The 30-Minute Bible by Bartholomew Craig G.; Vanosky Paige P.; Erspamer Martin & Craig G. Bartholomew & Paige P. Vanosky

Author:Bartholomew, Craig G.; Vanosky, Paige P.; Erspamer, Martin & Craig G. Bartholomew & Paige P. Vanosky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bible;biblical overview;Bible study;narrative;big picture of the bible;story of the bible;bible summary;bible for dummies;bible for skeptics;bible for atheists;bible for new Christians;what is the bible;what does the bible say;what does the bible teach;main points of the bible;scripture;Christian bible;Christian scripture;holy bible;bible study for new Christians;bible study for skeptics;bible study for non Christians;bible study for seekers;bible study for agnostics;bible study for atheists
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2021-04-22T10:51:32+00:00

What we worship shapes the way we live, and so it continued to be with Ahab and Jezebel. The valley of Jezreel is one of the most fertile places in Israel, and Ahab spots a vineyard there, owned by Naboth, that he decides he wants. But Naboth declines to sell his ancestral property, so Ahab and Jezebel conspire to have Naboth falsely accused and stoned to death. God’s patience is running out. Through Elijah, God tells Ahab that he and Jezebel will themselves suffer terrible deaths. Sometime later Ahab is killed in battle. Later Jezebel is thrown to her death from the upper story of a house (2 Kings 9:30-37).

In his patience God continues to send other prophets to the Northern Kingdom to turn their hearts back to him: Elijah is, for example, succeeded by another feisty prophet, Elisha. Another prophet, Amos, is a farmer in the Southern Kingdom but is called to prophesy to the Northern Kingdom in particular. Amos is a masterly preacher. For example, he preaches a sermon steadily going round the Northern Kingdom’s neighbors and declaring God’s judgment on them. He uses the terrifying image of God as a lion roaring, something lions do to paralyze their prey with fear as they are about to pounce on it. One can just imagine the crowds cheering as Israel’s neighbors, Damascus, Gaza, Ekron, Tyre, and others, are called out for their sins and condemned. But slowly the noose tightens as Amos turns his focus to Israel.

Amos first declares God’s judgment on the Southern Kingdom, Judah. And then . . . he unleashes God’s coming punishment on the Northern Kingdom. Amos declares that the Northern Kingdom, called Israel, is condemned for human rights violations, for terrible immorality, and perverse religiosity. The coming punishment comes to be represented by a phrase that starts to crop up in Amos and in the words of the other prophets: “that day” or “the day of the LORD.” This is a day or time when punishment is coming if the Northern Kingdom does not change its ways.

And, alas, it does not change. As a small nation sandwiched between Egypt and the great empires of Mesopotamia, Israel is always vulnerable. God alone can enable her to survive and flourish. Assyria has emerged as the great empire of the day, and she soon casts her eye on Israel. God’s patience has expired, and he allows the Assyrians to conquer the Northern Kingdom and to take them off into exile in Assyria in 722 BC. Will the Southern Kingdom learn from her example?

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