are listening. From the Census in 2016, of the 11 million families in America without spouses, 8.3 million of them were single mothers. If the trend continues, single parent homes will eclipse traditional family homes in the not too distant future.
From 1970 to 2015 there were 45.7 million legal abortions in our country.
Hitler only killed about 6 million Jews. Our country, following the lead of satan, has far surpassed that. Stalin said “a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.” And that is how people are treating it. A mere statistic, not the horror that it is. God is watching and there is a very strong possibility that He has removed his blessing from the USA. I recommend that you all read Romans 1:18-32 later today.
Out of all that bad news, we can take heart that we have a Merciful and Loving God.
God Forgives and Redeems
21 “Remember these things, O Jacob,
And Israel, for you are My servant;
I have formed you, you are My servant,
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.
22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud
And your sins like a heavy mist.
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!
Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth;
Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it;
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob
And in Israel He shows forth His glory.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
and the one who formed you from the womb,
“I, the Lord, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself
And spreading out the earth all alone,
25 Causing the omens of boasters to fail,
Making fools out of diviners,
Causing wise men to draw back
And turning their knowledge into foolishness,
26 Confirming the word of His servant
And performing the purpose of His messengers.
It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’
And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’
And I will raise up her ruins again.
27 “It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’
And I will make your rivers dry.
28 “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!
And he will perform all My desire.’
And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’
And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
1 Kings 8 to 9
When last we left Solomon, everything was going well. The Lord’s Temple was done but for the details and so was his Palace. Let us turn to 1 Kings 8 and pick up the story.
The Ark Brought into the Temple
1 Kings 8
1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion.
2 All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
3 Then all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
4 They brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils, which were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites brought them up.
5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered.
6 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.
7 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above.
8 But the poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; they are there to this day.
9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord,
11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
Then Solomon faced the crowd and addressed the people.
12 Then Solomon said,
“The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.
13 “I have surely built You a lofty house,
A place for Your dwelling forever.”
He then blesses the people and gives a prayer of dedication and benediction. What do you do after you’ve built the Lord’s Temple, thanked the Lord and blessed the people? Sacrifices, of course. They now had a beautiful temple to do the sacrifices in and this was something they had waited for a long time. In Israel today, they have all the material to build the Lord’s temple anew, just waiting for someone to give them permission to start building. It is thought that it will be the antichrist that will be that person. As I said before, the Jews have still not gotten with the program.
Getting back to Solomon and sacrifices, they offered to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. And I imagine it must have taken more than a day to get that done.
While all the Levite priests were hip deep in blood, Solomon observed a feast with all Israel, and that was quite a feast.
1 Kings 8:65-66
65 So Solomon observed the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, for seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the king. Then they went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people.
Seems like a good time was had by all. One of the few times Israel was happy and aligned with the Lord.
Let us now turn to 1 Kings 9 and see that God gives a promise and a warning.
1 Kings 9
God’s Promise and Warning
1 Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do,
2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
4 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances,
5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,
7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
8 And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’
9 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”
A quote from the 80’s “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.” I imagine that’s how Solomon was thinking. And could you blame him? God made him the wisest, wealthiest and pretty good looking to boot. Everything is coming up roses.
Next week, the Queen of Sheba comes a callin’ to see just how dang smart ole Solomon is.
We will find out then. Let finish this with:
Psalm 145:1-3
1 I will extol You, my God, O King,
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
6 Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts,
And I will tell of Your greatness.
7 They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness
And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful;
Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.
9 The Lord is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.
10 All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord,
And Your godly ones shall bless You.
11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom
And talk of Your power;
12 To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts
And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
14 The Lord sustains all who fall
And raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to You,
And You give them their food in due time.
16 You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways
And kind in all His deeds.
18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He will also hear their cry and will save them.
20 The Lord keeps all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.