Week # 26 | "True Words, Hard Words, and Words About Jesus the King"

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Read 2 Kings 9-15; 2 Chronicles 22-26; Amos 1-9; Micah 1; Isaiah 6

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Archaeological Biographies of the Kings of Judah and Israel. I once told someone that the archaeological record for the Bible is so good that I am pretty sure I could do a sermon where I preach through the entire storyline of the Bible, using only sources from outside the Bible. (It would take a lot of preparation to do, but I'm still confident that I could.) It's incredibly interesting to look at physical objects and locations, and see how they are still marked by the acts of the kings whose lives we read about in Scripture. On that note, here are archaeological biographies of several of them: Jehu's can be found here, Uzziah's can be clicked on to here, and Jotham is a unique case--but the introduction to the article about him says this: "Nearly all other biblical leaders from this century have had their names confirmed through archaeological discovery: These include Jotham’s father, Uzziah; son Ahaz; and grandson Hezekiah—as well as eighth-century Israelite kings Jehoash, Jeroboam ii, Menahem, Pekah and Hoshea; Egyptian pharaohs So and Tirhakah; Syrian kings Hazael, Ben-Hadad and Rezin; Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon and Sennacherib; and Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan. What, if any, evidence is there of Jotham?"

The Earthquake, Jonah, and the Sign of God's Judgment (Amos 1). There is a blink-and-you-miss-it reference to "the Earthquake" in Amos 1:1, which took place in the time of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel. This was a massive destructive event that people still remembered over 200 years later in Zechariah's time, when Zechariah spoke of "the earthquake in the days of Uzziah" (Zechariah 14:5). Hundreds of years after that, the Jewish historian Josephus wrote about it in the time after Jesus (Jewish Antiquities 9.10.4). Since then, archaeology has also confirmed it and traced it to about 760 BC. This was a MASSIVE earthquake of 8.2 on the Richter scale, which indicates major damage and loss of life over several hundred kilometers. It would be like seeing devastation all around Barrie, and then driving into Hamilton, meanwhile seeing destruction all along the way throughout your trip, and then arriving in Hamilton to find it also devastated, and then driving beyond there into the United States and still seeing the signs of devastation there. That's the event that Judah and Israel experienced. This took place at the same time that Amos and Hosea were prophesying about the judgment that God was going to bring upon Israel, and during the time that a prophet by the name of Jonah was prophesying in Israel in 2 Kings 14:25. At this time Amos was prophesying about the coming exile of Israel, and Hosea was explicitly naming Assyria as the group that would carry Israel into captivity (see Hosea 5:13, 7:11, 8:9, 9:3, 10:6, 11:5, 11:11, 12:1, 14:3). This is part of the background to the book of Jonah, where Jonah is sent to preach to Assyria. Israel had received many signs, and many prophetic messages, and endured many events like this earthquake, but had failed to see that it was time to turn back to God. How might God be getting our attention today?

The Jesus-Centered Message of the Book of Amos. God sent Amos to prophesy to Israel and Judah during the events that we read about in Week #26. He starts by relating God's judgment on all the surrounding nations, such as Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon, but then zeroes in on Israel and Judah in chapter 2. Ultimately he relates the judgment of God to them. But he also holds out one specific hope--that one day, God will "raise up the booth of David that is fallen... will restore the fortunes of my people Israel... will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted" (Amos 9:11, 15). This word connects the only hope that Israel has with the arrival of their future King; one who will arrive from the line of David; the Promised Deliverer who is pointed to throughout all of the Scriptures from Genesis all the way to the end of the Old Testament. Isaiah, who will begin to prophesy at about this time, also points to Jesus, who is this same King, throughout every section of his book (see my sermon series on Isaiah from January at Heritage Baptist for more), as does Micah. As we go through all of the prophets of Israel, we will see that we don't even have to work very hard to see that the ultimate point of each of their messages is that God will bring a Messiah, a King, from the line of David, and that all the hopes of God's people hinge upon him.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean