The Prophets - People, Come Home

Focus passages - 1 Kings 1-11, 2 Chronicles 1-9

It was a Father’s heartache. Tom had been the apple of his father Jim’s eye. Tom was smart and very athletic. Father and son had been so close throughout his high school years. When he got to college, Tom got caught up in a bad crowd and soon he had dropped out and Jim didn’t hear from Tom for a while. Jim finally heard that Tom was out west somewhere and had run on hard times. His friends had deserted him and he was on drugs. Jim called the cell phone that he had given his son in college, but no one ever answered. He finally heard from a friend where Tom was living and went to see him. In the days of David and Solomon, Israel had been the envy of the world. It was powerful and had enormous wealth. It showed the greatness of God to a world that wished they could belong to Yahweh. In the last days of Solomon, the nation ran away from God and worshiped others. God would send prophets to them to demonstrate His power through miracles. He called them and prophets spoke of His great love for them. The message was always the same. Return to me and I will restore you. Here is the story of God’s heartache with His wayward son.

I will show them my power 1 kings 18:38 Fifty years have passed since the days of Solomon and the wicked King Ahab sits on the throne of the Northern Kingdom. Elijah calls a meeting with Ahab and proposes a challenge between the true God and Ahab’s false gods to see who the true God is. 450 prophets of Baal called on their god for hours with no response. God sends fire down from heaven that consumes the water, the sacrifice, and the wood. The people cry out that Yahweh is the true God, but sadly their faith doesn’t last.

I will show them the depth of my love Hosea 3:1 Now, 180 years have passed since Solomon and God calls the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute. It is a visual message showing how much the Lord loves the nation of Israel which has prostituted itself to the false gods around it. Sadly, Hosea would love this woman and have children with her, but she would run away. Hosea was commanded to buy his wife out of the prostitution that she was now enslaved in. It was a visual message about how God had bought Israel out of slavery and sin again and again.

I will give them one last warning Amos 9:8 The end is near. Israel is on the verge of destruction and so the Lord sends the prophet Amos. His message is a message of punishment for Israel and Judah. If Hosea shows gospel love, then Amos shows law justice. Israel is within a generation of being destroyed. It is time to repent before it is too late. Yet, the people see no reason to repent. In the end, their rejection of the Lord will put them out of God’s protection and their evil living will bring its own destruction.

This is the story of a God who stuck with His people for over 200 years. It would have been easy to have just destroyed Israel or to have allowed it to fall quickly to its neighbors. Yet God loved them and sent prophets to them with demonstrations of power and a visual demonstration of love. Neither worked. Our God does not give up on His people. He shows them His power and His love. He is a heavenly father who loves his children even when they are in the midst of sin. It is never too late to cry out to the Lord and seek His mercy and His help. His love never ends and never fails. The message of the prophets is still the message of God today. God is calling His people to return to Him so that He might restore them. He loves His church and will not give up on it. Regardless of how far you have strayed, come home! It is the message that God says to us and that we have to be saying to others. It is the message that can change America as it builds families, ends violence and gives people lives that work.

David - The man who had God's heart

Focus: 1 Samuel 16 – 2 Samuel 7

When we consider who to hire as our doctor or mechanic, we often consider their skill and knowledge. We want a doctor who has done this procedure dozens of times and was at the top of their class. We want a mechanic who has worked on this model car with years of experience. They need to get it right. When God looks at a person, he is not impressed with their skill or knowledge. He can give both to any fool. What he cares about is the heart. Is this a person who will be honest and have values? Is this a person who will follow God and believe in God? What stood out with David was his heart. He was a man of character who loved the Lord more than anything else. His early life was dedicated to the Lord.

David is chosen by God for his heart 1 Sam. 16:7 Saul has been rejected by God for his stubbornness and unwillingness to follow God or repent of his sins. When Samuel sees David, God says this is the one. Anoint him to be the next king. He has the heart that I am looking for. He is the one who has what is needed to lead my people. I will be like a father to him and will nurture him and make him the greatest king that the world has seen. David has God’s heart, but what is that?

Those with God’s heart fight for God’s Honor 1 Sam 17:45 It is about a year later and David is still too young for the army so his father sends him with food for his older brothers as they battle the Philistines. There in the valley, Goliath is shouting curses against the true God. David is incensed that this giant would defile the name of the true God. He is willing to fight Goliath for the honor of God. He is willing to lay his life on the line rather than have the world and the Israelites think that their God is weak and ineffective.

Those with God’s heart keep themselves pure 1 Sam 24:10 Advance about ten years and we find David hiding in the desert from Saul who wants to kill him. A rare opportunity comes when Saul relieves himself in a dark cave. David’s men who are tired of running and see this as an opportunity from God want David to kill Saul and be done with it. Yet, David will not kill the king of God’s people. David will keep himself pure. The Lord stands behind the righteous and not the evil. How can David expect the Lord to protect him if he is no better than Saul?

