THE CHURCH CALLED ISRAEL Part 3

[jeremiah1five]

The children of Israel at the time of the prophet Samuel demanded that Samuel make them a king so that they may be like the Gentile peoples that surrounded her and through God’s direction to Samuel he capitulated and anointed Saul as king. But Saul himself was not obedient to God and soon God took the kingdom away from him and he and his sons died in battle and God sent Samuel to anoint a young shepherd boy from the family of Jesse of the tribe of Judah to be king over God’s people. To King David God made this Promise:

⁸ Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: ⁹ And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. ¹⁰ Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, ¹¹ And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. ¹² And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: ¹⁵ But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. ¹⁶ And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. ¹⁷ According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. 2 Sam. 7:8–17.

God promised that:

1. David’s house (his physical line of descent) would endure forever.

2. that David’s kingdom would never pass away permanently.

3. that David’s “throne” (the ruling authority that David exercised) would never pass away permanently.

These promises are unconditional in nature and are dependent on the faithfulness of God for their fulfillment. The genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 indicate that Jesus bar Joseph is a physical descendant of David.

When David died his son with Bathsheba, Solomon, became king and built what would become the first Temple (of two.) Through request to God the LORD granted Solomon wisdom so that he might rule God’s people well in justice and God granted his request. Both David and Solomon and several others are known to have written the Psalms.

Solomon for a time through the many wives he had was drawn away from serving God and took upon himself to serving and worshiping the false gods of his wives but God was merciful and long-suffering and before he died restored Solomon to fellowship. But after Solomon died the ten tribes revolted against Judah and the kingdom was divided among the twelve tribes. Ten tribes would make up the Northern kingdom with various wicked and good kings, and two tribes making up the Southern kingdom of similar wicked and good kings. The wicked kings of both kingdoms built altars to the false gods of their enemies and through the years God would send prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others until God raised up the Assyrians who attacked the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. and took the people captive and destroyed their towns and cities. In 588 B.C. God raised up the Babylonians who attacked the southern kingdom and took many captives away back to Babylon.

Among them was the prophet, Daniel. Israel was destroyed and the people taken away to Babylon for 70 years just as prophesied by Jeremiah and Isaiah. The Jews were dispersed and exiled into Gentile lands.