Compass Calendar 2011 - June
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(folds into A6)
Last month, we looked at the golden age of Jerusalem. Tragically, the golden age of Jerusalem was short-lived. At the peak of his power, Solomon began to turn away from God, marrying foreign women, worshipping their gods, and building palaces and temples throughout Jerusalem. After his death, the united Kingdom split in two, with ten tribes in the north rejecting the house of David and establishing their own capital at Samaria. This began a period of decline for the people of northern Israel and southern Judah – with good kings interspersed with bad.
God sends prophet after prophet to warn the people to remember the covenant, Law, and to respect the land and the Temple. But they continue in idolatry and spiritual adultery, and the people of God began to look indistinguishable from the surrounding nations, as they spiral towards Exile.
June's spiritual discipline is that of rest. This might seem like an irrelevant, perhaps even patronizing, theme - but most of us are simply hopeless at resting. Culture has shaped us to be frantic and we have quite literally forgotten how to stop. When was the last time you asked someone how they were, and their answer didn’t include ‘busy’?
Key passages*
Tragically, at the height of his reign, Solomon rejects God. The King who looked most like the promise to Abraham fulfilled, starts to worship foreign gods, and begins to force the Israelites into building projects. Ironically, Solomon begins to look more and more like Pharaoh, and the Canaanites. Israel’s new way of life is beginning to unravel.
God remains faithful to the covenant with David, but the peace that the Kingdom of Israel had enjoyed is shattered. As Rehoboam, Solomon’s son takes the throne, it disintegrates into two kingdoms: northern Israel and southern Judah, and the people spiral further and further away from the Law and the Covenant.
The two kingdoms of Israel and Judah are ruled by a succession of kings. Some are faithful, many are not. By the reign of Manasseh, the evil of the people of God has exceeded that of the surrounding nations, and so God promises to intervene with Exile.
Structural passages*
Tragically, at the height of his reign, Solomon rejects God. The King who looked most like the promise to Abraham fulfilled, starts to worship foreign gods, and begins to force the Israelites into building projects. Ironically, Solomon begins to look more and more like Pharaoh, and the Canaanites. Israel’s new way of life is beginning to unravel.
God remains faithful to the covenant with David, but the peace that the Kingdom of Israel had enjoyed is shattered. As Rehoboam, Solomon’s son takes the throne, it disintegrates into two kingdoms: northern Israel and southern Judah, and the people spiral further and further away from the Law and the Covenant.
Successive kings reject God, and lead the people of God in the worship of idols, and all kinds of evil. So God calls prophets to confront the kings and the people. Elijah is one of these – a man who opposed King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, and the prophets of the false god Baal, spectacularly demonstrating to Israel, as it had once been demonstrated to Egypt, that God is God.
During the decline of the kingdom’s, Israel’s history includes some curious stories where God does unexpected things. One of these is the healing of Naaman, a Syrian military commander, and an enemy of Israel, who nevertheless listens to his slave girl, and a prophet of God, and is healed by humbling himself and bathing in water.
In one of the darkest days in the history of the people of God, the northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians, and its people carried into captivity. The Assyrians brought foreigners and gave them the land around Samaria. They begin to practice a kind of hybrid worship of Israel’s God. (It is their descendants who were still living there during the time of Jesus).
Throughout the decline, God continued to send prophets to his people, calling them back from their evil. Jeremiah is one of these, a prophet whose calls to repentance are ultimately ignored.
Another prophet, Hosea, gives us a poignant illustration of one of the most powerful metaphors for Israel’s rejection of God, through his own marriage. Hosea marries an unfaithful woman called Gomer, and she remains unfaithful to him. Yet God calls Hosea to remain faithful to Gomer, and ultimately to redeem her.
By the reign of Manasseh, the evil of the people of God has exceeded that of the surrounding nations, and so God promises to intervene with Exile.
Connecting the dots*
There is a constant tension throughout Israel’s story between their identity as the faithful and blessed people of God, and their alter-ego as yet another rebellious, cursed group of Adam’s descendants. Throughout the story, we are given increasingly strong hints that the story of Israel, which started with such hope in Abraham, is destined to be mixed at best and probably end in tragedy. The following passages explored the split personalities of the people of God.
Reading the whole Bible*