Those with God’s heart accept God’s Will 2 Sam 7:2 David has now been king for about twenty years and the Lord has brought his wealth and power. He wants to use this time of peace to build a temple to the Lord so that all the world will honor God and worship Him. Surprisingly, God says no. You must continue to lead these people with your example of godliness so that they truly become a godly nation. Saddened, David accepts the Lord’s will. It was a plan that came from a Godly heart, but it was not God’s plan.

Never underestimate the heart. God’s people do not need strength or great resources, God will provide those. They need to be dedicated to the Lord and be open to being His tool in the world. Those who have His heart are the ones that God can use to work in the lives of the community and the nation. God will choose them because their open heart is willing to follow Him and to do His will. It is something that we can develop in our children as well if we want their happiness. God’s heart is the greatest assets that a person can have. Imagine how it would change your life if you were more like David. Think of the mistakes you would not make because you had God’s values. Think of the help and blessings that God could bring into your life because you are now open to following Him and building a relationship with Him. God is looking for people with His heart whom He can love and help all the days of their lives.

Ruth - When you feel like God gave up on you

Focus: Book of Ruth

We have all met people like Tina. In her freshman year of college, she was free of her parents and free to make a lot of bad decisions. There were the parties filled with alcohol and there was the wild boyfriend. She was having the time of her life. Then suddenly she was pregnant and the boyfriend dropped her. All the promise of a great life seemed gone. Seeing no place to go but home, she packed her things and hoped they would accept her. Her parents cried, but they embraced her and welcomed her home. Life could be rebuilt with their love. Ruth is the story of a heavenly Father who embraces a lost family and gives them a future. It shows that our loving Father is always ready to help repair and renew lives.

A series of mistakes Ruth 1:1 - Our story begins with a famine. A man decides to go to a heathen nation with his wife and two children rather than trust that God. He goes to a place where God is not worshiped. This was the first mistake for they abandon God and seek to make things work in their own way. The second mistake is that the sons both take pagan wives. Here was a family that wasn’t just going to live for a little while in this pagan land, but was settling in and living without God.

The courage to return to God Ruth 1:6 God comes to the aid of His people in Judah, but not to the disobedient family in Moab. Those who have left the Lord behind only hear of his blessings but never experience them. The answer is to repent and return. Sadly, Naomi goes home but really doesn’t get it. Her desire was to go home for food and not for God. She will be in the right place for blessing, but she has much to learn and sins to confess.

Giving God the opportunity to help Ruth 2:2 Oddly, it is a pagan woman Ruth who throws herself on God’s mercy. Jewish law said that the poor could glean fields already harvested. It was one of God’s programs for the feeding of the poor. She took the promise of God at His word and gave God an opportunity to work in her life by living in His law and trusting in His mercy. She was not lazy nor proud. She was hardworking and humble and God was more than ready to act.

A new future Ruth 4:17 A son was born named Obed. The child would be able to claim the farmland of Naomi’s husband and would provide food and shelter for Naomi and Ruth. The child would be part of God’s plan to change the world as Obed would have a grandson named King David and a descendant named Jesus. There is no limit to what God can do if people will live with faith. God can take people whose lives are shattered and lift them to places of honor and great joy.

The bible is filled with people who would seem beyond help. There is the thief on the cross, Saul who imprisons Christians and even a tax collector named Matthew. Every one of them seems beyond reclamation, but God lifts them all up because all of them called on Him in faith and changed their lives. We all know people who think that they cannot be reclaimed. They think that God is against them and that the roof would cave in if they walked through these doors. Yet, the story of Ruth shows that God can and would like to reclaim them all. As we read this story, we can get all caught up in the love story of Ruth and Boaz, but that is not the point of the book of Ruth. It is a story of the lost being remade by a loving Father. There is no reason for people to live without hope. 

Book of Judges - Downward Spiral

Focus – book of Judges

There are times that we are doomed to repeat failure again and again. You work out, eat better, and lose 25 pounds. Yet, little by little it came back. Now you have to work at it all over again. The same is true with other behaviors like getting up early, stopping smoking, or cutting back on television. It is easy ot commit to something drastic when there is a crisis, but when things start going well, we fall back in the old habits. Doomed to repeat our failures is the theme of the book of Judges. Over this 330 year period, the people fell away from God, were conquered by a neighboring people, and helped by God only to do it all over again. They just couldn’t remain loyal to God.

Everyone does their own thing - Judges 6:10 Judges begins in the days after Joshua. The conquest of the Promised Land and the miracles that God had done seem long forgotten. The people had shown enormous faith in Joshua’s day. Now, their children had forgotten God and started worshipping the sensuous false gods around them. God rescues them from their enemies and they had believed in Him for a while only to return to their wicked ways. You would have thought that they had learned, but the people were fickle and wanted to do their own thing.

