Lesson October 26 Ephesians, Hosea, and Fall of Israel.

Video of repentance from Ligonier Ministries (you can find these on Facebook)..

We have to repent daily because we sin daily. But I think we have to dig deeper than, “God, I’m sorry I did a bad thing...and please help me not do it again.” Why did we do that “thing?” say that “thing?” And is the “thing” we did sin or an outcome of the real sin or even a cause of other sin?

My story about Butter.

This lesson is about sin. The what, the why, and solution. Ultimately, it is about grace. (end with video of grace).

Today’s lesson is about how the Northern Kingdom—the ten tribes of Israel other than Levi and Judah—were conquered by the Assyrian kingdom. II Kings 17:1-23.

Judah was a little better since they were the descendants of David and Solomon. They were able to forestall their judgment for about 120 more years until they went to Babylon for 70 years.

Why did Israel (and Judah) keep returning to sins of idolatry and all that is associated with it, which at that time was child sacrifice in a burning idol and sexual sins as part of “worship?” Why did they even want to do that, when they had the word of God and so many blessings from their past?

I don’t have all the answers, but some ideas.

1. I think they confused law for grace,

2. they forgot their history, and

3. they were afraid to live differently. They were the only different civilization at the time, although they had an influence on the others. They were surrounded by idolators of the worst kind.

4. They also had horrible kings who clearly led them astray. If the king is burning his kids and worshiping at pagan temples (saw plenty of them in Turkey), it says it’s okay for everyone to do that. I think that the Bible’s record in I and II Kings and Chronicles shows this as the major reason, which was the prophecy when they wanted a king. Bad leadership matters.

5. They only had the word of God if they went to the temple. There was no synagogue at that time.

6. They were living their lives without teaching their children. They did not teach their children the law, which people memorized, in the home.

7. They did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Some of these reasons are similar to today and some are not.

1. We still confuse law for grace.

2. We still forget our history

3. We still are afraid to live differently and distinctly.

4. We can’t really blame our leaders for our own sin because we have more freedoms, even though our leaders are not always good. I am thankful for the pastors we have had here. I have been meeting with Curtis and other members to discuss the sermon passages. What a blessing. The bad leaders in Israel were both the priests and the kings; the prophets were also leaders but didn’t have authority.

5. We do have the Word of God and plenty of churches.

6. We may or may not teach our children and the next generation. This is always a struggle. Children can be taught well and still leave God in the dust of their lives.

7. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We in the church are not Israel. I want to address that. Some people you might hear on TV or radio teach something called Replacement Theology, which is not the same as Replacement Theory (that’s about racism). Replacement Theology is the teaching, very prevalent and even in Presbyterian churches, that God replaced the Jews and does not have anything to do with them any more. They are not special, they are not God’s people any more. That is wrong for a lot of reasons, but it’s just not in the Bible. Romans 9-11 is misinterpreted for this, and some of it just comes from hatred for Jews. That doesn’t mean every Jew is good with God and justified; it only means we are not the Jews. Baptism is not circumcision, for example. The life, cross, and resurrection of Jesus brought on a different dispensation and we do not have to go through Jewish systems to be righteous.

Also, Jews were saved by faith and grace as well; the law was their guidebook but until about 400 B.C. they were more likely to disobey than obey it.

So we can look at the Old Testament passages and understand God’s dealings in history, but not confuse everything the Jews did with the church.

Because of the Holy Spirit within us as true children of God, I do not believe we are capable of this kind of apostasy and turning away that Israel was, at least not individually. But institutions and whole groups can be infected with nonbelievers and turn away. We see this in some mainline churches like the Episcopalians. They are more interested in gay rights than studying the Bible now.

Even still, I started with that video because I really believe we have to make daily checks on our spiritual standing, and that, to me, is repentance. Start with the positive: Where did we see God’s grace and blessing today? Where were we able to share something of that grace (Curtis’s comment about the mission of the church). Then be real: Where did we go off the rails, where did we hurt someone, where did we blame God or question His will, and where did we let our thinking not follow the Bible?

And why did that happen?

I John 1:8-9 is the key verse for repentance.

Last week the lesson was supposed to be about Hosea, not to be confused with Hoshea, the king in this passage. Hosea was a prophet in the Judah and the Northern Kingdom. For some reason we do not fully understand, he was commanded to marry an immoral woman who might have been a prostitute. They had three children (well, she did), and their names parallel the behavior of the Israelites and their future: “No compassion” and “Not my people.” This is a strange story and is not to be taken as a rule for our living any more than Jonah’s is. Sometimes the prophets were commanded to do odd things to dramatize a truth. The Israelites would be punished for their apostasy, but God will bring them back because of his love and compassion and commitment to them. It’s a beautiful book but does require a good bit of study and context.

I want to end this study with a return to where I was on the trip. Ephesus was a high point, although there were lots of high points. We had a debrief meeting last night. So many good memories.

In Revelation 2, Ephesus gets the first letter. So let’s look at that.

The Church in Ephesus was important; it was a port city, Paul started the church and stayed there two years, which was a long time compared to other places he evangelized, and they started other churches in western Turkey. Timothy was the pastor there and John lived there in his later years.

They are commended for many things: Biblical truth and service. But “they had left their first love.”

What does that mean?

Either way, something in their compassion, fervor, emotions, and motivations was cold or missing. So John, who knew the church well, wrote: “Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works.” Love is the first work. Sounds good—but is it? God’s commands are faith and love, and those can be the hardest if we think we are doing it on our own.

Instead, as pastor said, we have extravagant grace.

Video on grace from Ligonier.