God chooses the weakest to show His greatness Judges 6:15 Yet, when the people cried out, God sent help. God picks a man who is the least in a very weak clan in the nation to save them. He is not the man anyone would have picked, but God did it for a purpose. He wanted everyone to see that salvation would come by God’s power and not because some great warrior came out of the woodwork. Amazingly God is patient and slowly builds Gideon’s faith so that the people can be rescued.

God demonstrates He is worth following Judges 7:7 So Gideon calls for an army and amazingly 32K men showed up to fight the Midian army that had over 200K. God begins to pare down the army to only 300 men. He doesn’t want anyone to say that the army saved them. It was time for them to see what the Lord could do so that they might trust Him. God would defeat this mighty army with just a few men. He would do a miracle so that people might remember what God had done.

Doing their own thing again Judges 8:33 Yet, the death of Gideon brought an end to Godly faith and found the people worshipping Baal again. The people forgot what God had done for them. They went back to their old ways and worshipped gods of clay and wood that they could see instead of the almighty God who had saved them. They wanted gods who would do whatever the people thought was best. The spiral continued and an opportunity for revival is missed.

Judges is the story of a people destined to repeat their pain. They remember God only long enough to call out in their pain. As soon as times get nice, they want to do their own thing. They wanted the pleasures of life and the easy way. God was soon forgotten. And so the cycle will repeat for them. Wanting to live without God, they will live outside His protection. They will live without His wisdom and stuff will just happen. They will find themselves in trouble and wonder why God didn’t protect them. They are fools and doomed to repeat disasters through life. The wise will build a lasting relationship with the Lord that carries through good and bad times. They will let the Lord guide and protect them. They will lean on Him and learn from Him. God’s dream for His people still has this same struggle today. 

Joseph - Put down the selfie stick

Focus: Genesis 37-50

Athletes have them. Politicians have them. Even high school graduates sometimes have them. They all have dreams. It may be to win the World Series or to make lots of money as a doctor. Yet the problem with many of those pictures is that they are all about the dreamer. Great dreams include others. It is the person who wants to find a spouse and have a family. It is the person who wants to find a cure for cancer or feed the hungry in a third world country. These require surrendering something of ourselves for the good of others. Joseph starts with a dream that is all about him like a picture taken with a selfie stick. God gives him a big picture dream that will change the history of the world. His life is a lesson in why we need to stop focusing on ourselves and look at God’s big dreams for us. 

Taking a kingly selfie Gen. 37:9 He is the arrogant seventeen year old son of Jacob. He is not afraid to snitch on his brothers because he is a teenager who thinks he knows it all. He has two self-centered dreams picturing his family bowing down to him as if he is the king.  He shows his immaturity by rubbing his brother’s faces in this self-portrait instead of keeping the dreams to himself. His pride shows that he is not yet ready to be a leader in the family.

In a prison photo Gen. 37: 27 His brothers hate him for his arrogant dreams. When Jacob sends Joseph to report about his brothers, the brothers bind him and sell him as a slave to traders in a caravan bound for Egypt. So much for the self-proclaimed king. In Egypt, he is falsely accused, thrown in prison and forgotten. His conceit has taken him from prince to dungeon. Thirteen years of hardship will mold him and refine him into a useful tool for the Lord.

The big picture Gen 41:25 God sends Pharaoh a dream of warning. Seven healthy cows are eaten by seven sickly cows. No one is able to interpret the dream. Suddenly, someone remembers Joseph. A humble Joseph gives God the credit and offers to give God’s message to Pharaoh. He tells the Pharaoh that there will be seven good years and seven years of famine. His words will save the Egyptian people from starvation. Because of the importance of the task, Pharaoh gives him the assignment of putting God’s dream into practice.

A family photo Gen 45:7 For seven years, the harvest is abundant, but then the years of famine come. Jacob and his sons need food or they will die. Now, fifteen years after they last saw Joseph, the brothers bow before him and ask for food just like his dream of long ago. On the second visit, Joseph reveals himself and forgives them. Hardship has changed Joseph into a humble servant. He feeds them all and makes them a home in the best part of Egypt. Joseph has given up his dream for God’s dream.

Joseph’s original dreams were like selfie stick photos taken at the expense of others. God used hardship to refine Joseph so that the arrogant young man matured into a meek servant who would save his people and the nation of Egypt from famine. God will break into our dreams of self glory. He will let those dreams crumble and blow like dust in the wind. Those who listen to the Lord will become people whom the Lord can use for greater dreams. Put down your selfie stick for God has something better. He will make us part of the big picture so we can impact the world in which we live. If you swap your dreams for His, you can see a brighter picture develop around you.